Best Hikes of 2013

Here’s a round up of some hikes that I enjoyed this year. None of these are particularly well-known, a bit rough in places, but with good views.

  1. Bilu Shan and Yang Tou Shan. Both of these 3000 plus peaks are in the Taroko Gorge National Park. It takes about 3 days starting from Dayuling at the head of the gorge. It’s a difficult saw-tooth ridge between the two peaks, the path often dipping down off the ridge and climbing back up with only a couple of feasible campsites for a tent or two. One thing to notice on dry ridges like this is for old plastic bottles stuffed into the undergrowth. Straw has been inserted into the top so that rainwater will drain into it. Most people usually climb just one peak up and back as a day trip. The path up to Bilu Shan is tremendously steep, but worth it for the unobstructed views. Just down from the Yang Tou Shan trail head, the CihYun Hostel is closed but people camp there and the water facilities and restroom are still functioning.

  2. The Wu-Ba River Route that goes south along the Suqi River from Wujie village in Nantou County down to Bakalas village off the 16 Hwy road that goes to Shuili via DiLi. I combined this with a 3 day hike to GanZorWanShan further north near Wushe before walking and hitching down to Wujie. This two day river walk is only possible in the winter when the water level is low. Local hunters use this route to reach their hunting grounds further downstream, so I wasn’t surprised when vehicles came by at night when I camped up from the sand bank. It’s a nice change from being in dense forest to be in a fairly wide river bed, and there’s no road only the faint tyre tracks of off road jeeps and mountain bikes.

  3. ShweYuHu is a lake at 670 meters altitude on the border of YiLan and Taipei County. Where the Bei-I Hwy reaches the crest before dropping down to JiaoXi, there are some food stalls and a rest area. The path goes from there along a ridge southwards to reach this untouched reed covered lake. Saw wild pig here. There are several rougher paths going further up into the mountains or along ridge lines down in the direction of PingLin.

  4. ChweZrShan (680 meters). This peak sticks out from the border range just south of ShweyuHu. It can be reached by a side road from the Bei-I Hwy about 1 km beyond the Bei-Hwy crest in the direction of JiaoXi. Another way is to do it is as a side trip from the Running Horse Trail which is behind JiaoXi town. Last time I did this, my flashlight battery ran out and I had to wait for the full moon to rise so I could walk back down to JiaoXi. Nice views from this grassy peak.

  5. AYuShan (1420 meters). This is another mountain whose lower reaches are actively used by hunters. The approach is the small forestry road going along the side river from XiaoYi village east of WuLai. This route heads south for about 5 kms before reaching an old concrete road bridge. Shortly after the path climbs steeply up to the summit where there is an old weather station and a great view of the range and the coast below. Although, the bridge makes a good place to camp, I chose to hike up to a small saddle an hour further up away from the noisy river. At night, gun shots rang out, and not long after torchlight shining up at the tree tops heralded the arrival of two hunters. I could hear their shots for another hour or two as they went downhill back to the road. Coming down from AYuShan peak to the YiLan side the path came down to the old Japanese road. 15 years ago, when I last did this route the hiking path cut across the road remnant and went right down to the river and from there it was necessary to wade downstream to the road. Now, the forestry people have regraded the road and the old path has disappeared. So this time I took the winding dirt road and came out on the sealed road just down from the FuShan Botanical Preserve entrance. A great hike which like the others doesn’t suffer from over-crowding!

GanZorWanShan? ChweZrShan? say what? what language you spekin’ there bro?

GanZorWanShan = 干卓萬山 = Kantaban

For those who saw Seediq Bale, the Bunun tribe is also named Kantaban. Kantaban mountain is their traditional area, so named after their ancestor Takataban. The Japanese bought off the Bunun Kantaban tribe to lure the Seediq to a peaceful trade on their boarder (also located in Kantaban mountain), then killed many Seediq in the night after getting them drunk, as revenge to past Seediq transgressions.

ChweZrShan = 鵲子山

Note to OP:

If you don’t know how to spell place names in proper pinyin (any system will do, just be consistent), it’s best to just leave write it in Chinese. Otherwise, nobody will have any idea what you’re talking about.

But thanks for the suggestions!

Thank you both. Will do next time!

“ShweYuHu” what is it in Chinese characters? I may go before it gets too cold and wet.

He might mean Shuiyahu (水鴨湖). This place is on the border of Yilan’s Jiaoxi and New Taipei City at an altitude of around 600 meters.

Here is a blog in Chinese where the lake is mentioned. Looks tiny and not very attractive.

http://ivynimay.blogspot.tw/2010/04/990411.html

On my Chinese map of the area I can only find Houhuzihu (後湖子湖), which I suspect is just another name for the lake. It’s near the mountain Houhuzishan (後湖子山), 699m.

He might mean Shuiyahu (水鴨湖). This place is on the border of Yilan’s Jiaoxi and New Taipei City at an altitude of around 600 meters.

Here is a blog in Chinese where the lake is mentioned. Looks tiny and not very attractive.

http://ivynimay.blogspot.tw/2010/04/990411.html

On my Chinese map of the area I can only find Houhuzihu (後湖子湖), which I suspect is just another name for the lake. It’s near the mountain Houhuzishan (後湖子山), 699m.[/quote]

Thanks, great information!