Jade Mountain, Taiwan - Solo Monkey, International Style (Part 2)

To read part 1, click here.

The Journey of a thousand miles begins with one step
                                      Lao Tzu

千里之行，始于足下造句
                                      老子


4:30 AM,  I left the hostel, jumped on my scooter with my camelbak and headed out into the darkness to find the trail.

It was cool outside, it was dark, pitch black, and I couldn't see a thing.  Again, the roads were deserted, and everyone else from the hostel had either left before me and were well on their way up the mountain, or they were just going to hike some smaller trails.  So once again, I was alone on the mountain, which is heaven.

Except for one more thing.  I couldn't find the trail.  There was no one around, there were no signs, it was pitch black.  So I drove my scooter up and down the road, trying to make out signs in the dark and find the trail.  I found a police station, which I thought might be the start of the trail, but there was no where to park.  I drove back down a road, within about 1 km I found the Jade Mountain National Park Visitors Center, but again, no trail.  No signage.  And no one awake.  I probably wouldn't even be able to see anything with all the fog, so oh well.

I finally found some photographers on the side of the road, and one of them had hiked the mountain before.  So after driving the scooter around for about 30 minutes, I had to park it right next to the hostel, run up the road about 1 km back to the police station, check in with my mountain permits, and then follow that road for another 3 km to the actual trailhead.  There are shuttles that make this route in the morning, but not until after 8:00, so I walked.  The police station checked my forms, kept one half of one and told me to check back in with the other half of the form when I return so that they don't have to send out a search party for you thinking you're still stuck on the mountain somewhere.

First Light.

5:30 AM, I am finally walking up the road to the trail, and the sun started to come out.  I could make out the shapes of the mountains and see that the clouds had settled low enough that it would be clear climbing!  Yes!  I honestly was getting discouraged that it would be limited views, that I couldn't find the trail, that it would be a crappy day, and now it was totally turning out to be the opposite.  I found the trail, the clouds were low, the views were incredible, and my real journey had begun, with one step.

The Sea of Clouds

Clouds weaved their way in and out of the valleys, and the peaks poking through the clouds in the distance looked like islands.  The mountains of Taiwan are steep, very steep dropoffs on one side but the trail was well maintained.  Taiwan is essentially a big rock that erupted straight up out of the ocen during series of earthquakes that have taken place as a result of converging of four different plates.  The island continues to have earthquakes on a regular basis, as there are 42 active faults, but most are relatively minor.  The most recent major earthquake to occur was in 1999 (7.3 magnitude).  But the seismic activity is very evident in the topography of Taiwan, as most of the mountains are dramatic towers of steep rocks and sheer cliffs.



Cloud Atlas / Cloud Inlet.  I was just reading a book called Cloud Atlas, and the views were exactly what I imagined a Cloud Atlas to look like.

Jade Mountain, Taiwan - Solo Monkey, International Style (Part 1)

It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end

Ernest Hemmingway

I get to travel some for work, and luckily on a recent work trip I had an opportunity to try to climb the highest peak in East Asia, Jade Mountain in Taiwan.  But this adventure began not at the TaTaJia Trailhead at the Jade Mountain National Park in Alishan, Taiwan, but long before that.  Just getting to the trailhead to climb Jade Mountain (玉山) was an adventure all by itself.  Part one of this trail report will detail the trail to the trailhead, and part two will detail the climb itself.

Jade Mountain Park Entry Permit Application

To climb Jade Mountain, you cannot just show up and start climbing the mountain.  There are two different permits you must attain before entering.  The first permit will authorize entry into the Yu Shan National Park, the application can be found by clicking here.  Because I was also planning on summiting and returning in one day, the requirements included providing photos of yourself on 3 or more summits above 3000 Meters (almost 10,000 feet), your exercise regimen in preparing for the climb, your equipment list...even your "Environmental Education" background (pack it in, pack it out, respect the mountain and terrain, etc.)  Being an Eagle Scout has its privileges.

The second application is a "Mountain Entry Permit", the application for this permit must be filed with the Interior Ministry of the National Police Agency of Taiwan here.  When you enter the park, the police station at the entrance takes the top half of the form.  If they don't get the second half of the form back when you descend, that's when they send out the search parties, looking over the cliffs to see if you've fallen off the mountain.



