2022年3月21日 台北雙溪山 - 梅花山 - 金明山 - 北港山 Hiking of nearby Taipei peaks via newly opened trails

北港山から下ってきた山々を望む From Mt. Beigang-shan peak looking at those peaks we just came over

台北の街の北東部、故宮博物館のさらに奥の山から隣の新北市汐止區へと連なる山々は、今まで何度が訪れている。今回の山行の前半は、初めて訪れるピークもあるが、後半分水嶺を越えた後の峰々は、ほぼ同じルートを登りにとったことがある。再度訪れた主な目的は、最近整理された道を歩き、これらの山を登ることにある。同じ山でも、ルートが違う、或いは登りか下りにとるかで、また別の側面が見える。それが面白い。

台湾近郊の山は、日本でいう里山的な存在でもある。その山は近くの住人の生活の糧である。今は山を下りて都会に移住した集落もあるが、いまだに暮らす人々もいる。こうした人たちの畑でありまた森である。今回のルート中、歩き始めてすぐに800段といわれる石段を登ったが、これはその昔、日ごろの山での作業に通うため、地元住民が資金を投じて造ったものだという。その後ほとんど歩かれず、草に埋もれていたが藍天隊によって整理された。また、山を越えて汐止側に入った後は、最近聯合艦隊ボランティアグループによって整理された道や、新たに開かれた山道を歩いた。

地元民による石段道 Stone step path built by local people

ルートとしては、至善路の聖人瀑布バス亭から歩きはじめ、上記の階段道をへて雙溪山，梅花山西峰，梅花山，車坪寮崙，火燒坪山，柯子林山，金明山そして北港山を越えて、拱北殿へと下った。標高としては最高でも600m台だが、上り下りがあるのでそれほど楽でもない。台北から近い場所だが、誰でも知っているようなルートではない。今回は英語で記述します。

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Mountains and hills adjacent to the metropolitan Taipei are the place where local people have been making living in the past and even present days. As the city limit expanded to mountains, the boundary between the urban and the rural got blurry. Housing complexes have been elected on the side or even the top of mountains. Mountains have been engulfed by the wave of urbanization. Yet even today in this trend, you can find spots seemingly far from urbanization. If you step into the inner locations of Neishuangxi (內雙溪)  of Taipei, you find ancient stone steps and bridges or even houses made of stones. This place belongs to the same Shilin district (士林區), which includes such bustling locations like Shilin night market and dense residential housing, presenting a stark contrast.

From north west to south east

The location of this trip is just a such spot. As soon as we started our hike, we came across a long stone steps that was built by local people to access their firm fields. This nice path was recently brought into attention by Lantiandui (藍天隊) volunteer hikers when they made clearing job on it. If you go further up the valley of Neishuangxi you will find more of their terrace fields on the slope of mountains. You can make a nice escape from the city only after a half hour ride of a bus.

All members at Huoshaoping-shan summit

I have visited Neishuangxi many times yet it still keeps my interest alive. The path of ancient stone steps drew my attention this time. So I planed this trip. There are a few more attractions on the side of Neishuangxi before going over the ridge of mountain to Xizhi side (汐止). like Mt. Shuangxi-shan (雙溪山) and Mt. Meishua-shan west peak (梅花山西峰), which we visited on our way up. Hitting the ridge we went down the other side along the trails that we made a way up two years ago. The Allied volunteer hikers (聯合艦隊) has lately been working on trails in the norther Xizhi area. They even opened a new hiking path from Mt. Jinming-shan (金明山) to connect the trail head of Mt. Beigang-shan (北港山). You had to walk a public paved road to link the two peaks in the past. The weather was wet in the morning but it turned out sunny as we progressed, which made this hike very enjoyable at the end.

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Setting off from Shengren waterfall bus stop

When I got up at 5:40 in the morning, I was surprised to find it was raining. The weather forecast the night before said that it would be a fine day. I checked the latest weather information. The radar chart showed the could covered the northern Taiwan. I wondered whether we should go as scheduled. After a study and contemplation, I decided to go and told my friends so.

