2022年1月9日 關西石牛山-高甫山O型縱走 Revisit to Mt. Shiniu-shan of Guanxi

羅馬公路36K近くから望む石牛山 Mt. Shiniu-shan viewed from Roma motorway

台湾の小百岳に選定されている新竹縣關西鎮にある石牛山は、頂上にも岩があるが、その南面に岩壁が目立つ。客家人の多いこの土地は、牛の名前を冠した土地も結構ある。日常の生活で密接な関係があった牛は、今に比べればはるかに身近な存在だったのだろう。

石牛山山頂 At the summit of Shiniu-shan

当山は2017年に一度訪れている。今回は、再訪となる。ただ、石牛山は同じだが登頂のルートとその後の下山経路は異なる。新竹のこの辺りまで南下すると、台北に比べると冬でも天気がよいことも多い。そうしたことで、この山の再訪をした。登山経路は、石牛山の二つある主要ルートのうち、南山麓の石福宮から前回のAルートとは異なるBルート経由で登頂した。その後は、一部前回と重複する稜線を北上し、西へ分かれる尾根上を油井窩山，彩和山そして高甫山を越え、118号線（いわゆる羅馬公路）へと降りた。その後、118号線を歩き車の駐車場所まで歩いた。

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Hike counter-clockwise

Shiniu-shan (石牛山) means "stone buffalo peak". It stands over a valley leading the town of Guanxi (關西) of Xinzhu county (新竹縣), a hart of northern Hakka (客家, kejia) population. Water buffalos were important domestic animals and were around daily life of farmers of Taiwan in the past.  Many locations of Taiwan have "niu" in their names. The Shi-niu-shan is one of these names. As the name implies, its southern face shows rocks under the summit and the shape of skyline resembles a back of a buffalo. The summit also has a big chunk of rock with an engraved mountain name. At the norther side of the peak lies Shimen reservoir (石門水庫). This peaks has been selected one of the "small hundred peaks" of Taiwan.

Route map of Mt. Shiniu-shan at Shifugong junction

A few friends and I visited this peak once in late 2017. There are two major routes from the southern foothill to the summit. The north side is water so there is none from there. These two routes are named route A which lies on the east side and route B on the west side. Route A has sections of humid bare rocks so it needs a little more of experiences than route B. We went via Route A last time. We took roure B instead this time. On our first visit we followed the ridge extending from the summit north towards the Shimen Reservoir. We also followed this ridge for a while and then broke off from it to go on the sub-ridge extending to the west. So our two hikes gave us different experiences of the same peak.

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Our car parked by the Roma motorway

We have just five of us for this hike. Originally I planned to go there by public transportation. One of our members suggested to go by driving his car for all of us. It would be much faster and more convenient though we need to walk a couple of kilometers of motor road to get back to where our car is parked. We left Taipei at 6:30 by the member's car and headed for Guanxi junction (關西交流道) on the national highway No. 3. We dropped off the highway at 7:18 and reached our planed place to park the car on the Roma road (羅馬公路 #118 public road) at quarter to eight. The "Roma" has nothing to do with the Italian capital. It is just called that way because the name is made up from one character of either destination which the road links: Lufu (羅浮) and Mawudu (馬武督).

A large bus full of hikers has just arrived at Lishuxia junction

Passing by beetle nuts trees

Shifugong junction where we take the route B (left one)

We start our hike by walking on the Roma road to Lishuxia (李樹下, elevation 267 meters). If you take a public bus service, this is where you alight. A large bus has just arrived, which carry a large group of hikers obviously intended for Mt. Shiniu-shan like us. We take a left narrow road at the junction near Lishuxia and follow it for Shifugong Taoist shrine (石福宮). The road gradually gains height and passes by a small farm filed where a farmer greets us and a plantation of beetle nut trees. We reach Shifugong at 8:18. This is a junction where the route A and the route B split. You can drive a small car up here and park. We did not do so because it would necessitate uphill walk after we come down from Mt. Gaofu-shan (高甫山).

Shifugong shrine at left

Dirt trail starts by the farm house

Climbing a steep trail

After a brief stop we go on the left route B. The paved road gets steeper as we go and bring us a dirt trail head (elev. 364m) in ten minutes where the pave road ends. Several ducks are in a cage next to a house which looks no longer inhabited. The owner of the house would come and feed the animals. We have a short rest under a roof by the house. The dirt trail is wide and looks very often travelled. Several hikers are coming down and meet us as we go. A rather moderate grade gets steep after 10 minute or so. Surface clay is slippery at some steep spots. We get on the ridge at 9:15 which is a junction. A big chunk of rock called frog stone (蛤蟆岩) sits just on the spot. We take right and head for the summit, which we reach just in couple of minutes.

Ridge junction of the frog rock

Eastward view from the summit

Northward view from the rock top

View over the valley where we have come from

The empty summit (elev. 671m) is flooded with morning light. Mist has just evaporated and the summit provides a wide vista. Higher peaks stand in flood of bright rays on the east. They must be peaks like Mt. Wainiazui-shan (外鳥嘴山), Mt, Najie-shan (那結山) behind and Mt. Nanchatian-shan (南插天山) on the left. The valley that we have just come from lies beneath and rolling hills beyond in the south. If you climb on the big rock with a name of Shiniu-shan, you can have a glimpse of Shimen reservoir and further a flat plateau of Longtan (龍潭). Hikers keep coming to the summit during our stay of twenty minutes or so. We leave it at 9:38 for our trek to Mt. Gaofu-shan (高甫山).

