A day in the life of ...: January 2017

Taichung (台中) — Day 6-7-8 ...

Day 7 —a day of rest and a few errands before the Chinese New Year holiday

Day 8 — the plan was to hike Dakeng trail #4 but the people who own the Airbnb were hiking the #1 and #2 so I joined them.

Day 9 — It was back to Guguan (谷關) to hike another of the Seven Heroes (七雄) — Malunshan (馬崙山). It was a steep 7KM climb that took four hours to get up and almost three to get back down. Whew!!!

The last 500m of the hike was the toughest part of the climb

Part of the gorgeous Guguan mountain range in Taichung

Taichung (台中) — Day 5 ...

Gorgeous views on the way to the peak of Dongmaoshan (東卯山) in Guguan (谷關)

A 6KM trail of switchbacks (the last KM was a rocky scramble) to reach the peak of 1,690m

About 200 meters away from the peak

The white rope was the final push (or pull) to the top which offers stunning 360° views

Taichung (台中) — Day 4 ...

Trail numbers one to four are the more difficult trails of Dakeng. Each trail is about 1.5KM in length but they take time to complete due to walking on wooden planks for the entirety of the trail. Gloves highly recommended!

Monday's route in red. Hiked up trail #1 and down trail #2. Wednesday's route in blue. Hiked up trail #2 and down trail #3. I hiked trail #4 last year but will complete the route again before departing the area.

Dakeng Trail #3 (大坑三號步道)

Found this little critter along the way (thankful for my Olympus TG-4)

Dakeng Trail #5 (大坑五號步道)

Taichung (台中) — Day 3 ...

Today's route in blue

One of the goals on this trip is to hike all ten of the Dakeng (大坑) trails. Today's route was up #10, down #9-1, up #9 and back down #9-1. It took just under two hours at a leisurely pace. Trails #9-1 and #10 are through the forest. Trail #9 is an old road lined with vendors and coffee shops. It must be obnoxiously loud on the weekends. The easy trails were quite busy today (Tuesday) with school outings and families.