Wanshan store

Stone bridge

Now at Jiantan station (劍潭站), we are waiting for our Xiao 18 bus (小18) which is scheduled to leave at 7:30. Despite no rain, the sky is dark and overcast. No mountains are visible from here, which stand in the north if the weather is clear. The bus comes on time. Passengers are not so many when we leave Jiantan. It picks up more passengers on the way to full. It then let passengers alight. By the time we pass Gugong National Palace Museum (故宮博物院) there are not so many passengers besides us. We reach Sengren pubu bus stop (聖人瀑布站) at 8:07.

Take the left trail

A long stepped path

The roads are wet. I even feel droplets. I wonder whether we should have cancelled this hike. With a hope of better weather, we set off 8:24. We soon pass a store called Wanshan (萬山商店) and find a long path of stone steps with a stainless steel handrail. This is one the we take to go up. The steps lead to a junction with a stone bridge just besides. We take one leading to a stone house on the left, which soon splits into two. The left one looks rather desolate but recently maintained. There is no direction signs nor markers, but this should be it. It soon proves right.

Moss and dirt covered trail

Trail head of Mt. Shuangxi-shan

According to Lantiandui Mr. Jiang, this is a path built by the local people for accessing their farms and originally had 1200 steps. Now it has been cut back to 800 to a public road above. The construction should have cost a sizable money, which indicates how important this path was. We usually hate steps, but this one is special. Fallen tree trunks on the path and thick sediment of covering soil means that it has long been abandoned. It takes us a little more than ten minutes to reach its top.

Summit of Shuangxi-shan

Head of trail we take for Mt. Meihua-shan

We take left on a public paved road and pass a trail head going down on our left and one going up to Mt. Meihua-shan west peak on our right. A trail to the summit of Mt. Shuangxi-shan opens its mouth on our left at 8:54. We go up along the trail for five minutes to reach the tree-encircled summit (elevation 439 meters). Going down the same trail back, we take another trail across the public road. A direction sign shows the date of Mar 16 2022, just a week ago. A steep trail goes in a forest of thin trees and the forest bed has little undergrowth. 

At the summit of Meihua-shan west peak

Passing a overhung big rock

At 9:25 the trail meets another one from left and goes flat to our right, which soon comes to another junction. We take a right trail up to the summit of Mt. Meihua-shan west peak (elev. 517m) and back again to the junction. The trail going up which we take is pretty steep and meets Shuangxigou (雙溪溝) old trail running alongside the mountain slope at 9:49. Our trail crosses the old trail and keeps ascending, which is a newly opened one directly leads to the summit of Mt. Meihua-shan (梅花山).  Passing a large rock we reach the summit (elev. 640 m) at 10:00  This is the highest peak of the day.

Summit of Mt. Meihua-shan

Junction with the Taipei Grand Trail

Sea of cloud fills the valley

Xingcheng coffee shop terrace garden

We soon meet the Grand Taipei Trail and go down to Xiwan road (汐萬路). The public road soon meets a road coming up from right. Sea of cloud spreads beyond the right side road, which is rather rare for such low altitude mountains. A terrace of Xingcheng coffee (星城咖啡) shop is built on a hump by the junction. We go up to it for rest. This shop is open for business only for holidays. A member tells that even on a business day, this place is open for anybody. This is a nice vantage point, but we can only see cloud today. 

Gate of the cemetery, take right road to the trail head

Trail head at the corner of grave yard

We get down to the public road and take a right road leading the Wuzhishan military cemetery. It splits into two roads and we take the right one. A section of cemetery shows up in front. Our trail down starts at the bottom edge of the grave yard. We came up to this place from Gonbeidian temple (拱北殿) two years ago. We go down all the way down to Gombeidian today instead. The trail gets steep soon and passes a little open field where sun shines on us. The weather has turned fine! We further go down in woods to find a junction to Mt. Chepingliaolun (車坪寮崙). We follow the trail to it and at 10:54 reach a open circle with a stone marker (elve. 560m) at its center.

