We travel to Hualian 花蓮 by train on the eve of of the four day weekend holiday for Tomb Sweeping 清明節 to get ahead of crowds leaving Taipei for the vacation weekend. Our team assembles in Hualian 花蓮 where we rent a car to leave early the next morning. On Thursday morning we leave Hualian promptly after breakfast. The weather is changing and as we drive through a short rainstorm leaving the city, but the weather improves as we drive south. We hope that the weather will reduce the number of people on the river.
The Guanshan trail 關山越嶺古道 once connected to Kaohsiung 高雄市六龜區, 171 kilometers away, and is predecessor of the South Cross Island highway 臺20線南橫公路. Today only the short three and half kilometers along the Jhongjhihguan Historic Trail 中之關步道 section of the original Guanshan Historic Trail 關山越嶺道 is maintained. The trail was built by the Japanese and finished in 1931 for the purpose of controlling the Bunun indigenous people. The trail was almost abandoned after the Japanese left Taiwan in 1945. In 1997, the Yushan National Park Administration repaired a small part of the trail, Jhongjhihguan 中之關步道 to Tianchih 天池, starting at 131 k on the South Cross Island Highway at an altitude of 1930 meters and climbing to Tianchih 天池 at about 2280 meters.
We hike 5 km from the trail head at 1200m, to the old Guanshan trail 關山越嶺古道 along the ridge at 1450 m, then down to Dalun stream 大崙溪 at 600 m elevation. We are at the trail head at roughly 1 PM and the last of our group descends to Dalun stream 大崙溪 shortly after 7 PM. We camp for two nights at the confluence of Lulu stream 轆轆溪 and Dalun stream 大崙溪
We are tired, starting to get cold and not up to the challenge of climbing another formidable waterfall. Paolo climbs partly up the face to take some photos before we start our trace back to camp.
Wolfgang joins us to explore Lulu stream 轆轆溪 canyon southward from our campsite. The narrow carved canyon has several remarakable hot spring outcrops. We are blocked by a powerful waterfall after a few minutes of tracing upstream.
Photos by Angela, Leigh and Paulo
