2021年7月28日 三芝長福山 - 清風崙 - 大屯溪古道 A strenuous hiking on a very hot day

Looking back the peak (left) we have just hiked over; we climbed from the valley on the right

台湾は7月27日から、新コロナウィルスに対する警戒レベルが3から2に引き下げられた。素人判断でも、一日の感染確認数が十数台で落ち着いてきている感覚はある。ただ、急に開放するとまたぶり返す恐れもあるので、台北を含め飲食店での内部使用制限は引き続き行われている。そうしたことを受け、筆者の山登りも再開後引き続き進行している。

2カ月のブランクは、登山能力に対し影響をもたらしている。そんなことで、7月半ばの二回の登山は比較的楽な歩きをした。今回は、さらに進んで登坂の体力回復を目的として、数年前に下った長い坂道を逆に登り、午後は沢に降りて水の近くの大屯溪古道を下る登山をした。台北市内は気温が38度を記録したという日であり、山の上でも暑くなお最後の部分はヤタケの間を登る急坂なので、かなりきつい山行であった。メンバーには、筋肉がつってしまい苦労した人もいる。今回のルートは、以前に歩いている場所なので、英語記述します。

Members at the summit of Mt. Qingfenglun

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The pandemic alert of Taiwan has been graded down from level 3 to 2 since July 27 while eat-in at shops has not yet been relaxed in the Taipei area. The daily infection count has been just in tens for the last several days, which hit a few hundreds at its peak a month or two ago. The rate of  vaccination among the population has come to 30% or so, which supposedly will help further reduction of infection. Under this circumstance, I extended my post-level-3-alert initiative of hiking activities two weeks ago and planed to do more strenuous hiking with an objective of regaining climbing capabilities that has been degenerated by the long absence from hiking.

Hiking counter clock-wise

The route we took this time lies in one of my familiar locations, Mt, Xiaoguanyin-shan (小觀音山) of Yangmingshan (陽明山). I walked down a route from Mt. Xiaoguanyin-shan west peak to Sanbanqiao (三板橋) of Sanzhi district (三芝區)  seven years ago. We walked up the same route on this hike and then down to Datunxi valley (大屯溪谷), which is also the route we hiked up and down several times in the past, Our plan was to start from Beixinzhuang (北新莊), first to get to Xipanxiaowu hut (溪畔小屋) and then to take on the continuous uphill of  800 meters in ascent to hit West-west peak of Mt. Xiaoguanyin-shan (小觀音山西西峰). The heat of the day was unbearably high with very little breeze. It made us very exhausted by the time we got up to a junction to Mt. Qingfenglun (清風崙), which is 100 meters shay in altitude of the west-west peak of our original plan. Some members even suffered muscle cramps. We decided to alter our plan and directly went down to the valley bottom. We made a long rest by the stream to regain our strength and continued down along Datunxi old trail (大屯溪古道) to Sanbanqiao, and then to Beixinzhuang.

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Bus schedule of #875 bus at Tamshui station

Six of us meet at the bus terminus of MRT Tamsui station (淡水站) a few minutes to 7:00. We are to take a 7:00 service of #875 bus bound for Beixinzhuang. The bus has not come until 7:20, which is 20 minutes behind the official schedule of Tamshui Bus Company (淡水客運). Someone says that the schedule has temporally been changed to meet the reduced ridership due to the pandemic. Even if it is so, there is no public announcement of the reduced schedule, and I need to express clearly that they are not up to the standard.

Beixinzhuang bus stop

Gate with a sign of Sanbanqaiao trail

The bus departs as soon as we get aboard and passes through streets of Danshui (淡水). It then goes under the light tramway and enters a country road. As we go, I find that the township of Damshui has been rapidly expanding. The bus brings us to our destination in less than a half hour. One member has come by motorcycle by herself and been waiting for us. Seven of us set off at 7:52 and soon turn right to go under the gate with a sign of Sanbanqiao old trail (三板橋古道). We go up the paved road for a few minutes and see a junction after the road levels off. We take right again and keep ascending. A narrow road breaks off to the left by a Tudigong shrine (土地公祠). We follow this road and get to a higher level, which leads to another Tudigong shrine. This is a small firming community of a couple of houses. By now we have gained about 120 meters in elevation from Beixinzhuang. A gradually rolling hill spreads towards the ocean and tall buildings of Damshui stand far in the distance.

Walking on the dirt road down to the stream

Xipanxiaowu hut

The paved road gets into woods and turns to a weedy dirt road. The gradual ascent turns to descent in a few minutes and we come down to a stream side. A narrow path across the stream leads up to Xipanxiaowu hut. We have walked about 55 minutes by now and have our first rest at a yard in front of the hut. The hut stands by the stream so it is called Xipanxiaowu. It should belong to some local people but has not been inhabited for a long time. It has been like this since our first visit several years ago.

