Lalashan Mountain

May 5, 2011 I receive an email in my school inbox:

>>>>>Please reply if a May 14-15 backpack trip interests you.

>>>>>The Fu-Ba trail starts at the end of the road at Fu-Shan village, south of Wulai.  We’ll camp at an old Japanese police station site (where they used to try to control the aboriginals’ movements).  The trail ends above the Ba-Ling villages near the North Cross Island highway. 

>>>>>This trail also has a grove of “ancient trees,” some of which are thousands of years old!

>>>>>If time permits we’ll head down to the wild Su-Ling hot-spring (“4 Ridges” hot spring) – no road and barely even a trail to this remote jewel!

SOUNDS great to me so I sign Mike and I up to go on the trip.

May 6, 2011 in response to my email that we would love to go but not sure if it will be too strenuous for us or is it a simple climb.

>>>>>The trail is fairly pretty level and follows the contour lines, no major steep ascents/descents. Over the two days it's ~12 miles.  The hardest aspect, if you're not a regular hiker, might just be the distance.  But we're in no hurry, we do this for FUN!

Several emails later we know what we need to bring for gear, who’s bringing what for food and when and where to meet.

I am so excited to hike, camp, and explore Taiwan.

May 7, 2011 email:

>>>>>Dear Venture Crew members,
Attached please find next weekend's Permission Slip.  NO Slip - No trip! Please send me your Passport or ARC number ASAP!  (for the mountain pass)…

What? This is a Venture Crew trip? What we are chaperoning? Venturing is a youth development program of the Boy Scouts of America for young men and women who are 14 – 18 years of age.

What did I sign us up for? I thought a bunch of teachers were going camping for the weekend….nope a bunch of high School kids are going camping and you are coming along because we need a female chaperone. Do you think I was smart enough to back out of the Boy Scout trip? No it is an adventure.

We arrive at school at 7AM with our 40 and 45 lb. packs. The kids arrive with their 10 lb. packs. The leader arrives with his 25 (?) lb. pack.

We climb into the bus and head to the Fu Ba Trail. Fu stands for the Fushan Village, the start of the trail, and Ba for the Baling Village, the end of the trail. This trail was opened roughly 2-300 years ago and was called the Marriage Trail as it made access between two tribes possible.

In 1913 the Japanese used the trail to impose military law.

2.5 hours later we arrive in the sleepy town of Fushan. The kids repack their backpacks to share the tents and provisions. I head to the bathroom.

A squat toilet which I am use to now.

There was even a karaoke machine.

The bus driver takes our photo and we head off to the trail head.

Did I mention it is pouring out!!

Hood up and head down we climb down a flight of stairs and we are on the trail head. 10 minutes later the undergrowth has changed into tree roots, small rocks, and mud, a few more minutes and I realize I am on a suspension bridge crossing the Nanshih River. I hate heights and suspension bridges. The kids are bouncing along and the bridge is swaying to and fro, and up and down. I am second to last with Mike behind me. I am trying to hold on to the ropes but cannot seem to grab them before they pull away.

30 minutes and we are completely drenched and I am wondering if it is too late to turn around. Often when I climb a mountain I think of the summit and the beautiful vistas, the picnic lunch and the sweet silence. Today I am thinking there will be nothing to see but rain and fog.

The flat and wide trail head quickly turned into a steep and narrow billy goat path as it clung to the side of the mountain. I thought back to the email from the guide stating: “no major steep ascents”…liar. What else did he neglect to tell us?

I am sure the trees were beautiful and the flowers and the shrubs but I did not see any of it as I was singing “just put one foot in front of the other and soon you’ll be walking up the mountain”. (Rooney and Astaire, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer)

We took a short break and I was able to look around. . The trees in this area are hundreds and some thousands of years old. Apparently these trees were to difficult for the Japanese loggers to reach.  The formosa cypress were amazing to see.I attempted pictures but unfortunately my camera was soaked too.

We hiked about 2km an hour and around noon stopped for lunch. Kat made us peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on thick bread, I shared carrot sticks and we also had trail mix. The kids had a granola bar or a chocolate bar. I had consumed about a liter of water at this point because of the heat and wearing rain gear.

I noticed one boy borrowing wool socks from our guide and looked at his feet….cotton socks and tennis shoes. When I realized how bad it was raining and the fact that it did not look like it was ever going to stop I pulled out an old trick from mom….bread bags over your socks. I showed the boy my idea and he borrowed my extra small trash bags I attempted to shield the dry gear from the rain as he threw them on. I was hoping the damage was not done and he would not end up with trench foot.

The other kids had on good foot wear but some had no rain gear. One boy had sweats on. He decided to huddle under a tarp while we stopped for lunch. The others soon joined him.

He liked the idea so much he hiked the rest of the day with it.

Love the yellow rain coat the other boy has on. It lasted about 4 hours before it was in pieces.

Mike and I hung out at the rear of the group because 1. we like to be last and 2. because we were slow. The group would stop and wait for us to catch up. We came upon them telling stories about leeches and how to remove them. Kat is explaining that the best way to remove one is by using a fingernail. Slide your fingernail under the butt of the leech to its head. As the fingernail is pushed along the person's skin against the leech, the suction of the sucker's seal is broken, at which point the leech should detach its jaws.

