Taiwan is still a bit of an enigma to me. Its a beautiful, mountainous island, with more than 165 peaks over 3000m with the highest,Yushan, topping out at 3952m. Even Taipei, the most populated centre, is surrounded by high mountains which are easily accessible by public transport. So with this abundance of incredible terrain you would you think there would be an extensive, well maintained (and well documented) network of trails and mountain routes. To some extent there is, but finding and gaining access to them requires detective work. If it wasn't for a few hiking blogs it would be nigh on impossible to find any quality information in English, though Chinese information seems almost as scarce. I'm not really sure why it is quite so difficult and why getting out in the abundance of mountains appears to be quite such an underground activity. When I mention that I want to run go up mountains and I am looking for interesting routes I'm invariably met with a looks of puzzled disbelief. And maps? From my admittedly limited experience, on the rare occasion that there is a map of some sort so be found it is usually some sort of vague representation of the surrounding geography. If an example be needed I suggest checking out the maps available on the Yushan website which are approximate to the point of being a hazard. I must be missing something, a Taiwanese Ordinance Survey perhaps. I probably am.
As a side note, its really about time that someone started organising some proper mountain races here. I suspect that getting the appropriate permits wouldn't be easy but theoretically there is the terrain to put on some properly world class sky races in the true alpine style here.
Anyway, last weekend I made a last minute trip to Taipei for a few days and was fortunate enough to spend a night at a very pleasant hot spring near Wulai. I have been up there before and as it is surrounded by hills I was keen to explore some more of the trails that must, surely, be there somewhere.
So early on Sunday morning I managed to prise myself off of the tatami and head out for a bit of a sniff about. I was originally planning to do the whole of the "bridal trail' which I found last time (an ancient trail which once used to be used by brides from indigenous groups travelling over the hills to the next townships for weddings). However, I ended up heading up to check out the famous Wulai waterfalls and went exploring from there. I eventually found a trail heading up into the hills form there. It evidently was not in regular use but was perfectly passable and steep enough in places to make it only borderline runnable.After a while it spat me out onto a single track road which lead to a large temple. After a bit of rummaging around here I found a steep technical trail climbing up behind the temple. This this was evidently a much more frequently used trail as it had roped areas on the steepest/trickiest parts and numerous markers left along the way by various hiking groups. Always a positive, if slightly messy, sign. I followed along this trail for a while climbing to the top of the first hill before turning back and slip sliding my way back down to the temple. From there I descended on the road all the way back to to Wulai, getting strange looks from the Rapha clad roadies who were starting to climb up the hill on their Sunday run.
I am still not exactly sure where the trial goes, and I can't find any info on it, but I am guessing there the potential for a nice long circuit, potentially linking up with the bridal trail. Definitely one to explore on my next trip.
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