Chepingliaolun

Returning to the junction we keep on our descent and reach Xiwan road at 11:12. Our dirt trail opens its mouth diagonally across the road. It keeps downhill for a while and goes up again to pass under a tall electric transmission tower. It soon meets a trail from right and gets to the summit of Mt. Huoshaoping-shan (火燒坪山 elev. 460) at 11:19. The volunteers cut out vegetation around the summit, which now allows a view toward Mt. Wuzhi-shan (五指山)  We have lunch break under trees besides the summit.

Get down onto Xiwan road

Summit of Huoshaoping-shan

Steep trail down from Huoashaoping-shan

The trail from the summit gets steep. A long ropes are attached for the enter length of the steep downhill. At 12:07 we hit the lowest point before climbing back to Mt. Kezilin-shan (柯子林山). The ascending trail passes a rocky gap and gets onto the ridge line. We follow the ridge trail right to reach the summit of Kezilin-shan (elev. 382m) at 12:18. The ridge trail passes under a overhung rock and leads us to the rocky summit of Mt. Jingming-shan (金明山, 392m) with no marker stone. Unlike the adjacent Kezlin-shan, which is in woods, this peak is free of surrounding trees towards east. Mt. Xin-shan (新山, elev. 499m) stands high across a valley.

Summit of Kezilin-shan

View towards Xin-shan from the summit of Jingming-shan

Newly opened ridge trail

Crossing a stream

I have been to Mt. Jingming-shan couple times in the past. We  climbed from the Xiwan road to the summit. Now we have another path avoiding to walk along the paved road to connect our next peak, Mt. Beigang-shan. Hikers usually do not like to walk along paved roads, particularly with traffic. So volunteer hikers opened a new trail recently. The new trail begins just beneath the summit and follows the ridge extending down to south. It goes steeply down with a long aiding ropes. It passes a section with little tall trees where you see Mt. Beigang-shan stands in a distance. It reaches the lowest point at 13:08. We cross a small stream and climb back to a paved road. We then walk cross the road and get onto a dirt trail again for Beigang-shan, along which we go up for a while to a spot of rest at 13:30. It is in the shade of trees and a gentle breeze occasionally flows through,

Climbing back to Mt. Beigang-shan, Jingming-shan behind

Last climb will soon be over

The last long uphill lasts about a half hour and leads us to the summit of Beigang-shan.(elev. 271m). The northern side of the summit is clear of vegetation, allowing a wide vista of Wuzhi-shan and its wide slope and sub ridges. The electric tower near Mt. Huoshaoliao-shan and the peaks of Mt. Jingming-shan, both of which we just walked over, are visible. This kind of view that shows your footprints gives you a feeling of accomplishment. We have a rather long break of twenty-five minutes with beer and leave the summit at 14:30.

Beigang-shan summit

Going down from Beigang-shan

The final leg of our hike is to walk down along the ridge stretching to Gonbeidian temple. The trail follows the ridge while diverging a trail to left at two separate junctions,. It goes rather steeply down for a while and turns gentler. Passing by a big rock we come to a junction where stone paved paths begins. The right one goes up to a small hill and the left one traverses the hillside. We take left and comes to a resting place with benches and tables, where we have a final break at 15:00. Gnbenidian is known for its colored leaves in autumn. At this time of a year, all leaves are green.

Last junction near Gongbeidian temple

Gongbeidian temple on the hilltop

Gongbeidian bus stop

Having another beer break of twenty minutes we go down to the temple buildings and further down along a paved road to a bus stop nearby. We reach there at 15:34. A #896 bus bound for Nangang station (南港站) comes in about 10 minutes, by which we reach Nangang at 16:34. Our hike covered 10.6 kilometers with a total ascent of 658 meters and descent 830 for seven hours and twenty minutes. The route physical index is 24.