What is the highest point from which ANY water flows into the Danshui river system?
I’m looking for the actual highest point. Not the source, or the headwater or anything like that that might be restrained by questions of semantics, but the actual highest point that ANY water would flow into any stream that might eventually flow into anything that might be considered part of the Danshui River System.
To find it I (we?) would need to consult a relief map with elevations. I don’t imagine that the answer is readily available anywhere for the simple reason that it probably isn’t all that scientifically relevant, and it isn’t the kind of question that anybody would ask as an artist, until now.
Sorry if this is a bit difficult and I would consult a relief map with elevations and all that myself if I weren’t too patently stupid to do anything as complicated as that.
My guess would be Zhongbajianshan (中霸尖山), at 3392m. Snowmelt from the north face looks like it may flow into the southernmost reaches of the Dahan river watershed.
EDIT: It looks like Pintianshan (品田山), at 3524m, also has snowmelt flowing into the same watershed, from its north face. 24.428509 N, 121.266637 E
On Google Earth, that seems to be the only area of the entire Danshui watershed that has snow-capped mountains.
EDIT EDIT: Looks like I was right with Pintianshan:
I dunno what’s cooler, that that place is connected to the Danshui, or that the computer connects human beings, or that you are connected enough to everything to connect me to that.
I hope people click the link. The Danshui comes from THERE.
I’m wondering, if the trail is relatively flat and only ten clicks in total, could a guy could hike in just as far as pintiaN SHAN, grab some pics, and get back down to the farm in a day?
I like to think I could still go camping and all that but the reality is that my back is just too damaged.
Anyway, seriously, big thanks for that. I’ve been curious about it for months.
I’ve been there. See my blog on the Holy Ridge. You couldn’t do it in a day but two days would be feasible though maybe not with your back. It is about 1000m straight up the first day if I recal.
Volviic on the summit:
Me climbing down the backside:
I’m a little dubious about any water coming from here. Maybe it gets absorbed by the shale and then trickles out further down.
It’ll take me forever to get up there of course, if ever actually, but it is nice to get a sense of it. I guess I was thinking about what was the highest peak associated with the system. It’s nice to put it at over ten thousand feet.
It looks like the wild salmon are in the creeks that flow into the Danshui. That would be cool too actually.
The spot is marked on decent topographical maps as ‘the highest source of the Danshui River’, just north of Pintien Mountain. It is between Sinda Cabin and the remains of Banan Cabin (to be rebuilt this year). Fairly easy to get to without to and enjoy.
Just past it, with Babajian to the N/NW
Have heard about Taiwanese hikers getting there in less than a day - MAD, plan at least 3 days for a return trip.
My post on the nearby Wuling Quadruple Peaks barkingdeernews.blogspot.com/201 … e-diy.html Of course Forumosans of good standing (we all are, aren’t we?) get costs-only prices for map/permit help.
I don’t know if anybody is still following the now apparently defunct plan to study the river in some sort of sequence. Actually, I’m still going to do that so it will be ages till I get up to these places, if I “ever” get up there. Before I do I’ll have to make some account of myself on the beishi and then the tongHuoXI and naNshIXI (pubu trail etc.) I’m dinking around on the rivers in Taipei because they are interesting in way and VERY easy to get to.
Anyway thanks for the info and the pictures. It is really good to get an idea of what’s up there.
Oh, before I let you go, does anybody know if there are any salmon in any of the rivers that eventually flow into the Danshui. From Mucha Man’s map (I think it is in his Holy Ridge write up) it certainly looks like it to me, but, well you know…
[quote=“Volviic”]The spot is marked on decent topographical maps as ‘the highest source of the Danshui River’, just north of Pintian Mountain. It is between Sinda Cabin and the remains of Banan Cabin (to be rebuilt this year). Fairly easy to get to without to and enjoy.
Have heard about Taiwanese hikers getting there in less than a day - MAD, plan at least 3 days for a return trip.
My post on the nearby Wuling Quadruple Peaks barkingdeernews.blogspot.com/201 … e-diy.html Of course Forumosans of good standing (we all are, aren’t we?) get costs-only prices for map/permit help.[/quote]
That’s the page url, not the pic. You need to look at the url under the pic and plop that in the box. Basically it’s best to click all sizes on the top of the pic, choose medium, and then copy and paste the url UNDER the pic.
Been awhile, huh? Need to bactrack a bit today as I discovered recently that the creek referred to in this thread as "unkown creek’ is actually the headwater of the shuāngxī. Took a bit of doing to tie those together. Here’s the pics…
Evidence of a tumultuous past…
Camoflage…
Too fat to fly…
See through…
The sincerest form of flatery is of course…
A flower?
