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This trail along the upper Yangtze River is a great hike. The mountains rise almost 2 miles on both sides of the river. At the narrowest, the gorge is about 100 feet wide. The trail is about 22 miles long, and all along there are local "guest houses" where you can grab a bed, a meal, or a much needed beer. Part of the fun of the trail is hiking with some people for a while, deciding to take a break, and then joining another group for a while. You always seems to manage to see your previous hiking partners or guest house partners somewhere along the way. And there is a lot of comraderie through the whole trail.
At first, I was a little disappointed: the trail has such a big rep among backpackers in China. The day had started out a bit cloudy, and the views were primarily of the river itself flowing peacefully along. You look over the farm terraces of the locals, but it's nothing to rave about. I got interested in the butterflies (a different variety very 10 minutes), the rocks (different kinds of slate and marble and quartz and lava), and the trees (changing
from bamboo, to rhodendren, to pine). My companions at the moment and I decided to take a break at the first guest house. Just as the ginger tea arrived, the sun came out, and you could just begin to see the mountains on the other side of the gorge. But, the real bitch part of the trail starts there: a kilometer rise in elevation in a kilometer of trail--called 24 Bends. About bend 19, I started cursing that I had ever decided to do this hike. I had tried to smell the bark of the pines to figure out the variety, only to discover that I'm a little allergic to this Chinese variety. Had to stop every 30 seconds to blow my nose...although I'm sure even if my nose wasn't running, I'd have had to stop to catch some air. And...it was HOT.
Then you arrive at the top of the trail. And all the cursing is forgotten and you don't mind that you and your companions smell like a pig sty. Somewhere along the trail, the views of the river stopped. There's only the tops of the mountains glittering with snow and a massive two mile high wall
of rock. You have to move your head up and down, and side to side to try to comprehend it. It is truly awesome.
The view (and the beer) at the first guest house after the top was so spectacular, I decided that I'd spend the night there. Eventually, there were 8 of us who sat around for the rest of the day, occasionally leaving the outdoor table for a moment alone with the mountains. Then we discovered the pet monkey, who liked to shake hands and suck on his toes at the same time (because he could I guess). I still had my sunglasses on a strap around my neck. The little booger was so quick, he grabbed them before I realized they were gone. He peered through each lens, looked at the front of them, looked at the sides of them, and then put them on. None of us could stop laughing as he paraded around and swung on his ropes, all the while wearing the glasses. Even our hosts could not stop talking about it all evening.
We sat around until 1 AM solving the worlds problems. I'm sure it ended only then because it
started to rain. It wasn't a big surprise that the next day was heavily overcast and we were a bit hungover. The clouds gradually lightened, and every once in a while you could see fresh snow on the mountain top. But the clouds never completely left, and the views, though beautiful, weren't the magic of the day before. However, the next part of the trail has more flowers, several waterfalls, two springs (literally just a holes in the side of the mountain with water pouring out, massive red rock outcroppings, and a Buddhist temple.
Gradually you descend to the lower trail. This trail is a little bit of a party-pooper because the government has paved this trail into a highway, and it is impossible to see the tops of the mountains. But there is a loop where you can reach the edge of the river after doing some boulder scrambling. You follow the river rapids for a while, and then there is only cliffs, so you boulder crawl back up to the road.
I feel really lucky that there was that first afternoon where it was just magic: after the hard hiking work, getting to a spot that
was so beautiful and having a really good group of people who just happened to come together and be very compatible. I still think the best part was the sunset when the sun gradually turned the tops of the mountains from silver to pink, to dark red, and finally to black and the stars appeared. Magic.
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Billy
non-member comment
Richard! I have been enjoying your blog for the past couple of months in between rehearsals and openings. What an adventure. My favorite photo to date is "Tiger Leaping". Well done! Safe travels. xo - Billy