Tiger Leaping Gorge

The is an awesome hiking place! Still largely unspoiled by the destructive Chinese tourism. We hike from the river level up about 3000-4000 feet. the trail cuts along the side of the gorge high above the river and provides dramatic drop off!

One day one, we (see the list of characters on the hike in the travelers post) hiked 7 hours and passed about 20 other hikers. The weather was cloudy with showers. The trail takes us thru mountain side villages, we saw cows, goats, horses, donkeys, farmers working on their fields. The trail also cut thru side of the mountain in some places is only a foot wide and deadly drop off on the other side. We also had glance of the snow on the peak on the opposite of the gorge.

After arriving in Tina's place we had shower and dinner. I must not have eaten enough because I was hungry in the middle of the night.

After listless night of sleep we got up at 7 and by 8:10, we are ready for our push to catch the last bus back to Lijiang in town of DaJu at 1:30. The new ferry crossing was washed out, so we had to goto the old crossing. The route was along the paved road and generally down hill, so it was pretty easy walk until its time to go down to the gorge and catch the ferry to cross the river to the town of Daju. A very steep and rocky trail, our injured companion had aweful time negotiate the 40 min long path.

Luckily we got back up the opposite bank just in time to catch the bus with 15 min to spare and cool drinks!

The ride back to Lijiang was long and slow (4 hours), the bus climb over (from 5000) to over 10,000 feet. There was a plan to get off the bus and take a look at Yu Long snow mountain, but the cloud was so thick, everyone decided not to.

Anyway everyone parted company at Old Town.