Scenes from a Train Ride.  And my ear.

So now...getting to Alishan.  The park is located in Alishan (阿里山), which is a township in ChiaYi County (嘉義鄉). I was staying in Taichung (台中), which is two counties away from Chiayi.  I jumped on an Express train and made it to Chiayi in a little over an hour.  I was hoping to ride the High Speed Rail to get there--it's fun to travel at 300 km/hour in a train--but there were no scooter rental stations at the HSR station, only at the train station.  But riding trains in Taiwan is very convenient, more space than a plane ride, foot rests, reclining chairs, and you can smoke between train cars if you would like.  Very Hollywood.


Once I got to ChiaYi, I went to the Big Elephant Scooter shop and rented myself a monster of a 125cc moped.  Taiwan is full of motor scooters, it's the most convenient way to get around and they're pretty fun to ride.  But when I told the shop keeper where I was heading...he just laughed and shook his head.  He couldn't believe first that I was planning on climbing Jade Mountain, and then couldn't believe that I was riding a scooter that far.  But he took my $400 Taiwan Dollars (about USD $14), and I was off.  After fueling up, I was on the road.



First view of the mountains...Beginning my climb from sea level to 2600 meters.  I got the scooter over 100 km/hr at one point on this straight away, which is much faster than I have skills to manage.

Stlong Blidge!  Stlong Blidge!  And a Taoist Temple.

I quickly turned up the skill level on the motor-scooter...At stop lights I start firing through the intersection when the opposite lights turned yellow (when the crossing light turns yellow that in essence means your light is green, even though it's red); I swerved and leaned into my turns like a pro; I non-chalantly pulled within 3-4 inches of dumptrucks and buses, sucking in fumes of other motorscooters and industrial vehicles.  Most people wear face masks to avoid inhaling the exhaust of so many vehicles, but not me.  You only live once.

The road up the mountain was a two lane highway, winding and winding and winding...steep drops on one side of the road and cars passing each other with obstructed views.  There were also a lot of very large vehicles going up and down this road, tour buses, construction trucks.  They really have no problem with passing one another on blind corners, either.  The whole traffic system is a series of suggestions and flow.  Just keep the roads flowing, don't stop and get in the way, avoid items larger than you, etc.  To see video footage of the road click here.

The Road to Alishan

An Olympus Afternoon

Moonlight over Mt. Olympus

While Steve was resting up for his marathon on Saturday morning, Jake and Sam decided to climb Mt. Olympus as a duo.  Both Sam and Steve had done this climb many times, but for Jake it was a first.  Many of his hikes with the Trail Monkeys are firsts.  And again he had no idea what he was in for, particularly when it comes to vertical gain.

Sam mentioned the route would be something like this...

"First there's the beginning climb, then there's the switchbacks, then you get to the river, then you get to the caterpillar crawl, then you go up the Never-Ending-Staircase, and then you're on the saddle, and then there's an easy rock-scramble to the top."

Sounds easy right?  Monkeys can climb just about anything!  Or so I thought.  We started out by wondering if we should try to break the record, Steve's done it in some ridiculous time of 1:35, but we both quickly realized that this wasn't happening on this day.  Neither Sam nor I had been able to run much the last month, what with school starting and another kid on the way and football practice and basically life in general getting in the way of our free time.  So we decided we'd enjoy the climb rather than try to push ourselves too much.

Mt. Olympus in Greece

By way of information, The Mt. Olympus wilderness area and the Mt. Olympus peak in Salt Lake City it named after....Mt. Olympus in Greece!  SLC's Mt. Olympus is roughly the same height (9,026 feet) as Thessaloniki's Mt. Olympus, (9,570 feet), and the two mountains have very similar features and vertical gain.  Although The Greek version is a much more technical climb, with 5 different pitches that require rock climbing and rock climbing gear.  The SLC version only requires...calf muscles.

Nearly every trail report about Mt. Olympus talks about how the trail is "strenuous but rewarding", or "the hike is fairly steep", or "Difficulty:  Strenuous".  And so it goes.  I've never had cramps while hiking before but got some good ones while on the Never-Ending-Staircase.  Calf Cramps.  Still not a bad first climb for climbing the mountain named after the Home of the Greek Gods.  The fall leaves were beautiful, the scramble to the top was more fun that it was dangerous, and it didn't hurt so bad that I don't want to go back.  Maybe even to challenge Steve's time to the top....

