What a Blast

Today Nancy and I butted in on the Priesthood hiking activity. We pulled into the church parking lot and Yuling's husband looked at us funny. Nancy told him Yuling said we could come. We locked up our bikes and he asked if we had enough water. We told him we had water and food. He said good, but we know he was disappointed that he couldn't send us home. We told him that we could for sure handle it, we enjoy outdoor things and we run every day. After we told him we run every day he relaxed a little more. So, we went to Taroko Gorge again (just like last Saturday) only this time the ride was free and went a lot faster.

Yuling told us that this would be an all day hike and that it would be a for reals hike, not like the pansy paved ones we did last weekend. So, when we started off hiking on a wooden ramp that reminded me of the San Diego Zoo, I was disappointed. Then when we went to the sign and Branch President Cheng pointed out the trail and how it was a 5k trail, Nancy and I looked at each other like "how the heck is 3.1 miles supposed to take us all day?" Well, the ramp ended at the sign, but it was still a well groomed trail, until we took a turn off that went straight up the mountain. I'm not even kidding you. We were hiking mountain goat style, straight up the rocks.

It was awesome. It was killer, but I was so excited to be hiking on a real hiking path, and not a touristy paved trail. And, it was so funny, the men kept on saying "Ladies first" which was really nice, that way President Cheng could lead, and then we wouldn't be left behind because every one was behind us. Well, although there were good intentions in that saying, it was also that most of the guys couldn't keep up. We would stop to take breaks every so often, and I would turn around and half of our people (only 11 people showed up to go on the hike) would be with us, the others had to catch up.

So, because the trail was slightly traitorous, I didn't get to enjoy the broader scenery as much as I did last week, but I did have the opportunity to study more of the plant life and bug life on the ground (not because I fell, just because I had to stare at the ground- I promise, there were several times when I slipped or had a close call, but I didn't fall a single time on the hike- although plenty of others did). And, apparently there were monkeys in the jungle and one of the guys (a dad of one of the preschoolers) saw some, but I had no idea where he was pointing- I wonder if he was lying.

So, after we had gone pretty far up, we came to a bunch of old cables that used to be used to transport logs from the mountain down to the basin. When you're looking up from the Taroko Gorge Headquarters, it looks like that is the top of the mountain. It's not. The rest of the mountain is just covered in a fog most of the time that you can't see it. So, once we hit that spot (not even half our trip up), we started walking in the mist/the clouds. That was so awesome. It started to rain as we got higher up too, but I was so wet from my sweating that I didn't even bother with my rain jacket.

Well, we finally made it as far as we were going to go, and we ate lunch at another old cable transport place, but apparently this one had been built by the Japanese. Then we headed down via a different route. On the way down we passed an old village which I think a few people still live in, but there are abandoned places too. That didn't matter, we looked at all the buildings: the occupied and the abandoned. Luckily the people weren't home at the time, but Nancy and I felt pretty awkward walking around someone's backyard and staring at their chicken coops. Plus, some of these places- wait, I take it back- all of these places were out of our way, but the guys seemed to enjoy themselves.

Oh yeah, along the side of the trail, one of the men picked a plant. When it came out of the ground, I could tell they were onions. I thought that was weird, but they had been picking plants, flowers, and bamboo all along the trail and chewing on it, so it shouldn't have surprised me too much. Anyway, he pulled off the top and the roots and when we were checking out the village, he washed them off and handed some out. He told Nancy and I, you have to try this. I'm not really an onion person. It's taken me a while to even be able to eat them in other foods, so I was not too excited to eat one plain, but I did it. Yep, it was an onion alright, and yep, it was pretty nasty. Because I do only eat onions with something, I didn't know that onions were hot. Maybe I'm a moron (well, we all know I am, but in this particular circumstance), but at least I know now.

So we took a different, more round about, slightly less steep path down. The problem was, that it hadn't just rained at the top of the mountain, it had rained all the way down (the sounds retarded to actually write, but you better know what I mean). So, the trail was super slick (that's when most of the people fell). The hike up was mostly rock, like I said at first, and then it turned into a rain forest trail at the top, and the whole trail down was rain forest.

When we got to the bottom, we were no where near the gorge headquarters. President Cheng saw someone and started chatting it up with him. So, the guy showed us to the river (maybe like 20 feet away) and so I thought we would follow the river to the red bridge that Nancy and I started our hike at last week. No, it turns out that we were just chilling for 15-20-25 minutes. Then, when we decided to leave the river, we went and ate at this guys "restaurant." Okay, it's definitely not a restaurant. We had juice boxes and top-roman type stuff. So we stayed and visited with them for a while. By now, it was 3pm (we left the church at 8am and got to Taroko by 9am). So I was ready to be walking back and being close to done, but Nancy tells me that they try to make church activities last as long as possible- they succeed. So, when we finally left that place, we saw a sign that told us that it was 4.something k back to the headquarters. It turns out that we followed the path and it turned into the first hike that Nancy and I did last weekend, so that was good because we knew approximately how long it would take to get back.

The guys were so impressed with how well Nancy and I did today. One of them told us we were like the women in the Book of Mormon who were made strong just like the men (when Lehi and his family was traveling in the wilderness and the wives of Nephi, Laman, Lemuel, and Sam were giving birth, taking care of babies, and still keeping up with their husbands in the wilderness). I wouldn't say we were that tough, but we did out last most of them.

The ride back was a little under an hour, so I think that we made it back to the church by 5pm. So, yep, the hike did indeed last all day, and it lasted all day because the first 5k was straight up a mountain, and the way down was a total meander where President Cheng lead us where ever he wanted, then we chilled in the river, then we ate with some local, etc.

Oh, embarrassing, one time President Cheng pointed at a monkey (there really was no monkey) and so I did my monkey impersonation. They thought it was great, and had me do it again so that the other half of the group would think there was a monkey. They did. But, after every one in the group already knew the noise was me, they still had me do it at random times just because they thought it was funny. And, something else kind of embarrassing that happened today was that I realized how much of a screamer I am. Not when I saw bugs or anything, that's old hat now that I had that giant one in (okay, near) my kitchen. But, every time I would slip (not fall, remember, I stayed on my feet the whole time) I couldn't help but scream (at least squeak). I felt so bad because I made it sound really bad, but because I started laughing hysterically right after the scream, I'm sure they knew I was okay.

So, after Nancy and I got back, we showered and then we headed down town to see if there were any good movies playing. The movie theater only had 7 movies, but luckily I was interested in seeing one of them. We bought tickets to see 21 (the one about the students from MIT who count cards and win lots of money in Vegas). I really liked it, I thought that it was really good. Then, we rode home in the rain, and now I am sitting and typing. When I started typing, I was still a little wet, but I think that I am all dry now.

Oh, and sorry about there not being any pictures, but I only took like two, and I'm really hoping I can just get pictures of the trip from one of the guys who had a professional camera and was snapping shots the whole time. If not, well then, I'm pretty much scriz-ewed because I really only have like two pictures of today.