Tiger Leaping Gorge-ous

Wow! Unsure how to describe the last couple of days. Spent the last 2 days hiking the Tiger Leaping Gorge middle section. It was difficult at times and easy in parts, but definitely a nice hike with extraordinary views. One thing China seems to have an abundance of is rugged mountainous landscape. We got up a 6:30 to catch a bus that goes out along the different parts of the Gorge. Bus was full which was surprising because the Chinese tourist season is over. Lots of people doing different things along the gorge. After a 2 1/2 hour bus ride we arrived at the starting point for the upper trail of the

middle section. It was a cloudy morning which suited everyone just fine. If you are going to climb a big hill a little cool helps! My Spanish friend Susannah, an Aussie Frank, and I started climbing together. We stayed together for the whole trip which was nice. Nice to have someone around to say look at that or what an awesome view. There was plenty of those statements! The first 3 1/2 hours were spent ascending to the high point of the trail. It was a goat path most of the time and difficult steep in a few sections which left me gasping for breath. Most of it was a typical ascent on a trail and quite manageable. As we moved along the trail the views got increasingly

spectacular. Tried to take good pictures but it was not possible to capture the full beauty of what we saw. After reaching the summit, we had a little downhill stretch before the trail leveled off. The next 3 hours were spent trekking a trail into a narrow gorge with 5000 metre mountains going straight down to a river. We stopped for the night at a little guesthouse. Was a welcome stop, as I think we were all getting tired. Nice spot with great views right outside our windows. To say it was a great sleep would be a lie! The beds rivaled Mongolia for hardness. Would have been just as comfortable sleeping on the floor, but it sufficed. We woke in the morning to rain. I started to weatherproof myself and my pack. The trek was going to be a downhill descent to eventually waters edge in the gorge. That was not going to be fun on slippery trails. We left late at about 10am and within 15 minutes the skies cleared to a beautiful sunny day. Took about an hour and a half to get down to the lower guesthouse and

then another 45 minutes to the river. The beauty and power of the gorge is incredible and can only be described by witnessing it. Spent about an hour at the river before heading back up to the lower guesthouse to catch a bus back to Lijiang at 3:30. The climb back up from the river was very steep and took us an hour of heart pounding exertion. Caught the bus back, where at the start of the ride the driver told us no one is allowed to take boots off in the bus. Smart call! 3 hours later we were a tired bunch back in Lijiang. Had a shower and ate a late supper. Went right to bed tired but satisfied on a nice little hike in China.