Once we reached the top, Sam was in cell phone range and was able to check in with the wife, you know, to make sure she didn't go into labor or anything important like that while he was on top of the mountain.  Also, the mailbox has a summit registry in it.  Jack Frost has even been to the top of this mountain.

Monkeys break for bananas

Summer Trail Series VI - Partial Credit for Twin Peaks

We started our day fairly early, leaving the trailhead just after 5:00 AM, our goal being to make it as far up Twin Peaks as possible before having to turn back around to make it back down in the valley in time for work.  Twin Peaks is the highest mountain on the Little Cottonwood Canyon ridge (11,489'), and it is named Twin Peaks because the peak itself is made up of two similarly shaped summits situated on the same mountain top.  It was still fairly dark when we started, so Headlamp Huff led the way.  Slowly but surely we made our way up the mountain.  And then, there was a first.  Sam got tired....And had to slow down.....And had to sit down.  Never before has this happened, I'm told.  But here's proof:


The Thinker

Obviously something wasn't right.  I'd spent most of the other runs with the OTMs as the caboose, just hoping to not get too far behind, or to at least keep within shouting distance of one of them.  And so to have Sam pulling up lame just wasn't right.  Sam then confessed to having had donated blood the day before, noble generosity to benefit your fellow man Karmic contribution blah blah blah.  I'm no Doctor, but I'm going to theorize donating blood before trail runs at 9,000 feet above sea level may have a small effect on one's endurance.  So we left him.  Every man for himself, isn't that what they say?  Amen.



First Light

Soon there was enough light to turn off the headlamps, and then Steve just about ran into a big, big fella on the trail.  Another trail, another moose, only this one was about twice the size of the one we ran into on Gobbler's Knob, and Steve was close enough to touch this one before we realized we almost ran into it.  We allowed this bullwinkle time to move off the path, and that's when Sam caught up...You can't keep that man down for long, and he powered through the blood-donating fatigue the rest of the day.  All for one!  One for all!  As long as you can keep up!

After working our way a bit higher up the mountain, the trail became less defined.  This was the first time any of us had been on this route, and so our limited knowledge of the trail came from various summitposts and hiking blogs, and so we approximated what the course to the top would be.  One would think that it would be easy to make your way to the top of a mountain that was right in front of you.  Alas, one would be wrong.  And so went our climb.  There were some vague directions on the easier way to the top, take your first left, then right, then stay right, then stay left...We followed what cairns we could see but ended up taking "The Robinson Variation" of the trail.  Robinson Variation sounds like it should be some lifesaving procedure, or a wrestling hold, or maybe even a dance move, not a trail route.  In this case, however, the Robinson Variation was simply an unmarked scramble up a scree face, in which no one's lives needed to be saved, no grappling moves took place, and there certainly was no dancing.

A Gift Found On The Trail

There was on extremely pleasant bonus from taking the Robinson Variation:  Wild Raspberries!  Quite a few of them....All over the mountain!  At the lower elevations they were relatively small berries, but in other places we scored some pretty big ones.  Little pockets of juicy, sweet, sweet joy that also leave you with tiny seedlings to pick at in your teeth for a few climbing steps.  We spent a while grabbing handfuls of berries, and then continued our march up the mountain.


As we continued climbing up the scree portion of The Robertson Variation, something very important came up.  We'd heard this word "Scree" many times in different conversations with other climbers/trail runners, seen the word "scree" on some climbing reports, and even used the word "scree" to describe some of our own trails (http://orangetrailmonkeys.blogspot.com/2012/08/quest-for-kings-2012.html).  Anyway, Steve had actually looked up the word "scree" in the dictionary, and essentially we've guessed right and have been using the word correctly.  Scree means: an accumulation of loose stones or rocky debris lying on a slope or at the base of a hill or cliff, aka Talus. And scree looks much like the photos of scree from the Quest For King's 2012 blog post that I've listed here.  (See more photos of scree here.)


A Huff Sighting...Feeding on Berries in the Scree

As we made our way further up the scree slope, we realized that time would not permit us to make it to the summit, and that we'd need to turn around soon in order to make it back to the base camp in time to get to work on time.  Steve made it much further up the mountain than the blood donor and I.  But we did have a tremendous view and were able to enjoy the sunrise on the trail.

