2014 Hiking Goal

I had been long for visiting Jiu Zhai Guo, Sichuan, to see its beautiful landscape and autumn leaf color change. In 2014 Oct, I joined a 6 days tour travel to Chengdu, Huanglong, Jiu Zhai Guo, and Mount. Emei. During these 6 days, I walked about 30 hours, and hiked up 1.5KM. The mountain view was fascinating. It was a wonderful trip.

After I returned to my home town, I decided to set a hiking goal of 2014-15, that is,
select a long trail and complete it before the summer of 2015. It is to strengthen the muscle of my lower limb and increase my endurance. I used to sit in the office 5 days a week. I do swim and yoga, but none of these give me the fun and satisfaction that come from climbing up a mountain. The mountain breeze, the mountain top view, and the mountain rock and mud are adorable.

I looked up hiking trails and found four long trails 50KM, 70KM, 78KM, and 100KM. I picked the longest trail 100KM not because of its level of difficulties and length, but because of its distance to my home. I believed the closer to home, the more time to hike.

This trail is divided into ten sections with different difficulty level. Each sections is around 10KM. In the interim of each trail section, there are exits to nearby town. These exits can be acted as backup route, in case of emergency; or acted as trail stop.

Since I am not a professional hiker, I may not able to do a long day or a long distance hiking trip. Hence, I have few strategies. First is to keep each hiking trip short. That is, around 6 hours or less. I started the hiking almost right after the sunrise, in order to ensure I have sufficient time to complete the hiking trip during day light.

Second is to find the exit on a long section trail. Then, I can completed a part of the trail in one day, and pick up the rest on a different day.  For example, section 4 is total 12.7KM and section 5 is total 10.6KM. I started with combining the section 4 and 5, and identifying the possible exits with public transportation. There are two exit points, which allows me to complete the section 4 and 5 in three different days. Each day, I hiked about 7 miles in 5 hours with decent resting break for drink or pictures.

Base on these strategy, I had completed the first half of the trail by the end of 2014. The second half is challenging to me, which will be continue in the future posting.

For your reference, you may find a snapshot of the ten trail sections here.