Stone piled wall of abandoned terrace fields

Scarcely traveled steep trail

The real challenge of ascent starts from here. A stone-stepped path soon diverges and we take right. This path leads to a remain of charcoal kiln (炭窯古道)  and should diverge again soon but there is no clear junction. We have to look for the right path and finally find a very obscure track buried in thick undergrowth. The whole area should have been terrace fields in the past. They are all abandoned and now sparsely covered with trees. The trail has very few markers to follow. You have to consult your GPS to keep on the right track. This section of route is obviously very seldom travelled. We leave our makers tied to tree branches as we progress. The grade gets very steep shortly. The unbroken climb of the steep path is very tiring. We have to pass through thorny plants at some points and I get scratches on my exposed arms. An hour of struggle gets us up to a junction on the ridge line at 9:50.  The heat gets on us as there is little breeze to dissipate the heat generated by constant climb.

Junction on the main ridge

The west-west peak shows up far over bamboos

After twenty-minute break we take on our long ascent of the ridge line. The path is clearer than what we have come up from Xipanxiaowu hut. It goes up under trees for ten minutes or so and plunges into densely growing thin bamboos of one's height. Our destination, the west-west peak of Mt. Xiaoguanyin-shan, shows up  in a far distance over the bamboos top. As we go along on the ridge line, we pass the summit of Mt. Changfu-shan (長福山, elevation 855 meters). A new sign board with the name of the peak lies between the bamboos, which you may just pass by if not careful.

At Mt. Changfu-shan

A flimsy path goes on the ridge

The ridge drops for some height. The bamboo height gets lower, allowing a wide view around. A narrow path between the bamboo walls follows the ridge line to the summit. On our left dips a deep valley of Datunxi. Mt. Ganweilun-shan (竿尾崙山) and the north-west peak of Mt. Xiaguanyin-shan stand high from the bottom. This valley was said to have been once a volcano crater. After hitting the bottom of ridge line, we go up between the walls of bamboos which are higher than one's height. The grade is pretty steep and no wind penetrates in this thick bamboo wall. It feels really hard to climb. We reach the junction to Mt. Qingfenglun at 10:51 where a neat sign is attached to the bamboo wall.

Coming down from Mt. Changfu-shan

Deep valley and peaks over it,  the front bump is Mt. Qingfenglun

Climbing between tall bamboo walls

Junction with a neat sign

Our original destination, the west-west peak still stands high. Clouds start gathering and blurs the skyline across the valley. I myself feel exhausted. So we give up to follow the ridge line and go down from here instead. I once took this very steep path down and it was raining with no view. Today the steepness of the trail is very clear and visible. This route in fact was opened by volunteer hikers several years ago. It must have been very laborious to open such a steep path in the dense bamboo vegetation. We pass the summit of Mt. Qingfenglun at 11:18. The inner slopes of Mt. Xioguanyin-shan facing the valley are covered but with green bamboos from the ridge line down to the bottom. Somebody named Mt. Sanjiaolun-shan (三角崙山) of Yilan (宜蘭)  a green tea mountain (抹茶山). Mt. Xiaoguanyin-shan is also well worth being called a "green tea" mountain.

Looking back the main ridge and the west-west peak (left)

Summit of Mt. Qingfenglun, a bird is not afraid of me

View from summit of Mt. Qingfenglun towards the ocean

Steep section with a name plate

The old trail crosses the stream

On our further steep way down a member falls far behind the rest of us so we wait for him sometime. He says he has suffered muscle cramps several times. All of us continue descent and reach the bottom  at 12:43 where Datunxi old trails joins. We have a long lunch break at the junction. I take a short nap after meal, which proves very refreshing. At 13:30 we get on our way down along the stream. The trail crosses the stream twice and reaches a junction at 13:55. The left path leads to Xipanxiaowu where we passed by this morning. We keep on the old trail and come to another and final stream crossing point at 14:00. We have a rest by the water and enjoy a brief cool moment with cold beer!

Walking along the stream

Final resting point by the stream

Coming out from the Datunxi trail onto a paved road

Sanbanqiao

The last section of the old trail is not long. We come onto a paved road where an inhabited old stone house stands. We take the paved road down to Sanbanqiao  where we stop by for a short rest at 14:41. The last leg of our hike is to walk down a paved road which joins the section where we walked this morning. We come back to Beixinzhuang at 15:15, which completes our seven and half hour hike. It took much more time for the length of the route. A #875 bus to Tamshui station shows up at 16:06, which again some twenty minutes behind the printed time schedule of the bus stop. On our ride to Tamshui rain starts falling. By the time we reach the Tamshui station it is pouring. We are lucky not to have met such hard rain during our hike.

A #875 bus finally comes after 40 minutes of wait

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Pouring rain at Tamshui station

The statistics of our hike is anything but remarkable: only 9.3km in distance, total ascent being 824 meters descent 843 meters, which calculates to the route physical index just 25. I use a Suunto training watch. It showed the PTE(Peak Training Effect) 4.9 out of the max 5.0 on this hike. This figure indicates the intensity of the exercise was very high. It is usually more or less 3.0 and has never gone beyond 4.0 no matter how long and hard my hike was. The heat of the day, which peaked at 38 degree in the Taipei urban area, may have contributed to this result.