Rope section

We run into a large group of hikers at the junction who have come by the bus we met this morning and advance on the ridge trail. The descending trail soon passes a steep rope section and meets a trail to Mt. Gaofu-shan at 9:52, We turn to the left at the junction. The moderately descending trail passes through mostly broad leaf trees and thin cedar trees at some points. This trail is also in good shape. Going down a long stretch with ropes we reach Mt. Youjingwo-shan (油井窩山, elev.489m) at 10:24. Though it is called a "mountain", it is just a location of a triangulation marker and not a peak in its literal sense. It is in fact a lowest point between higher peaks on the ridge and another trail crosses by it connecting the locations on the  either side of the mountain. 

Youjingwo-shan stone marker

View from the top of the big rock

Following the ridge trail

The ridge gains height again from Mt. Youjingwo-shan. The trail goes up passing by a couple of bare rock spots and leads us to the bottom of a large sand rock in about 10 minutes. The rock is climbable to its top by pulling up a rope fixed to it. From the top you can have a view toward north, including a part of Mt. Shimen-shan (石門山) and the dam of Shimen reservoir with an inlet of water in its front. The trail goes down a little to meet a maintenance path of electric towers. We follow it and go under a tower. The trail goes over a few minor ups and downs and comes to a junction at 11:28. A trail diverges right down to a abandoned coal mine on the north foothill. We have a lunch break by the junction.

Junction where we have a lunch break

At the summit of Mt. Chaihe-shan

We resume our hike at 12:00 and come to another junction in several minutes. The left steep path leads to the summit of Mt. Caihe-shan (彩和山). We reach a rather wide summit of Mt. Caihe-shan (elev. 612m) at 12:13. The summit is free of grasses which appears to have been cut out recently. A group of several hikers is there having lunch. We go down along the same path after a short stay. The main ridge trail from the junction looks less travelled. Newly cut-own leaves and grasses lie still green on the trail.

Recently cut-out leaves cover the trail

Old direction signs

Big stones blocks the trail

At 12:57 the ridge trail passes over small humps and comes to a point where half-torn old direction signs are nailed to a tree. The date of the sign shows December 2011, almost ten years ago! The ridge gets narrow and big bare rocks blocks the trail. Ropes are attached such points to aid safe passage. Hitting the bottom at 13:08 we start our final climb to reach the summit of Mt. Gaofu-shan (elev. 535m) in a few minutes.  

Summit of Mt. Gaofu-shan

Passing a knife ridge

Rock hole holds a statute

Mt. Gaofu-shan is our final peak of the day but our way down from it proves most exciting.  It goes on a rocky knife ridge and passes by a large rock cliff where a small Buddhist statue is placed in its wall hole. By 14:00 we come down to a small peak where a wide vista spreads towards the town of Guanxi under cludy winter sky. The parallel lower ridge with a few peaks lying north of us is the one we walked as a part of Luknus Selu trail (樟之細路) last year. Another exciting steep rocky section still shows up at 14:14. It is free of trees and we can identify a large open area of Tongyi Dujia Cun (統一渡假村 Uni-resort) about 200 meters down,  The steep downhill ends by the Roma road (elev. 227m) at 14:38.

View towards the town of Guanxi and its vicinity

Going down a steep open rocky trail

Trail end

We need to walk along the motor road back to where our car is parked. The time is till early and we make a stopover at Nuomi-qiao bridge (糯米橋) nearby. This bridge was built in 1940 and still stands firm, tough it is no longer used as a regular bridge to cross Yuanshan-xi river (員山溪). It is kept for tourism.  Nuomi-qiao is a kind of bridge construction method of the past. It uses nuomi (glutinous rice) as an ingredient of mortar for the construction so it is thus called. Such bridges still remain at many places throughout Taiwan.

Nuomi-qiao bridge

Going by Yiminmiao shrine

Returned to our car

We follow the Roma road from about 33.5K point to 36.5K where our car is parked. Along the way we pass Jinshan primary school (金山國小), Yimin-miao shrine (義民廟). On our left the mountain that we have hiked over lies like a long wall. We reach our car by 15:30 to finish our hike. Our way back did not meet much congestion. We arrived at Taipei by 17:00.

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This hike lasted 7 hours and a half including breaks. It was rather a short hike as we returned home before dark. The distance was 13.3km, a big part of which was a paved road. The total ascent was 740 meters while descent 783 meters. The physical index was 25. Mt. Shiniu-shan is a popular peak and many hikers visit it. I suppose a quite a large part of them just make a round trip to Mt. Shiniu-shan only. If you are an experienced hiker, it would not be enough to satisfy you. I recommend to take such a longer route as this. If you take a bus to get there, you don't need to walk back to the point where you start. There is a bus stop near the ether trail head like Tongyi Jiankang Shijie bus stop (統一健康世界 Uni-resort) and Lishuxia (李樹下). The bus services originate at Xinzhu keyun (新竹客運 Hsinchu Bus Company) Guanxi terminus (關西總站) and are frequent enough for hiking purpose.