2015年3月28日 慢集團@瑞芳黃金七稜十稜 Golden Ridge #7 &10 routes of Ruifang

A view from the Golden Ridge #7,  Jilongyu Island is floating on the ocean 

この山行は月一回の慢集団活動の道案内山行である。今回は、昨年11月に案内した瑞芳北東端の所謂黄金十稜中の八稜九稜に続き、七稜と十稜の山行だ。七稜は、南雅の脇にそびえる南子吝山から石梯坑山へと続く稜線である。一方十稜は、和美山から龍洞へ下る海沿いの稜線である。普通は、九稜と十稜を合わせて登る、或いは七稜と八稜を合わせるというのが普通だ。この山行は、七稜を登りそのあと草山から和美山への主稜線を歩き、そこから十稜を下るというものである。歩き方としては、きつい歩きになる。

このルートは、同一ではないが今までにすでに歩いている。一度は、十稜から登り金瓜石へ、一度は南子吝山からのぼり石梯坑古道を下り、また最近に調査も含めて主稜線を歩いた。前回二回の時は、黄金十稜はまだ注目されておらず、七稜、十稜という呼び名で呼んでいない。すでに歩いているので、今回は英語で記述する。

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Walk from Nanya at the west side to Longdong on the east side

Hiking elevation profile

This activity is the second hike under Manjituan Hiking Group (慢集團) for covering so-called ten Golden Ridges (黃金十稜) of Ruifang (瑞芳), near Jinguashi (金瓜石) the old gold mining center. We visited the #8 and #9 last November, though we did not walk the entire route of #9 due to slow pace under a bad weather at that time. This one is to cover the #7 and #10 and we succeeded not only to cover the both ridges but to climb over a few peaks in between even though we had more than forty members. The fine weather of course helped our activity.

The area of hiking is on the most north eastern side of Taiwan 

The location of the two ridges are in fact far apart. Recent interests for the Golden Ridges brought many hikers to this region. They usually walk ridge routes closely located each other if they go for two at one time, like #7 and #8 or #9 and #10. The route we took is rather unconventional. If you go like this, you have to connect the two ridges by walking over the main ridge between Mt. Caoshan (草山) and Mt. Hemeishan (和美山), which is itself a laborious walk. Though I rated this hike as a strenuous one, courageous forty some members showed up and walked, which surprised me a bit.

Members walking on wooden staircase

Most of the members met at Jilong station (基隆站) and took a #791 bus to Nanya (南雅站) bus stop. When we arrived there at 8:20, some members were already there. They have come by their own cars or another #886 bus from Ruifang station. The weather is great and the sun is brightly shining, which promises a nice hike today. After a brief warm-up and my explanation about the route, we start at 8:40. The first section of the route, a hiking trail up to Mt. Nanzilinshan (南子吝山) is a very good one. It is well maintained and sign posts are all new and clear. When I visited here two years ago it was under repair. We pass through wooden stair cases and up we go. The trail turns to be a wide dirt footpath with stone steps. It goes gradually up. As we climb, the more view of the ocean spreads out behind our back. At 9:05 we reach the summit (elevation 196m) and even more members are already there waiting.

At the top of Mt. Nanzilinshan

A panorama view from Mt. Nanzilinshan

The view from this summit is splendid!! You can see most of the ten Golden Ridges from this point. Only #9 and #10 are behind other peaks and ridges and not visible. The parallel ridges of #5 and 6 are just under the rocky and majestic peak of Mt. Banpingshan (半屏山).. After a short rest we start for our Golden Ridge #7 route. The trail turns to be a primitive and narrow one going through tall grasses. A few days of rain just until yesterday makes the earth surface very slippery. You have to grab grasses besides you not to fall on your buttocks. We walk for about 15 minutes and come to a vantage point on a peak. We can see the Mt. Bangpingshan even closer. If you look very carefully you can see a few hikers are up on the Ridge #6, Jianlongleng (劍龍稜) crawling up.

A view from the vantage point, looking at Mt. Nanzilin (left) and the Golden Ridge #8 on the right

A view of Mt. Banpingshan from the vantage point

Crawling up the steep ridge

We go further down on the ridge #7 and come to the lowest point at 9:45. We start uphill in bushes instead of tall grasses. The hardest part of today's hike actually starts here. A little after 10:00, the first steep uphill appears. We climb it with help of an affixed rope. On a half way up to the merging point with the Golden Ridge #8, we can see a big water fall in the valley beneath Mt. Banpingshan. We climb rocky sections couple times. When I look back, the top of Mt. Nanzilinshan is already lower than where I stand. We go up a last steep slope and come to a junction with the #8 Ridge route. It is 11:18 and it took us almost three hours to complete the #7 Ridge from Nanya.

