that one:
East Coast Highway Effected by Typhoon?
another traveller has the same problems as you, please check.
a map:
taroko.gov.tw/tarokoportalen … age03.aspx
the write tianxiang as tiansiang.
[quote=“hiker”]tianxiang is a small town inside the tarokko-gorge, the only possibility to stay overnight with some bad and expensive restaurants.
regarding the road from suao - please have a look at another thread with new information. I am not sure about the new conditions. it might have changed.[/quote]
Thanks for telling me where Tianxiang is. The race starts at the entrance and as far as I know, goes up for 21 km before the turnaround…
A friend of mine just told me the road is open, but slow.
[quote=“hiker”]that one:
East Coast Highway Effected by Typhoon?
another traveller has the same problems as you, please check.
a map:
taroko.gov.tw/tarokoportalen … age03.aspx
the write tianxiang as tiansiang.[/quote]
Thanks. Again, can’t wait to run through it next Saturday…
yeah the su-hua is open to traffic. The Park authorities close both entrances north and south of the main bridge on the 9# to vehicular traffic on the day of the marathon. Think they re-open about 11 or 12. I’ve seen a blue truck get through once though and nearly take out the leading Kenyans.
Race starts at the gate to the gorge, the course runs downhill towards the coast for a couple of kms, then u-turns and heads up the gorge. Turnarounds are somewhere near the Si-Pan dam (half-marathon) and Tienxiang (for the full).
Good luck if you’re doing the full, plenty of uphill there. I’m running my first half and that’s way far enough. Be prepared for a morning shower of rain, often happens there, esp as race start is at 7am.
[quote=“Nuit”]Race starts at the gate to the gorge, the course runs downhill towards the coast for a couple of kms, then u-turns and heads up the gorge. Turnarounds are somewhere near the Si-Pan dam (half-marathon) and Tienxiang (for the full).
Good luck if you’re doing the full, plenty of uphill there. I’m running my first half and that’s way far enough. Be prepared for a morning shower of rain, often happens there, esp as race start is at 7am.[/quote]
Thanks for the info. I am doing the full. I don’t expect any PRs – Hope to break three hours at Taipei in December – going to use this as a training run to prepare for Taipei and simply to enjoy, but would be surprised to break 3:20.
Hope to see you there. Good luck.
I’m hopefully headed to Taroko this weekend but I’m not sure since there has been a lot of rain recently and it might continue. I might also be able to go during moon festival if this trip doesn’t work out.
Basic plan - arrive in Hualien at 12:30 Sunday (from Kaohsiung) and leave Tuesday on the 3:30 train. I will rent a scooter ($300+/- per day?) (have Taiwan DL) and scoot up to Tiansiang. My girlfriend and me. I’ve done a lot of hiking/camping but she hasn’t done as much so I don’t want to push her too hard. We only have one full day but we should be able to do a couple of the shorter trails on Sunday and tueday. shakadang trail seems manageable for her but Jhullu road might be too strenuous (not sure how difficult it is). She’s also been sick for two weeks which could cancel the trip (or at least her participation…). And we’ll probably cook most of our meals since we’re both cheap…
Questions
Which campsite is better? Heuliu because of the cold showers?
How cold are the cold showers (late afternoon before dinner)?
*** How cold are the nights? I have a tent and trying to figure how warm the blanket needs to be. *** I’m real interested in the answer to this
Is it not a good time to go after the heavy rains recently due to landslides/rocks falling? Would 3 weeks from now be better (or just as unpredictable)?
Day one (sunday) - arrive to the campsite and maybe do one of the shorter hikes near tiansiang (tunnel of nine turns and/or ?)
day two (monday) - Shakadang trail and maybe drive down to Cingshui cliffs OR try for a permit to hike old Jhullu road OR just ride on the scooter above tiansiang and hike ? trail(s)
day three (Tuesday) - do a short hike or two on the way to Hualien and get the 3:30 train - could do Shakadang trail if we don’t do it Monday
And pardon the frequent misspellings since I have seen about 3 different spellings for everything and for fun will make up my own to increase the confusion.
You need to apply in advance for Jhuilu and you DO NOT want to take an inexperienced hiker on that.
How cold? If the days are sunny I doubt it would go below 20. A medium weight sleeping bag will be fine.
If you want to something outdoors and easy with the gf go to Liyu Lake and rent bikes and do the river route. Very beautiful but not challenging.
Baiyang Trail is out of commission btw.
Falling rcks are a serious concern and have definitely gotten worse over the years. Borrow helmets from the national park if you are worried.
The old suspension bridge is gone … it’s concrete now … the temple/monastery is still there …
[quote=“Mucha Man”]You need to apply in advance for Jhuilu and you DO NOT want to take an inexperienced hiker on that.
How cold? If the days are sunny I doubt it would go below 20. A medium weight sleeping bag will be fine.
If you want to something outdoors and easy with the gf go to Liyu Lake and rent bikes and do the river route. Very beautiful but not challenging.
Baiyang Trail is out of commission btw.
Falling rcks are a serious concern and have definitely gotten worse over the years. Borrow helmets from the national park if you are worried.[/quote]
Yeah, Jhuilu is out - it’s a 3 day turnaround for permits.
Baiyang Trail was re-opened in May, unless it’s closed again 
- I didn’t look as I went past yesterday.
Shakadang Trail is good, + so is the shorter LiuShui Trail right near the Heliu campsite (showers, what showers?). It’s a nice enough campsite though.
Wenshan Hot Springs are open and in pretty good shape - though it’s illegal to enter and especially dangerous in rain due to falling rocks. If you go, keep an eye out above.
