We report our hike at the Wu-Yu police check point 烏玉檢查哨, turn off of the Tonghou forest Road 桶后林道 in Xiaoyi 孝義, and follow the XiKeng Forest Road 西坑林道 along the A-Yu stream 阿玉溪 southward with Jonathan who is completing his program at ZhengDa 政治大學.

The path is clearly along a road bed and there are even a few road sides along the way. The road was designated highway 9A (9甲) once connecting Shuangshikou 雙溪口 near the entrance of the Fushan Botanical Garden Preserve 福山植物園 and continuing generally north almost twenty kilometers to XiaoYi 孝義 just east of Wulai 烏來 in southern Taipei county where is would be the extension of the 9A (9甲) from QingTan 青潭 to Wulai 烏來, popularly called Xinwu road 新烏路. The middle section of highway 9A, which is no longer open, crosses the HsuehShan Range 雪山山脈 and the Fushan Botanical Garden Preserve 福山植物園保護區. The road was opened at the close of the Japanese era for military support and was later named the XiKeng Forest Road 西坑林道. It was once used by trucks, but after years of disuse and natural catastrophes, many sections of the road bed have washed away. Motorcycles can drive in about two kilometers to a large slide which wiped out a stream drainage in the 2008 typhoon season.

The ground and forest is unusually dry after weeks without significant rain. We don't notice so many birds but the air is rich with butterflies and dragonflies. The elder are fruiting red berries.