Interested parties can refer to Map 7 of the Sunriver series of hiking maps.
My focus was to summit Bai Gu Da Shan the highest point on the mountain chain which looks down on the old Central Cross Highway on its southern side. To get there I had to walk and hitch to Hua Gang, a tiny farming settlement over a ridge south of LiShan. The 12.40 pm bus from Ilan didn’t leave me much time to get very far, so I pitched my tent near the road next to a tea field. Woke up to the swooshing sound of water being sprayed on my tent on a cold and crispy dawn. I hadn’t noticed the damn sprinklers. Luckily, I hadn’t pegged it into the ground and could drag the whole thing out the way.
The road to Hua Gang isn’t really maintained and was muddy and pot-holed. As I crested the ridge and walked into the top end of the valley, I could see farms, terraced fields and clusters of houses spread out on the hillsides and below in the lower valley.Cabbage and spring onions are the main crop. I was looking forward to descending down to the river and climbing up the winding steep farm road where the trail head to the mountain was, but the mountain was on fire. Some aboriginals I met said it had been burning for three days. Helicopters were ferrying water to an area where plumes of smoke were rising up a steep valley side not far from the side ridge route I planned to take.
Plan B came into action and I decided to continue on my side of the valley where the pot-holed, swervy and steep road carried on to join the 14 Road a few miles above Wushe. First, a grizzled old farmer with boxes of cabbages took me down quite a ways, then after another stretch of walking on this little used road, a policeman in a 4-wheel drive came by and told me to hop in. After stopping by at his place for lunch, he took me down to Wushe where I caught the bus to Tsue Fong about 17kms uphill on the 14 in the direction of HeHuanShan. Thank you, sir!
The plan was to climb HeHuanShan North Peak which I did the following day after getting a ride to the HeHuan Lodge from a farming couple going onto LiShan.The dorm in the old skiing hostel cost 700 N.T. which wasn’t too bad with free dinner and breakfast. The weather continued to be perfect as I bagged the peak and came down the other side into a steep stream valley which led to a water pipe road with a few tea fields and then down to Hua Gang. I’d done a complete circle and after staying in an old reforestation workers shed for the night, I hitched back to LiShan and caught the 8.30 am bus back to Ilan.
A couple of weeks later, I decided to approach the area from a different direction. I’d noticed there was a Forestry Road about 8 kms before Guguan coming up and circling around to a possible path heading to the mountain from the southwest. By the time I reached FengYuan, it was lunch time and the next bus on that part of the Central Cross-Island Hwy would be two hours later making for a very late start. At LiLeng I got off the bus and hit the road which was concrete and then later dirt. I camped about 10 kms in. The next day at about the 26km point, I realised I could hike a subsiduary peak, BaSianShan, at 2366 meters. The map has a mistake here. It doesn’t show the path continuing down the other side of this peak to the BaSianShan Forestry Park near Guguan. I was pleasantly surprised to find a picnic shelter at the peak, and also a further one halfway down where I spent the night. A pleasant walk down to the forestry ‘play area’ and out was quite a change in vegetation and temperature from the higher areas.
The following weekend I planned to go back to the upper part of the valley at Hua Gang where I had noticed a back road leading down to the Central Cross-Island Hwy about 10 kms west of LiShan and the furthest reaches of the farming region and navigable road or so I thought. I missed a turn on the road and came down to a river and followed a pipe path to some fruit farms. I followed one of those fruit box rails down a steep hillside and came out a few kms west of LiShan. It wasn’t too late so I decided to get at least as far as the dam and, well, if there was a checkpoint and no further could be gained, so be it. There weren’t many vehicles on the road and it was a beautiful sunny day. I plodded on to the last village. I bought some soft drinks to cool off and asked the elderly couple some questions about the road. I remember the policeguy in Wushe telling me the road down to Guguan was walkable and bikeable but unsuitable for vehicles. As if they had pressed a button, a police car pulled up and they said this guy wants to go down the road. I was expecting the big turnaround at this point, but they said get in we’re going down to the dam. On the way, there was a cop shop a few kms before the dam, and they said sign in please. At this point they hadn’t really said how good the road was and let me burble on about having enough food for two days walk and a tent and lots of water etc.
