Saturday, October 07, 2006
Road Trip ....Day Four.... Fenghuang Shan
We were less than an hour drive from our day four adventure when we set off from the spa town (never did find out the name of the town.) We went to Fengcheng which is Xingli's hometown. Xingli is our director, Brian Berneking's assistant. She is sweet and wonderful and helped us arrange the road trip. She was thrilled when she heard that we were headed to Fenghuang Shan. She said that she had hiked at Phoenix Mountain probably 20 times in her childhood and as a young adult.
We spent the entire day on the mountain. It is a huge area and the temples, monestaries, pagodas, sights, hikes and climbs are too many to do in any one day. We did however manage quite by accident to have a truly spectacular adventure.
We saw that there was a cable gondola ride up the mountain. We thought that we would just ride one way up and find a hike down as the map showed numerous ways to climb up or down. Well the map also showed "walks" across the tops of ridges seemingly too numerous to even contemplate in one day. So up in the cable gondolas we went oohing and ahhing and nihaoing all the way up for our one-way ride. The autumnal colors were breathtaking as were the vistas out over the mountain ridges and valleys. We hopped out and climbed up out of the gondola station to ooh and ahh at the spectacular view down either side of the rock precipice that we had landed on and to ooh and ahhh at the multiple ridges that we could see off in the distance.
We joined the throngs of climbers that were making their way across the first ridge to the south of where we had landed. We were caught up in the crowd and the thrill of the view and the autumn beauty below and above us. Four hours later, we had made our way across ridges too numerous (and treacherous) to count, had made numerous rest the jello legs and allow the heart to return to the chest stops and wondered if a way down really even existed. We finally crossed "Heaven's Bridge" and the way down presented itself. We had gone from climbing rocks and crawling across ridges with the throngs to climbing with just a few people.... evidently we had missed many down opportunities. Oh well, it was a major hiking, climbing and stamina endeavor and then there we were back at the base of the mountain near the cable gondola station. Adventure by stupidity or serendipity? Given the endorphins that carried me the kilometer or so back to the parking lot to find Mr. B., I vote for adventure by serendipity. I still thrill when I think of making the climb... conquering fears will do that for you.
We spent the entire day on the mountain. It is a huge area and the temples, monestaries, pagodas, sights, hikes and climbs are too many to do in any one day. We did however manage quite by accident to have a truly spectacular adventure.
We saw that there was a cable gondola ride up the mountain. We thought that we would just ride one way up and find a hike down as the map showed numerous ways to climb up or down. Well the map also showed "walks" across the tops of ridges seemingly too numerous to even contemplate in one day. So up in the cable gondolas we went oohing and ahhing and nihaoing all the way up for our one-way ride. The autumnal colors were breathtaking as were the vistas out over the mountain ridges and valleys. We hopped out and climbed up out of the gondola station to ooh and ahh at the spectacular view down either side of the rock precipice that we had landed on and to ooh and ahhh at the multiple ridges that we could see off in the distance.
We joined the throngs of climbers that were making their way across the first ridge to the south of where we had landed. We were caught up in the crowd and the thrill of the view and the autumn beauty below and above us. Four hours later, we had made our way across ridges too numerous (and treacherous) to count, had made numerous rest the jello legs and allow the heart to return to the chest stops and wondered if a way down really even existed. We finally crossed "Heaven's Bridge" and the way down presented itself. We had gone from climbing rocks and crawling across ridges with the throngs to climbing with just a few people.... evidently we had missed many down opportunities. Oh well, it was a major hiking, climbing and stamina endeavor and then there we were back at the base of the mountain near the cable gondola station. Adventure by stupidity or serendipity? Given the endorphins that carried me the kilometer or so back to the parking lot to find Mr. B., I vote for adventure by serendipity. I still thrill when I think of making the climb... conquering fears will do that for you.
# posted by Sidney @ 8:23 PM 