Here comes the Sam

Tres Hombres, with some climbing still to do.

We made good time on the descent, and even got airborne a few times, and there's pictures to prove it.  We will be back in the future to conquer this peak.  Both of them.

White Men Can Jump

The trail, there and back again.  And we will be back again in order to get fully there.

Why facebook? Why Now?

Why Facebook?  Why now?

As a self-indulging contrarian, I’ve managed to steer clear of facebook for some time now.  It was a conscious effort to avoid blending in to the masses, a way to avoid being just like everyone else.  The facebook groundswell became a tidal wave while I was going to graduate school and working full-time, and so conveniently, I just didn’t have time for indulging in the trivial world of social networking.  Or at least being that busy afforded me the chance to avoid participation in the ménage-a-web.  I didn’t see the point, really.  If I truly was friends with someone, wouldn’t I see them already?  Wouldn’t I talk with them on the phone every now and again?  Or pay my social dues to them via a simultaneously clever and bland email once in a while, or the Christmas card family update?  I’ll forward them a link to a funny clip of a wipeout, an mpg of an unsuspecting baseball dad getting a line drive to the junk, or some adorable kitty videos.  Maybe I’ll send them a nice text on their birthday.  That, my friends, is interaction!

Well, against my better judgment, I have finally taken the plunge and added a facebook account to a growing list of redundant web-enabled participatory endeavors to which I am only half-heartedly involved (for instance, this blog).  It’s just another list in a long line of revolutionizing aps that I’m not totally enamored with, but for some reason feel obligated to take part in.  It’s an internalized and entirely imagined peer pressure to which I am succumbing, but I don’t believe that is even accurate, because no one has really asked me in some time why I don’t have a facebook account.  Maybe it’s the lack of people asking about my facebook that led me to believe I actually needed one.  To fill a non-void.  That’s more my style.

So why am I now a member?  Why now?

Maybe I’m now signing up to pre-emptively screen my kids’ future facebook accounts.  I know that soon they will be venturing on their own into this virtual maze.  And just like monitoring what youtube videos they watch, and what websites they can visit, what TV shows/movies they should or shouldn’t watch, I’m realizing that in order to properly understand what they are doing with their friendly online communications will require that I understand the inner-workings of this e-organism.   I need to take those baby steps first, fall down and scrape my knees on friend requests, likes and dislikes, twitter rants, seedy photo posts, etc., so that I can guide them through their introductory facebook stages and help in guiding them to avoid the evils that lurk.  That sounds very responsible of me, right?  But that’s not really my full motivation.  A noble side-benefit, but not entirely the real objective for joining.

I might be doing it for a social reason.  When I say “social reason,” this is not code for “looking up old flames.”  It is not to clandestinely check in on former acquaintances.  Actually, there was some facebook friction that took place recently with some extended family, and there could be some voyeuristic aspect of those conflicts that might appeal to some, but that’s not really my thing.  I’m sure I’ll have my opportunity in the future to cause this type of conflict, but I’ve missed out on that so far, and frankly, the probability of that type of conflict happening was one reason to avoid facebook thus far.  But I would like to think of myself as a social person, and that this is just another way for me to socially interact with friends and family.  The alleged social aspects of the program are a genuine motive for signing up for facebook, and part of me subscribes to this notion of a virtual community.  It takes an i-village, and I’m just a citizen here.

I must admit, I have been impressed (and distraught) by how pervasive facebook seems to be with everyone I know, and how quickly people respond to things.  I’m glad I’m able to check in with friends I haven’t seen or thought of in years.  It’s cute to see the mini-versions of people I grew up with in their childrens’ faces.  The fact that I have over 100 friends with fairly little effort on my part and within the first few days of signing up is indicative of how universally ubiquitous facebook is.   It has nothing to do with how compelling I am as a person, I’m pretty sure.

