Taipei Hiking Club Events Chat V

Mod Note:

Yep that’s right, I am back. The index is now updated :slight_smile: , so let me know if anything is amiss. The hiking chat IV thread is getting huge, so here is mambo number 5…

Continuation from:

Taipei Hiking Club Events IV thread.
Taipei Hiking Club Events III thread.
[url=http://tw.forumosa.com/t/taipei-hiking-club-events-ii/21552/1 Hiking Club Events II thread.[/url]
Taipei Hiking Club Events I thread.

[url=http://tw.forumosa.com/t/taipei-hiking-club-events-index/22580/1

This thread is for general chat about hiking club events/brainstorming and general hiking posts. When posts result in an actual hiking being organized, these posts will be split off into their own thread and [url=http://tw.forumosa.com/t/taipei-hiking-club-events-index/22580/1 Or, a new thread can be started directly with a hiking proposal.
When a hike is coming up, PM the mod about it to get it indexed asap.

Rgds,
Truant

Welcome back, and much obliged for updating the list. :notworthy:

Hi Mucha_Man:

I’m already back from Korea and in Taiwan now. But I’ve to go to XinChu for my grandmother’s 90 birthday this Sunday. If you’ll go to Nan-Ao next weekend I may join you. Well, it’s autumn now and Ilan get most of its rainfall now. So pray for a fair sunny day!

Even though Four Season is the starting point for Nan-Hu-Da-Shan. I can’t find any travelogue about this hotspring except this one(twem.idv.tw/2/a114.htm).The Four Season hotspring seems not to be among the most popular wild hotsprings in Taiwan. It’s too far from Taipei and the spring isn’t really that hot(only 32 degree). There’re a lot of wild hotsprings along northern cross road which are bigger, hotter and may be more interesting.
The best source for Taiwan’s wild hotspring may be this (a little outdated) book:

sunriver.com.tw/map_06.htm

You can easily get this book from outdoor gear store like Metroasis.

By the way, when will you be a full-time lonely planet auther? I hike sometimes during weekdays so we may be talking along the trail some time.

[quote=“trail_hacker”]Hi Mucha_Man:

I’m already back from Korea and in Taiwan now. But I’ve to go to XinChu for my grandmother’s 90 birthday this Sunday. If you’ll go to Nan-Ao next weekend I may join you. Well, it’s autumn now and Yilan get most of its rainfall now. So pray for a fair sunny day!

Even though Four Season is the starting point for Nan-Hu-Da-Shan. I can’t find any travelogue about this hotspring except this one(twem.idv.tw/2/a114.htm).The Four Season hotspring seems not to be among the most popular wild hotsprings in Taiwan. It’s too far from Taipei and the spring isn’t really that hot(only 32 degree). There’re a lot of wild hotsprings along northern cross road which are bigger, hotter and may be more interesting.
The best source for Taiwan’s wild hotspring may be this (a little outdated) book:

sunriver.com.tw/map_06.htm

You can easily get this book from outdoor gear store like Metroasis.

By the way, when will you be a full-time lonely planet auther? I hike sometimes during weekdays so we may be talking along the trail some time.[/quote]

Thanks for the book reference. You are an immense wealth of information.

That website is the one Omni translated. Yeah, the spring is not so hot, but the journey up sounds nice. And with the Ilan tunnel it’s not that far. Maybe 2 hours to drive. It takes almost that long to get to Wulai from my house if I have to take a bus.

Anyway, it looks like it is going to be rainy this weekend in Ilan so I may have to cancel.

I start research next week. I’ll be doing the north for the first month so yes, let’s get together during the week for some hikes.

I’d like to do the Wulai to Ilan hike for sure.

Next weekend I do plan to go to Nanao. I want to get a pic of me and some others going off the waterfall. Probably spend the weekend there camping. Hope you can join us.

Oh, and please wish your grannie a very happy birthday from me.

Hi Mucha_Man,
Weatherwise Four Season may be OK. Most of moonson rain will fall at eatern part of Ilan and be stopped by 3000M Nan-Hu-Da-Shan. So Four Season could just be cloudy without rain. Anyway 2 hour drive is quite an optimistic estimation. It’s too hurry to do it as a daytrip.

 Let's choose a fair day to do the Wulai to Yilan hike, weekday or weekend.

 If you're going to cancel your Four Season trip. Our group are going to do a very easy afternoon hike this Saturday at XiZhi.  The one who lead the hike is a river-tracing veteran.  You can ask him for the best pool to use as the background of your naked picture on the Lonely Planet cover.

The Saturday hike:
groups.msn.com/s9ukhmgj3l1qegg0l … sage=13385 :smiley:

[quote=“trail_hacker”]Hi Mucha_Man,
Weatherwise Four Season may be OK. Most of moonson rain will fall at eatern part of Yilan and be stopped by 3000M Nan-Hu-Da-Shan. So Four Season could just be cloudy without rain. Anyway 2 hour drive is quite an optimistic estimation. It’s too hurry to do it as a daytrip.

 Let's choose a fair day to do the Wulai to Yilan hike, weekday or weekend.

 If you're going to cancel your Four Season trip. Our group are going to do a very easy afternoon hike this Saturday at Xizhi.  The one who lead the hike is a river-tracing veteran.  You can ask him for the best pool to use as the background of your naked picture on the Lonely Planet cover.

The Saturday hike:
groups.msn.com/s9ukhmgj3l1qegg0l … sage=13385 :smiley:[/quote]

Well, I’m always optimistic with my driving estimates. :slight_smile: But yeah, you may be right. In any case I will monitor the weather and think about your hike. How are you getting there?

