The weather forecast is sunny but cool. The ground is moist, cool and rich as Peter discovers who does most of the walk in bare feet.
Greg picks us up at the New Garden City 花園新城 circle at 7:30 AM and we drive south to Wulai 烏來 then east to the Xiaoyi 孝義 checkpoint, where we hike into the Neidong forest road 內洞林道. Foxy, A young yellow dog, adopts us at the beginning of the road and stays with us all through the day. She gets caught in a snare near Lapu peak and cries out for us to find it and release the snare.
The hike is roughly a 12km circuit, half of the walk being on roads. We start at the head of the Neidong forest road 內洞林道 starting just behind the Xiaoyi 孝義 checkpoint and hike up the closed road. Foxy startles a covey of pheasants (at least three birds -- all females?) at the first intersection.
We decide to take the short detour to Da-dao (big knife) mtn 大刀山 just above the town of Wulai 烏來 and arrive at the weather station at the peak at 10:30.
Back down and across the Neidong forest road 內洞林道 we start climbing up toward Mt. Lapu 拉璞山. We catch up with Gene Lee who is clearing the trail with a saw which he uses more like a machete. He is on his way to DaBaoKe Mtn 大保克山 several kilometers south of Lapu, but decides to join us after taking a break together and rescuing the dog from the trap.
We take a short break at Lapu Mtn 拉璞山 around now and get to A-Yu Stream Mtn 阿玉溪山 around 1:30. The path back down toward Xiaoyi 孝義 is increasingly less clear as we wade through a thick head-high forest of fern understory under planted cypress. At A-Yu-Xi Mtn 阿玉溪山 there is a pile of trail flags that have all been pulled down. We're down and out of the woods at the Xikeng Forest Road 西坑林道 turn off from Tonghou Rd 桶後林道 near the village of Xiaoyi 孝義 at 2:45. leaving us with a 3km walk back to our car at the Xiaoyi 孝義 checkpoint.