The kids mentioned they thought you were suppose to salt or burn them off. Kat quickly tells them that is incorrect and may cause the leech to be traumatized resulting on the leech vomiting into your blood stream. GROSS!!!!!

The movie, Stand By Me flashed into my head as I remember the scene when Gordie pulls the leech out of his pants. I also remember that leeches like water and while there is a ton of rain no standing deep water. No worries.

On we go passing a 2 foot long black worms. Glad it is not a leech.

Mike is still smiling so all cannot be too bad. We bought two rain ponchos at the last minute to tie over our packs as rain covers. They were better than nothing but, then nothing would have kept our packs dry this day.

We stop for a snack again and one of the boys lifts his pants leg and there are several happy leeches. They have a sucker in the top half of their body which is used for feeding. They release an anesthetic to prevent the host from feeling the leech. They also use a combination of mucus and suction to stay attached and secrete an anti-clotting enzyme into your blood. Leeches attach to their hosts and remain there until they become full, at which point they fall off to digest.

This picture is after the leeches were removed.

The climb became harder as we crossed flowing rivers, walked thru water falls, and slid down slippery bamboo ladders. This photo is from the second day when it was drier.

As we continue hiking, the same boy who had the leeches on him stops several more times to remove leeches. I saw him remove at least 20. He handled it very well and did not freak out at all.

8.5 km from the beginning we arrive at the flooded camp site. The area is clear of trees and would be ideal if it was not raining. We push further into the trees and find spots for our tents. Ours is the ginormous one in the back left, blue and grey. Same one we carried around Australia, camped in Egypt, and Colorado. We also had a tarp over it to protect us from the rain as we entered the tent. Hence the 45 lb. pack Mike carried.

Our guide’s tent weighing a pound.

Supper was yummy hot coco and beautifully cooked pasta with pesto, again prepared by Kat. The Venture Crew kids had pasta, tuna, and beans. 5:30 supper was done and we cleaned up. We retired to the only dry spot…our tent.

I took off my boots and climbed inside soaking wet. Mike hand in the things we needed and we settled in. He climbed in next to me and we began trying to strip out of our soaking clothing. Our feet were pruney and shriveled. My left Achilles was covered in blood and I had 3 puncture wounds. I had been sucked! As I was antisepticing my wound I looked at  Mike’s Achilles he was sucked too!

I awoke shivering and although it was bloody hot in the tent, my shriveled feet were freezing. I slipped out of the tent to use the facilities (aka a bush and a shallow depression) and crawled back in to my warm socks and sleeping bag. Half an hour later I awoke again with a wet feeling on my chest. I reached to wipe away the tear I thought had fallen and was horrified as my fingers came away with a big fat full leech. I hurled him (hopefully a him) across the tent. Mike arose with my cries and helped me look for the little bugger. Half an hour later I find it and squish him in a tissue. A little freaked out we fall back to sleep.

What felt eons later I awoke again with a leech biting into my calf. He too was hurled with cries. I grabbed another tissue and went to squish him and realized it was the same one, as he had a fingernail mark in his back. He was chucked out of the tent.

7:00PM and we sleep until 4:30AM when the bird starts singing. He was an annoying bird that sounded like he was tweeting “third grader!!”, “third grader!!” to both Mike and my ears.

We laid waiting for the rest of the group until 7AM. The rain slowed down and we began to pack our wet gear. We ate breakfast of oatmeal and raisins and were ready to head home. The boys rolled out of their tents and leech boy had 100s of leeches covering his sleeping bag. The boys did not zip their tent and leeches are attracted to warm bodies. Not very smart. Who knew you needed to tell them to zip up.

Sunday was much drier than Saturday and the puddles we saw when we first entered the tent area were gone.

We have 10 km to reach the bus and we are all in good moods.

After 4 km we asked when the down starts we assumed we would be climbing down, never assume…we had another 6 km of up. The bus was meeting us at the top of the mountain. Ugh, more water falls, slippery downs, and narrow pathways.

Due to the drier conditions there were more signs of life on the trail.

We were suppose to stop for lunch at the top of the mountain but we did not hike fast today as the kids were practicing their compass skills. So when we did stop they had no food to eat. We all shared what we had and now I know why their packs looked so light.

Ray pulls out a watermelon he has been carrying and shares that as well.

2 km left to go and we head off. While I have dried out, my camera still has not.

The trail is much wider but still dangerous. There are trees to climb thru.

And fences to climb over.

Or squeeze thru.

The trees were beautiful…

and the flowers too.

We arrive at the visitor center only to find the bus cannot enter and we need to walk another 3km to reach it.

The bus is in sight and so is the sun. It came out in all its glory as we loaded the bus with our soggy gear. Typical.

We pull over a few km down the road for supper. Sweet potato pancakes and roast boar sold to us by a sweet couple from the mountain who trek 2 hours to sell on this prime spot of curb.

and the view was heavenly.

I am proud of Mike and I for schlepping up 20 km with  40-45 lbs. of gear in the pouring rain, leech infested jungle called Lalashan Mountain.