South Section Two

Ate our way around town and did a final resupply, then went back to the guesthouse to rest.

ⓈⓅ felt a bit tired, so they decided to finish off the Red Bull early.

ⓈⓅⒺ had all been to Sancha Mountain before, so I took the detour up alone and met them on the other side. It started raining when I reached the triangulation point, but stopped after we regrouped. A total whiteout, so none of the legendary views. But once we turned onto South Section Two, the weather started to improve.

The water wasn't deep, but we had to take off our shoes to cross the stream. After reaching the cabin, while it was still light, I went to check out the crossing point on the other side.

ⓈⓅ started slowing down. The trail twisted and turned, winding on and on, until we finally reached Yunfeng. Only here did I realize I'd forgotten to check the camera settings, so every video before this point was overexposed. Back at the junction, Ⓔ found that an animal had rummaged through their pack: there was saliva on it, and some of the food had been disturbed.

Reached the cabin in thick fog. Luckily it didn't rain.

The view of Lulu Valley from here is beautiful. But the side trail up was overgrown, and it had been very wet the night before, so we walked up in rain jackets and rain pants.

We weighed whether to make an emergency stop at the cabin, but ⓈⓅ seemed to be doing fine. So we still planned to push on to Dashuiku Cabin, and didn't fill up on water. But after leaving the cabin, ⓈⓅ began to tire, getting slower and slower on the continuous steep climbs. On the steep slope I realized we couldn't make it to Dashuiku for the night, and started rationing water.

We searched the surroundings but found no better campsite. There was no way we could reach Dashuiku Cabin anymore, and the better emergency campsite (at the foot of Beimian Mountain) was still far away, so we had to make an emergency camp at the foot of Dafenjian Mountain. Short on water, I had the next day's lunch bread for dinner instead, washed down with just a sip of water.

On the way, ⓈⓅⒺ all ran out of water, so I brought out 600 ml for the three of them to share.

Walked to South Dashuiku Mountain in heavy fog. But on the way to Dashuiku it started to clear up, and we saw the best grassland I've seen so far.

Finally able to refill water. Took a long break with lunch and discussed the rest of the route. ⓈⓅ seemed okay, but going up Dashuiku Mountain as well would be too tough, so we decided to head to Batongguan via the South Campsite.

Although we didn't have to climb Dashuiku Mountain and the gentle terrain was much easier, there were quite a few sections that needed careful footing. The prickly junipers along the trail had us groaning the whole way.