At the dam some workers were finishing up for the day, and the friendly police guys asked them to give me a ride, and after a little wait, one of the guys said we’ll go first while it’s still light and the others will follow. Down we went and at first the road was in good shape bar a few pot-holes. The valley at this point is gorge-like and with rough eroded scratches in a horizontal pattern. There were no signs of any habitation and the walls closed in and receded intermittently. The road became very rough as it came down to the river bed. We were just bumping along on a graded part of the river bed debris. There was a camp with a generator blaring after about 10kms. There was another place where some work was being done on a water diversion tunnel. at the second dam the road became better. Then, I realised we were going all the way! There was a checkpoint a few kms further out. So, it looks like the road is open to dam workers at least. From Guguan I bussed back to FengYuan and took the train back to Taipei.
Then, it was time to focus on the goal, the peak Bai Gu Da Shan, boss mountain looking down on the whole area. This time I took the minibus that leaves Hualien at 8.40 am to LiShan. The weather was sunny but cool as we wound up higher and higher. Back towards the coast there was already a front of clouds but below us. The driver took four toilet breaks which was neat because they were all at good view points. At Lishan it was time to hit the back road to Hua Gang and hitch as far as I could down to Hong Shang, a small village on the valley floor, a drop of some 600 meters in altitude. A nice couple gave me a ride about 8kms in and then after a little while of walking along the high point of the road, a lady from Hsinchu who was on her way to some festivities in Dona, stopped and gave me a lift all the way to Hong Shang. The road was quite rough but as well as being young, attractive and friendly, she proved to be an expert driver. We arrived in Hong Shang where she planned to visit the hot spring. I thanked her and set off up a side road going up to some farming areas on the northern side of the valley. As I labored up the switchbacks, her tinkley laughter floated up into my mind.
The next day after camping next to some tea fields without sprinklers, it was time to head for the peak. Before entering the forest, I saw monkeys rustling about near a field, and in a clearing, a Mikado Pheasant. The path was deceptively mild at first and then at the first pond it began to go up steeply. The route was mostly enclosed , but as I began to ascend, views across to the other more cultivated side of the valley began to appear. Except, now I was well above. I decided to camp at the high camp about 300 meters below the summit. The pond was tiny, but I had enough water to last two days in case. The next day my tent was covered in frost, it had been so cold. I emptied the tent and tossed it onto a juniper bush to dry off in the sun while I went up through hemlock and juniper stands with patches of dwarf pine. The sun had caught the peak early and evaporated all the dew as I climbed up through an old rockfall, keeping an eye on the tags and tree roots to grab at steep points. This had turned out to be a lot rougher than the ‘walking stick’ hike it had seemed like at the beginning. At the summit, all was revealed. Another gorgeous morning, slightly hazy further off, otherwise I’d be able to see Taichung, not that that is a reason to go to so much trouble. My eye was drawn to the other side of the valley, HeHuanShan series of mountains, the gorge-like middle section of the Central Cross-Island Hwy, and further off the peak of Snow Mtn. and its satellites.
It was a mellow walk down, packing up leisurely and lower down breaking out the walking stick down on the milder inclines. At the lower lake, I had porridge and plum cakes and picked up some of the litter. I heard the bark screech of deer as i began to get below 2000 meters. Down at the trail head, I began to think about the hot spring. My travel connections had been good in this part of the country, and that continued when on the way down the farmers road, an aboriginal guy (they are Atayal in this place), who’d finished working his fields for the day, gave me a ride in his van. In the back were two long barrelled rifles.
I had a nice soak in the hot spring that evening and then set up my tent in a gazebo viewpoint thingy just across the river. The following day after walking for an hour on the road downstream, I got a ride to the upper road and onward to Wushe, then bus out. This part of Taiwan is certainly good hiking country…and at least this season has been blessed with good weather.