Hiking in Yangmingshan in misty, windy, rainy day

My ferver to nature grows as I started hiking on Elephant mountain last November by myself. Taipei is a great place for hiking because many hiking trails are accessible with public transport. Most of them are in stairway, which may not meet some people's standard of "hiking", according to them, it should be natural paths. Still, the view on the summit worth the stair-climbing. Almost each hiking trail we can appreciate the panorama inside the Taipei basin.

Last weekend I went to Yangming Mountain with three other couchsurfers. It was my first time to visit the east part of Yangminshan, and it was me who organised this. Compared with other hiking trails, Yangming Mountain is a perfect getaway because it belongs to the National Park, and in the estern part of it, we don't see any building from the mountain.

Despite the weather report, I still persist going there on Saturday. The weather, as the forecast predicted, was very misty, the white vapor filled the air, and we could hardly see anything within 5 meters. It was the same in the . The wind blew harshly that any umbrella could not resist. I could hardly hold my umbrella when I attempted to climb up the hill, which was killing me, so we decided to walk in the forest downhill, to Chungshan Building.

To my surprise, the path going down still leads to the waterfall, where I have been to three years ago with other church people. We had a short rest in front of the waterfall, which is rich in negative ion. Eddy took out his lunch box and a portable gas to heat up the water. In nature, he made some mint tea in front of us, the taste was pretty good.

We continued to the Qingtiangang grassfield, where the cattle once grazes, but seems like heaven within the heavy white mist. The vast hill is belted with a circular path. I had no idea how long would the circular trail last because I could not see anything among the mist. We just kept walking and sticked out the umbrella to block the blowing wind.

At the end, we have finally made it to the visitor centre. I stamped on my Moleskine notebook to memorate this difficult trail. Waiting at the bus going back to the centre, we have seen several stray dogs idling around, soaked by the rain, they were begging for food. As human beings, we could have our choice to hike or not, but for the animals, they have no choice, and their living is more difficult.