If you fancy them, helmets can be borrowed for free from the “Helmet Borrow” stall near Buluowan turn-off. I came through on Tue and the gorge was pretty dry, but it’s poured down in there today. Check the forecast.
[quote=“Nuit”][quote=“Muzha Man”]You need to apply in advance for Jhuilu and you DO NOT want to take an inexperienced hiker on that.
How cold? If the days are sunny I doubt it would go below 20. A medium weight sleeping bag will be fine.
If you want to something outdoors and easy with the gf go to Liyu Lake and rent bikes and do the river route. Very beautiful but not challenging.
Baiyang Trail is out of commission btw.
Falling rcks are a serious concern and have definitely gotten worse over the years. Borrow helmets from the national park if you are worried.[/quote]
Yeah, Jhuilu is out - it’s a 3 day turnaround for permits.
Baiyang Trail was re-opened in May, unless it’s closed again - I didn’t look as I went past yesterday.
Shakadang Trail is good, + so is the shorter LiuShui Trail right near the Heliu campsite (showers, what showers?). It’s a nice enough campsite though.
Wenshan Hot Springs are open and in pretty good shape - though it’s illegal to enter and especially dangerous in rain due to falling rocks. If you go, keep an eye out above.
If you fancy them, helmets can be borrowed for free from the “Helmet Borrow” stall near Buluowan turn-off. I came through on Tue and the gorge was pretty dry, but it’s poured down in there today. Check the forecast.[/quote]
Baiyang is opened? I find that hard to believe. They told me a year or two in January.
Wenshan. People please stop going to that. Do you realize several park’s officials received jail sentences for negligence over the death of those people a few years back? Don’t put other people’s lives and careers at risk just for a hot spring.
Camped in Baiyang a couple of mths ago. Somehow they dug it open. Or perhaps another landslide freed the tunnel entrance 
.
The locals have made a tidy effort to keep Wenshan going. If the park officials wanted to avoid being seen as negligent they could securely lock that gate leading to the bridge, but they don’t. U know how it is. Had a lovely soak in there yday, but for sure bather beware.
[quote=“Nuit”]Camped in Baiyang a couple of mths ago. Somehow they dug it open. Or perhaps another landslide freed the tunnel entrance .
The locals have made a tidy effort to keep Wenshan going. If the park officials wanted to avoid being seen as negligent they could securely lock that gate leading to the bridge, but they don’t. U know how it is. Had a lovely soak in there yday, but for sure bather beware.[/quote]
Yes, I know how it is. Locals will do everything to ignore the rules and when an accident happens they will demand compensation. 
It’ll be no surprise if the next Wenshan accident is from infrastructure failure and not rock-fall. The boardwalk is rotting, the steep stone steps are worn-out, that hand-rail is wobbly, Lord knows how safe the suspension bridge is. It should be either repaired (unlikely) or locked so that idiots like me can’t go in there.
Not that I doubted you had gone but yes, according to a friend at the national park the trail is open. Looks a bit more challenging than the old one. How long did it take you? My contact says it’s now 6 hours return and you start behind the Catholic Church.
Interesting, I don’t know anything about a new route. We walked in through the same long tunnel, the entrance was clear of rocks and not cordoned off. Although still an awful lot of debris around.
You just can’t help breaking the law every time you visit that park, can you?
Has anyone tried the new Baiyang trail yet? Read about it here and I was wondering how difficult/long it is
I had a great time in Taroko. I feel like I’ve only scratched the surface of places I want to visit in Taroko but I’ll be in Taiwan for a couple of more years.
Heliu campground (200NT/site/night near Tiansiang) is very nice and has nice clean bathrooms with cold (but not icy) showers. the nights were warm enough that I slept in shorts and a T-shirt and didn’t use the sheet that I had brought (no sleeping bags). On a Sunday/Monday night 6-8 of the 12 tent platforms were occupied. But Lushui campground (free) is less than a kilometer away. And anyone could use the showers at Heliu since there isn’t an attendent.
We did the following during our 3 days
- hiked to the jiumei bridge going towards Lianhua Pond Sunday afternoon
- drove along the Cingshui cliffs on our little scooter
- hiked to the 3D cabin on the Shakadang trail
- hiked the Tunnel of ZERO Turns (it was closed near the beginning of the trail)
- hiked up to the Taroko tower above the ChangChun Shrine
The only thing that I would do different is to take my motorcycle helmet because the helmet selection is terrible when renting a scooter (400NT for a 125cc) and sunglasses barely give adequate eye protection (not to mention the safety difference in case of an accident). It would have been nice to not have a hole in one of my air mattresses but that is a small detail and I might have been able to find the hole if I had enough patience while soaping the mattress.
Pictures and a little write up here
theworldisnotthatbig.wordpress.c … o-gorge-2/
I’ve stopped using air mattresses and now use this single foam mattress that folded up in a rectangular shape, weighs nothing and is as comfortable as air. I’ve never had an air mattress last a long hike.
spunky, the new Baiyang is the trail I mentioned below. My contact at the park says it’s six hours return, which means about 3 for you and your gang.
[quote=“Mucha Man”]I’ve stopped using air mattresses and now use this single foam mattress that folded up in a rectangular shape, weighs nothing and is as comfortable as air. I’ve never had an air mattress last a long hike.
[/quote]
I’ve used a lot of Z Rests (pretty sure this is what you are talking about) and RidgeRests and they are nowhere near as comfortable as the 2" tubular type air mattresses (mine is the Big Agnes Aircore or something like that). However they are my preference for real backpacking (for weight and convenience) though and then I only need a torso length. And my air mattress is 5-6 years old and this is the first hole so that’s pretty good.