I’m posting the video again. Dammit, I want some feedback.

yi-lan.karube.net/English/ENAVSEQ32.htm

Very nice indeed – and would be especially so from this time of year through the spring, when presumably not many river-tracing groups or even hardy locals would be so keen on swimming there.

Perhaps you could get the Tourism Bureau to shell out for a couple of gorgeous local models to pose for a few shots, showing lots of flesh. Tell them that would be sure to bring hordes of foreign tourists flocking in. :wink: Maybe they’d even set you up with A-Mei and her lovely sister, Saya, for the shoot.

[quote=“Muzha Man”]I’m posting the video again. Dammit, I want some feedback.
[/quote]
It looks fun as hell - I definitely want to try my hand at rivertracing. I’ve been reading a site that has pics of some pretty technical ascents - when do I get to do that??? God I’m impatient.

I’d second the motion to petition for a couple la mei models … no better way to spend a weekend, imo.

[quote=“wanger114”][quote=“Muzha Man”]I’m posting the video again. Dammit, I want some feedback.
[/quote]
It looks fun as hell - I definitely want to try my hand at rivertracing. I’ve been reading a site that has pics of some pretty technical ascents - when do I get to do that??? God I’m impatient.

I’d second the motion to petition for a couple la mei models … no better way to spend a weekend, imo.[/quote]

We don’t do anything remotely technical. You’re going to have to go out with some more harcore groups for that. Most of our river tracing is just a combination of walking upstream through varying levels of water with a bit of light bouldering at times depending on the river. Some times the rocks are all low and ther’s nothing difficult at all. Just a bit of scrambling. I have no idea what the weekend’s trail will be like.

We river trace mostly to get to interesting spots to swim (like that waterfall slide), because it’s cooler in summer than being on a trail, and it’s immensely satisfying to be out on clean, clear streams, not for the challenge of climbing and scaling. If you’re looking for a real climbing challenge you’ll be disappointed.

When looking at pics and videos of Taiwanese groups you also have to realize that a lot of what they do is absurdly superfluous. We often pass by river tracing groups on the rivers in Wulai. They are decked out in lifejacket, helmet, ropes, etc while we are in swimsuits and shoes. They spend 10 minutes trying to go up a chasm while we just walk the sides or jump down from the top. They use ropes and slings to cross a pool we have been playing in all afternoon. There are certainly tall waterfalls that need technical skills to climb but I am not about to tackle them (yet). I’d rather just go up a path on the side.

I’d also never lead a hike (especially with a stranger) to anywhere I thought was beyond the skill and comfort level of my team. I’m not a professional and I offer no insurance or assurances.

Gotta start somewhere, right? Of course if I get the opportunity to do some “hardcore” rivertracing, I’d love to go.

Actually I’ve been hurting just to get outdoors. Many of the friends I’ve made here are very urban people - my recent suggestion to go camping was met with alarming rebuff. While I definitely enjoy city life, I’m much more of an outdoor person. How I ended up in NYC and then here is beyond me.

[quote=“Muzha Man”]

How are you getting there?[/quote]

We’ll meet at blue line subway, Kung-Yang station. pm1:00.
Then take bus to XiZhi.

Maybe I’ll see you there. The weather is not looking any better for the weekend in Ilan.

[quote=“Muzha Man”]I’m posting the video again. Dammit, I want some feedback.

yi-lan.karube.net/English/ENAVSEQ32.htm[/quote]

On FF nothing shows up, on IE the music drove me nuts and the quality of the video is subpar at best. I couldn’t watch the whole thing.

[quote=“snafu”][quote=“Muzha Man”]I’m posting the video again. Dammit, I want some feedback.

yi-lan.karube.net/English/ENAVSEQ32.htm[/quote]

On FF nothing shows up, on IE the music drove me nuts and the quality of the video is subpar at best. I couldn’t watch the whole thing.[/quote]

Yes, yes, sub-par, but turn down the volume, leave the room, and come back around 3:30.

i have a video camera it would be so cool to go camping/hiking and make some kind of spooky film to post on youtube!

The posted video looks like quite a water adventure, I wish we could have done that one in July!

Wulai (Jiajiuliao) swimming hole now visible on Google Earth!!

It’s at the bottom of the bend on the left side of the photo. The white streak is the jet of water in the pool!

Conditions are still pretty good for it, RB. When I swam in the Jiajiuliao Stream earlier this week, the water was a most refreshingly pleasant temperature.

[quote=“Chris”]Wulai (Jiajiuliao) swimming hole now visible on Google Earth!!

It’s at the bottom of the bend on the left side of the photo. The white streak is the jet of water in the pool![/quote]

What a superb image of the stream that is!

Can you get a similar one for the 內洞溪 at 娃娃谷?

[quote=“Omniloquacious”][quote=“Chris”]Wulai (Jiajiuliao) swimming hole now visible on Google Earth!!

It’s at the bottom of the bend on the left side of the photo. The white streak is the jet of water in the pool![/quote]

What a superb image of the stream that is!

Can you get a similar one for the 內洞溪 at 娃娃谷?[/quote]

Everything between Wulai and Hualien is in low resolution.

Won’t be going to the four seasons this weekend as it will likely rain in Ilan but Chris and I and our SOs are planning to go camping in Nanao next weekend. For sure we will check out the waterfall slide. I don’t care how cold it is, I want a pic and video of me sliding off. Besides, there are numerous natural hot springs around Nanao. Anyone who cares to come along is welcome.

Chris, wonderful pic of our swimming hole.