But I think the real reason I’m singing up now has to do with the creepy IPO video that facebook released and then promptly removed from their web arsenal.  That’s what appealed to me.  In advance of releasing their IPO today, May 18, 2012, facebook showcased a 30 minute commercial detailing their plans for global dominance.  This is a rather unconventional step for a company on the eve of their IPO, but facebook prides itself in doing things their own way, and they weren’t going to allow some trivial stepping stone like a once-in-a-lifetime-highest-IPO-valuation-ever opportunity to pass them by and do it like everyone else!  They were going to be different!  Because that’s what facebook is!  It’s different!  It’s not Myspace, or Pinterest, or Yahoo Social, or Youtube!  It’s all of those things and more!  So instead of meeting face to face with Wall Street investment bankers, instead of detailing their financials in person and jumping through the usual IPO hoops like everyone else does, they put their entitlement attitude on full display and just assumed everyone would play along because their grand move fit their unconventional corporate culture, and they wanted to run everyone else’s faces in their brand of counter-corporate-culture.  Bold move, Zuckerberg, bold move.

http://facebook.retailroadshow.com/  was the link to the IPO commercial, but it is no longer available.  It was up for a couple of days, and then removed entirely from the web universe.  Youtube doesn’t have it, or doesn’t even have an out-of-focus knock-off of it.   Daily Motion doesn’t have a copy.  Google Cache doesn’t even have it.  The commercial was that horrendous, and facebook didn’t realize this beforehand and quickly erased all memory and indication of it from the internets.  Business insider made a shot-by-shot summary of it, and that’s still around, http://www.businessinsider.com/facebooks-ipo-roadshow-heres-why-facebook-thinks-investors-should-buy-into-its-ipo-2012-5# .  But the still frame version doesn’t do it justice.  It looks accessible in this still-frame version, which is entirely opposite of what it felt like watching it.  If you thought The Social Network made the founder of facebook seem creepy, then you should have seen his glory in this gem of marketing mayhem that will be used in MBA courses for years and years to come as a perfect “what not to do”.  This self-produced commercial made the Zucks seem more like that guy DO from the Hale-Bopp cult, not the youngest billionaire ever.

In the video the young brain trust of facebook goes on to detail the relevance of the company, facebook’s role in every living being’s existence, how important and groundbreaking their social networking interface is, essentially how the world doesn’t function without them (which, I’m finding out now, may actually be true).  Shot with soft lighting, hypnotizing cadences, and soothing background music, it was incredibly captivating.  Like watching the Masters at Augusta.  It’s pretty, it’s pacifying, it deserves your respect, and everything else is so far below their superiority we are all just lucky to behold their greatness.  A tradition unlike any other, or at least this was bucking tradition like no one before them.

When the commercial concluded, I loved that it was creepy.  I enjoyed that it was arrogant.  I appreciated the fact that it was such a colossally horrendous promotion and thought that if they could screw up their Trillion dollar campaign, then that was something that I could not pass up!  I had to get in on that ride, and now’s my chance!  How could I enjoy the inevitable death rattle if I didn’t experience some of the life blood while it was beating at maximum heart rate?  And don’t get me wrong.  There are people who know how to use this medium and do great things, pass along worthwhile messages and knowledge.  There are people who go out of their way to do something bold and awe inspiring and incredible…and then there’s this facebook IPO version, which reaffirmed my preconceived notions of what this socially networked universe is like.  It is presented as an amazing and hyped up version of reality, accentuating greatness and de-emphasizing the clutter and unnecessary pop-ups.  But we all know that’s just a ruse, and that sooner rather than later we’ll be inundated by spam and junk mail and pop-ups and viruses…clutter.  E-clutter.  The show is not nearly as cool as they thought it was, and they clearly don’t realize this.  They obviously didn’t realize how condescending they were being, how empty their self-promotion was and how entirely anti-self-aware the whole facebook experience can be.  Both the Yin and the Yang.  And the video perfectly illustrated this aspect of facebook.

So, after all of that, I’m just like everyone else.  I’m a sheep who loves a train wreck, especially when those driving the train keep going faster.  They know what they’re doing, and they want you to come along for the ride.  Actually they’re asking you to take the wheel for a moment, they want you to participate in the fun, throwing some coal in their fire and all of your self-promotion along with it!  Vanity of Vanities!  I love me some vanity, so I signed up.  I’ve got a few years of virtual narcissism to catch up on.  And with its IPO roadshow, this bandwagon just bought billions more gigabytes of space for me and you other stragglers to jump on.  Like it or not.