Anyway, catch the 18 up past the goo gong and ride it to the end of the road. From there just hike up the creek. Leave early. You could get lost.
Mod: This is looong and a bit of a repeat but I think worthwhile as it puts an entire system in one post. Hope you can let it stand.
“Qingtiangang” on the 108 bus line from Yangmingshan actually is the headwater of the shuang1xi1. I suspected as much before but never really put it together for sure. I don’t know why but that just thrills the hell out of me to put it together. The hike down to zhishan (the road that the gu gong is on) is a bit of adventure honestly. Some of it obscenely beautiful. Bamboo and banana farms nestled right into the jungle. Rice paddies even. Hundred year old irrigation trenches, the whole bit. But complicated as hell. I hiked up two days in a row and got lost both times. Today worse than yesterday. Got tumbled up in a bunch of thorn bushes, pretty much completely disoriented after having hiked without knowing it four “kilometers” (I know because at the top of the ridge there is a trail with distance markers) the wrong way through the bush and came across water buffalo tracks. Thinking to myself “Oh that might make for some good pictures” and knowing the memory card was full proceeded to attempt to delete “some” photos but accidently hit the “all pictures in range” button and lost what I’m really sure were a couple of the best pictures I’ve ever taken. Damn!
Anyway, here’s the unkown creek (actually the shuangxi) photos taken from a long time ago.
There are several little valleys that start off down the mountain from there…
We follow one down…
First water…
Looking back already. (Honestly you do a lot of looking back in this particular location because the place is home to quite a few water buffalo. You’ve run into them a few times while hiking around in other locations. It’s not a lot like seeing them on television or from the window of a car. Nothing at all.) Anyway, here’s looking back…
More creek in the water…
Wet water.
Leaves in water.
Where we are headed…
Zoom in…
We reach the forest…
Confluence.
Little falls…
The tree likes the rock…
More monet…
The gate is locked…
It really is…
The world’s greatest living photograoph…
The signs are easy to read.
Bamboo.
Getting dark.
Lost again.
Flowers.
Cliff…
Oops…
Further down (different day)
Signs of “life”.
Squiggly black dots…
Calling Mr. Brando.
This is the fifth picture. It looks just like the third picture.
Fixing the river.
Optical illusion.
Inspecting the damage
Housing…
The river wanders on…
and grows fatter
And included for the die hard purists is a photograph of the ACTUAL SPOT where the SHUANGXI and JIlonG rivers meet!
That’s it. A real top to bottom treatment.
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It originates from Qixing Shan definitely but it also originates from the one over (maybe xioayoukong). I did a crap job (“geographically” speaking) on that one too and am thinking I might start all over again starting at the big fumorole or whatever they call that thing with all the steam flying out of it on yangmingshan.
Anyway, the whole “originates” thing is complicated as hell. Is it the highest point, is it the highest point with a substantial flow of water, what? Remember, headwater is not a word, it’s headwaterS and for good reason.
I’d just like to piss bob off royally by saying that most of his photos are uninteresting. HA! HA!
The inspiration, though, and what you are doing, is extremely inspiring. What a project! What a fantastic project! Which river system is next, I wonder? Bitan beckons. All the way up to Bitan and Wulai and far, far beyond into the deep mountains? Valley after valley, watershed after watershed…
Er, thanks Sandy. I think (scratches head). The concept originally was to start at the mouth of the Danshui on the starboard side and go system by system all the way round till I came back to the mouth of the Danshui port side. Of course I’ve diverged from that so many times now you’d have no way of knowing that where I am “logically” is up the Beishi Xi somewhere up past Pingling. Of course the thing is so preposterously huge that I have to put limits on it. I think I’ll wrap up the Beishi Xi up at the tire tube rafting joint. That looks like fun. Then again a guy might change plans once he gets up in there too. There is another river that flows into the Beishi Xi at Pinling too. It’s the sort of non-descript little thing that might lead anywhere. I like those ones. Anyway, I think I’ll do that one. The one I REALLY want to do though, the one I’m chomping at the bit to get after is the Nanshi Xi. That’s sort of where all this started actually. Fox posted a picture called “just water.” The next day I got a camera (first one ever) and the day after I was up on the Pubu having my socks knocked off at the scale of that. Wow! It was right in the middle of summer and I was trying to head out and do it and asking you guys for advice and that was a long time ago and I never did make it. Kind of got drunk with the aboriginess and had a rotten time. Will make it past them one day. Anyway, somehow I got it in my head to start at the beginning. It’s a good project I think because it is absolutely impossible, absolutely open ended, and absolutely NOT any sort of metaphor. Anway, that’s how I see it.
