Trekking in Tiger Leaping Gorge
Trip Start
Aug 25, 2003
1
37
55
Trip End
Jul 18, 2004
Lijiang,
China
Friday, March 19, 2004
Day one took six hours including a tough set of switchbacks climbing up the side of one mountain. The mountainous landscape was fairly barren of trees but there were some great views of the river far below. By the time we got tour our intended destination we were starving and probably over-ordered from the menu
Ladder Down
. About two minutes after our food arrived, as if to taunt us, the guesthouse owner came out the the dining area, which was a beautiful overlook of the gorge, and yelled for everyone to come inside immediately. That's right, leave our food and come inside. The reason? The "next door neighbor" was blowing up some rocks in his field with dynamite. That plus a "bathroom with a view," meaning now wall facing the gorge, were our fun for the evening.The following day the path split and our options were simple, high path or low path. We had all decided on high because the low path eventually lead down to an actual road and we weren't interested in taking that. We were lucky enough to decipher when the path split, but that was the last marker we saw. We all got to practice our tracking skills trying to decipher where the path went. For those who don't know, donkey-poo on the path is good but goat-poo on the path is not. We slowly picked our way along through waterfalls and up more switchbacks through bamboo groves until finally there was no sure way to go. Sadly we headed down to the road only to discover that the guesthouse we were heading for was literally around the next bend. More dynamite, this time for road construction, that night.
Lucy and Michael headed off the next day for the Winter Ferry which takes trekkers across the Yangtse so people can trek out of the gorge. Sarah and I decided to stay and trek around a little more. We headed up the mountain side following a path that was supposed to take us to one of the peaks in the area. Again trails were not marked and after a few hours our hiking was morphing into rock climbing. We got what we thought were some tips on where to go from the local farmers out collecting wood, but once we got beyond them we were definitely off the trail
Slippery
. When we got back down to the guesthouse it was hard to believe how far up we had hiked. The final day in the gorge we decided to hike down to the river and see where the tiger leaped. We left early in the morning skipping breakfast and took what we were told was the "ladder" way down. We found some extremely steep trails that eventually led to ladders made out of re-bar welded together. If there were railings along the steep paths, chances are they were just high enough to trip someone on their way down the mountain. The ladders sections were pretty incredible, the longest one probably reaching three stories tall. Once at the bottom people are free to clamber over boulders to get close to the raging river (after paying the ladder people their 10 Yuan toll). We took a different way out of the gorge where some other industrious Chinese person dynamited out a trail on the side of a cliff face (5 yuan toll).
As the day was getting late we decided to also skip lunch so we could make it to the ferry and get to the next town to catch a bus back to Lijiang. From the map we had it looked like a three mile hike to the ferry and then a few more to town. We even had the option of catching a taxi after we crossed the river. Of course when we reached the point where the ferry was supposed to be on the map, there was a cell number left to call the ferry operator PLUS another hour-long steep hike down the gorge. Since there was no phone for miles we decided to hike down and hope for the best, all the while looking for shoe tracks from Lucy and Michael heading back up the gorge. As we got close to the bottom we spotted a boat (on the other side of the river) but no operators. We shouted and whistled, and started to consider swimming when some people finally appeared on the other side
Some Falls In Tiger Leaping Gorge
. A short hop across the river and we still had another long hike up out of the gorge and possilbly a hike into town. We had virtually no water and hadn't eaten all day, and when we finally reached the top we found the boat operators at a stand that sold food, water, and beer. They also happened to run the taxi service into town. After gulping down 1.5 litres of water, we took the taxi. The boat/taxi guys boarded up shop and headed into town with us. I guess they weren't expecting anyone else that day.After all that we had missed our bus and spent one last night in the gorge area (which wasn't at all bad). We stayed at a Naxi (one of the minorities in China) guesthouse and got to try Naxi food while we watched people make a coffin for the grandmother of the guesthouse owner. She wasn't dead or even sick. In fact, we saw her come in with vegetables from the garden. Apparently it was a auspicious year for coffin building so hers get built and then stored until she dies.
