We spend the night in a hot spring resort in Chunyang village 春陽部落. The following morning we drive less than an hour up through Lushan village 廬山部落 where we drop of our permits, then up to the trail head at Tunyuan 屯原.
The 82 km Nenggao Trail, one of three cross-island roads built by the Japanese, expanding original aborigine foot trails, connects Wushe 霧社 in Renai Township 仁愛 of Nantou County 南投縣 on the west of Taiwan to Antong hot springs 安通溫泉 in Xiulin Township 秀林鄉 of Hualien County 花蓮縣 on the east. The trail was originally blazed to allow Sediq 賽德克 peoples to expand from Wushe 霧社 in Renai in the west to Taroko 太魯閣 in Xiulin in the west, then continued to serve as a trading path for Sediq 賽德克 and Truku 太魯閣.
Our camera battery fails late in the afternoon of our first day. The morning of the second day, it is raining. A team comes down from Qilai NanFeng 奇萊主山南峰 (3358m) a few hundred meters above us to report that it is snowing and the ground was iced on the ridge. In the afternoon we hike up to TianChi lake and Nanhua peak 南華山 (3184m - in Hualian county) in light rain and strong wind. Our clothes are soaked from walking through the arrow bamboo 箭竹 (Pleioblastus niitakayamensis) brush. Back at our Tianchi cabin, the air temperature is near freezing as the first wave of winter hits the mountains. We walk down casually the morning of the third day in light rain.
