The Mountain on the Last Day of 2021 - Mount Garry

I once said to my friend Slow Living Morigu , "The mountains in central Taiwan are magnificent and there are many giant trees, like immortals who have been practicing for many years. Hong Kong has many mountains near the sea, many shrubs, and salty moisture, like Jian Lang who has just come ashore from the sea. juvenile". Many mountains in Hong Kong can see the sea when they climb high, and even the sea at the foot of some mountains. The combination of mountain views and sea views is a unique and moving scene in Hong Kong in my heart. The trails in Hong Kong are distributed in various country parks, all of which are owned by the government. In order to facilitate citizens' outings, the government has mostly built impersonal concrete steps or paths on popular routes, which more or less destroyed the beauty of the mountains. Some of the mountains suitable for experienced mountaineers retain the original mountain roads, but due to the low altitude and the slow mountain body, compared with the high mountains in Taiwan, the steepness of the mountain trails in Hong Kong can only be regarded as entry-level climbing.

I have been in Taiwan for more than a year. Affected by the epidemic, I have actually climbed not many mountains. This year, I have only climbed 11 mountains, 4 of which are Xiaobaiyue. As a rookie in mountaineering like me, I can't argue with the masters who go to Baiyue at every turn, but these 11 mountains have also given me a lot of insight and happiness. In addition to being full of immortality, the mountains in Taiwan give me the greatest feeling that all the mountain trails are well integrated into nature, retaining a primitive wild beauty. For many cliffs or difficult sections of talc, it is better to pull ropes or a few simple iron rings than to reinforce with cement or deliberately build safe stairs. In line with the mentality that when walking on the mountain, you should be responsible for yourself and do what you can, and would rather be in danger than change the original face of the mountain. Taiwanese people's extreme love for mountains is also reflected in not littering. For me, who walks in the mountains of Hong Kong and often picks up garbage while walking, the mountain trails in Taiwan are really clean.

Among the mountains that I climbed in December, the most impressive ones are Yuanzui Mountain and Jiali Mountain, both of which belong to the intermediate difficulty level in Taiwan. Yuanzui Mountain is a mountain that will fall straight to the cliff and die if you take half a step wrong. This kind of mountain that can easily fall to your death is only considered to be of intermediate difficulty. With Yuanzui Mountain Pearl and Jade in front, the last mountain in 2021, Mount Jiali, will appear less steep, probably at the level that I can't fall to death in my heart.

On my birthday during Christmas, I used to climb mountains every year in Hong Kong. Because there is no Christmas holiday in Taiwan, I could not achieve this climbing habit for two consecutive years. A Taiwanese friend happened to invite our family to climb Mount Xiaobaiyue Jiali, and we took advantage of the opportunity to put our birthday and the climbing to welcome the new year on the last day of 2021. In order to prevent the holiday from being crowded with people and cars, we got up before four in the morning and went to the Luchang Mountain Trail on Mount Garry to usher in the dawn of the morning. I also joked that I had to get up in the dark in order to climb a mountain, and I don't even remember when I was so passionate.

The road in front of Mount Garry is easy to walk, and there are no long and difficult steep climbs at all. Walking through the tall and straight cedar forest and walking on the intertwined roots is quite comfortable and relaxing. I can't help but praise the zero addition of the Taiwan Trail. The roots on the ground are natural steps for climbing, and there are no artificial additions that are unsightly. The test of the summit of Mount Garry is concentrated in the last 0.4 kilometers. It requires hands and feet to climb over 70 to 90 degrees of stone walls with ropes and a steep muddy road through the arrow bamboo forest between the stone walls. The humidity on the mountain is extremely heavy, and the last bit of the road is extremely slippery. You need to pull the rope or tree roots with all your strength to prevent slipping. Tiredness and panting are inevitable. Unexpectedly, in this last section, our child became the fastest walking one. Relying on his lightness, he climbed to the top of the mountain like a monkey. Our two old bones couldn't even catch up with his monkey tail. . Climb over the last big rock wall and go up to the top of the mountain. Thanks to the clear weather, the outlook on this day is excellent, with a 360-degree view of the mountains and small mountains.

During the rest period, more and more people gathered at the top of the mountain, and we saw people waiting to climb to the top lining up under the stone wall. We temporarily decided not to go down the original road, but to take a P-shaped route down the mountain, that is, Jiali Mountain and Dujuan Ridge, and then take Daping. The branch line returns to the Luchang Mountain Entrance. Although there are few people on this route down the mountain, it is really tiring. It has been walking vertically on the ridgeline, going up and down, and there are countless slippery mud walls in the middle that need to swim down. Just when everyone started to feel a little discouraged, they accidentally saw the sea of clouds on the viewing platform of Dujuanling Trail. I stood on the big rock on the viewing platform, looking at the rolling sea of clouds, I had the urge to jump in and take a dip. Luckily, seeing the sea of clouds lifted our mood to some extent, everyone cheered each other up, finally reached the Daping branch line, and pushed hard to the end along the abandoned logging trolley tracks. Here, we were in the foggy forest in an instant, and the child who was so tired that he fell down became more energetic. It was his first time to walk in the foggy forest.

After climbing more than 900 meters, after 7 hours and 50 minutes, we finally returned to the Luchang Mountain Trail. Everyone had a kind of excitement after exhaustion. Probably because the superposition value of all of us is too high, we can see the high-definition mountain scenery, the sea of clouds and the foggy forest in one day. The P-shaped route represents the P of Perfect and our Perfect Ending in 2021.

 Every time I walk in the mountains of Taiwan, I can't help but think: Taiwan has no "land problem", I believe that after many generations, the magnificent mountains and forests will still be well preserved. The rulers of Hong Kong have repeatedly tried to attribute many social problems to the "land issue". They have repeatedly proposed to develop country parks to build houses. Coupled with the recent "Northern Metropolitan Area" plan, I don't know if Hong Kong's country parks can survive. How many?

My favorite book about mountaineering in Hong Kong is "Three-quarters of Hong Kong" written by Taiwanese Liu Kexiang. Although it is a pity that this kind of book was actually written by a Taiwanese, but if you want to know the mountains in Hong Kong, this book is definitely worth a five-star recommendation .