Just above the tunnel

The remaining part of the ridge to Mt. Shitikengshan (石梯坑山) is pretty familiar to me as this counts the forth time over. After going through bamboo trees we go up to a junction. We take right one to go on the ridge. At 12:00 we come to the top of a tunnel where wild red azalea trees are just in full bloom. We climb down by a rope and stand just in front of the tunnel portal. This tunnel is said to have served for transportation of coal in the past. The trail from here is pretty flat as it used to be a road bed for wagons of coal. In ten minutes we come to another junction where Shitikeng old trail diverges. Just in several meters forwards, we come to a stone shrine of hundred years old. This old trail served as a main connecting road between the village of Longdong (龍洞) and Jinguashi in the past. The local people set this heavy stone shrine to pray for a Tudigong (土地公), a Taoist deity to protect local people.

Myself at the tunnel portal

The trail becomes narrower and less walked from here. Most of the Gold Ridge hunters go down by Shitikeng trail back to Nanya and much less people walk the section between the shrine and the main ridge. We gradually go up the side of the main ridge and reach the four-way intersection on the main ridge at 12:45. It is already past noon but there is no big enough space for forty people to have a lunch break. We turn left here and keep on. If you take right  here you can go to Mt. Caoshan. If you go over ridge and down, you walk along Beishikeng (北勢坑) old trail, which obviously is an unpopular route. Gentle breeze passes over the ridge and it feels good as the fine weather has brought high temperature today.

View from the main ridge looking at Mt. Kumingling

members going through woods of the main ridge

We go over a little peak and come to a point where no trees hinder our site. Two young hikers having a rest just leave as we arrive the point. Mt. Kuminling (苦命嶺)  is still far out there. On the right side of the peak, we can see Mt. Hemeishan, our final main peak on the main ridge. We go down to the lowest point in between after passing over another small peak.  At 13:40 we start climbing back to the summit of Mt. Kuminling. Originally an unpopular route a couple years ago, thanks to voluntary maintenance work of Lantiandui (藍天隊) group last year, has become more walked-in and the path is now much clearer. Up we go and arrive at the wide flat summit of Mt. Kuminling (elevation 428m) at 13:57. We are just on schedule and I decide to take a long break here.

Wide flat area of Mt. Kumingling summit

Bitoujiao and Londong are visble

After a lunch break of a half hour we head for the next peak, Mt. Hemeishan. After diverging a foot pah on left down to Mt. Kulingling (苦苓嶺), we descend a steel downhill. On our left we can see Bitoujiao (鼻頭角) and Longdong, our final destination. At 15:20 we come down to the lowest point before Mt. Hemeishan. A stream flows through, which did not exist on my last visit last year. The recent continuous rain fall in the past few days obviously contributes this volume of water. We go up the last major uphill of today. At 15:44 we come to the summit (elevation 355m).  The weather is still fine and we can see the bottom of the #10 Ridge far down by the ocean.

Climbing down slippery steep downhill

A little before 16:00 we start descent. The brown dirt path is really slippery. We pass an junction in a few minutes and take left. We go up a little hill and our final descent begins. The first part of descent is really steep. It goes between tall grasses. Affixed ropes help but it is very slippery. Many members fall on their bottom and get their pants dirty. After a fifteen-minute struggle we come down to a moderate part of the ridge and into bushes. We come out of bushes at some point and realize how much we have come down. At 17:34 we jump out of the trail and onto a wide stone paved tourist trail. Two pavilions stand by the trail. The sun now hangs pretty low and emits yellowish light. I am very happy that the whole troop have come down before dark. People walk along the stone paved trail down to the sea side. We wash out our dirt at a rest room by the primary school and go up to the coast line highway (濱海公路). No sooner we arrive the bus stop by the highway, a 1811 bus directly going to Taipei comes along the highway. It has turned dark not long after we get aboard the bus.

Come down to the tourist walkway

In front of a pavilion

The route that we took today is long and strenuous, not intended for all hikers but for rather experienced ones. There were a few members looking not so experienced and it made me worry whether we can complete the hike before dark. But it turned out just to be my concern only. This route may have been some kind of surprise to them, but I was happy to see everyone was with a smiling face after completing the hike. The lunch time was rather late but people were cooperative. It took us more than 10 hours to cover 11.5 km. If you go on your own with a smaller group, it should not take so long. Please keep in mind though that this is not for beginners.