Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Emeishan 1: the hike up... and down... and then up again...

I'm really glad we got to take a trip to Mount Emeishan before the weather gets too cold here. I had heard a lot of great things about the mountain in the daxiang range, and it certainly lived up to the hype. We had a wonderful two day hiking/monkey-fighting trip with a few friends. We gave ourselves two days to get to the top of 3,099 meters (starting at 500 m), and once we stepped onto the trail there was no turning back... seriously.  After I had decided I'd had enough at my 6 billionth stair step, a shop keeper laughed and told us it was another 6 hours up the mountain to the  next bus stop. Of course it feels great knowing that I didn't give up (although, I really didn't have a choice).

We hiked about 6-7 hours each day and stayed on the mountain overnight in a monastery.  We needed our rest after billions of stairs and battling monkeys in the mist/rain. Here are some photos from the first day!

The First 1,000 Steps
Ready to give sweet monkey hugs!
Monkey Territory
Preferred Hiking Position

End of Day One
Happy to be next to the fire!

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