We parked at a parking lot in the tiny community of Caonan, across the creek from this cool-looking private estate. For some reason, I believe the house number is 301.
We trekked up a trail that begins at the far end of the parking lot. It ends at a small Earth God shrine where hikers often stop for a break.
Here we are, the intrepid hikers ready to complete the trek to the peak of the mountain.
On the way, we trek our way along a trail through jungles of lauraceae and ficus.
Finally, after a sweaty slog in the humid summer weather, we reach the platform up at the peak. The peak offers a commanding view of Taipei, but this time Taipei is shrouded in mist, and we can't see the city at all.
Then we trek back down. We passed the area where the old man usually sells mung bean soup to hungry hikers, but we saw that the little hut has been torn down, and a young guy has taken over his business. He told us the old guy recently retired. The end of an era.
We continue our trek down, through ficus and tree ferns. We pass a grave:
Down, down, down we go.
And after another 20 minutes or so we arrive back in Caonan. One of the landmarks of Caonan is this banyan tree (Ficus microcarpa):
While there we saw some Formosan Blue Magpies (Urocissa caerulea), but I didn't get any good pictures: they were too far away and moved around a lot. Kate got some very good photos: here's one she took.
Then we finished off our day by enjoying dinner at our favorite Yunnan restaurant in Muzha.
