Walking through mountains and rivers on a rainy day, hiking in the remote mountains and wild ridges that are rarely visited, is a different kind of experience.
It rained continuously the night before, and it still continued to rain early the next morning. Fortunately, the patter of spring rain did not affect my hiking plan.
At 6 o'clock in the morning, we set off from Chengdu to Dayi County and asked a friend to go with us. Since he was going from the other direction, we agreed to stop in Yuelai Town, Dayi County, not far from the hiking location. Convergence.
Our hiking plan this time is to enter the mountain from Longwozi and cross the mountain to Kaihua Temple in Wuzhongshan. It is about 15 kilometers one way and the distance is a little longer. In order to save energy and avoid returning to the original route, we originally planned to First park one car at Kaihua Temple and the other at Longwozi. After all, the drive from Kaihua Temple to Longwozi is less than 20 kilometers. At most, both cars will have to cover an extra 20 kilometers.
But considering that this is the first time for us to take this route, because it is not popular, the road conditions and directions are determined by the trajectories of other hikers on the Internet, and the weather is bad, so we don’t know whether we can succeed. After traveling through time to Kaihua Temple, I finally gave up on the previous idea and prepared to take Longwozi into the mountains first, depending on the situation.
After an hour and a half of self-driving, we arrived at Yuelai Town, met up with our friends and headed to Qinglong Village, where Longwozi is located.
I remember that when I first arrived at Qinglong Village three months ago, I came for Zhongnan Mountain. Now I set foot there again. Even though the scenery was a bit hazy on a rainy day, I saw the familiar figure of Zhongnan Mountain in front of the road just before I arrived at the village entrance.
I stopped at the door of the farmhouse next to the car and asked the old man living there. She didn’t seem to know that you could walk from Longwozi to Kaihua Temple in Wuzhongshan. She only told me in detail about Longwozi. Route into the mountains.
There are two entrances to the mountain. We chose the Zhongnanshan Taoist Temple at the entrance of the village.
Go up the mountain along the cement road next to the Taoist temple. Although the car can drive to the end of the road, the steep slope is steep, especially on rainy days, and the road surface is slippery, so walking is the most stable way.
It was 9 o'clock in the morning, and it wasn't raining too hard. You could still hold an umbrella while walking along the road.
Going up a distance, the scenery in the mountains gradually becomes more prominent. In spring, the vegetation turns green again, and the distant mountains appear more fresh and ethereal in the rain and fog.
Half an hour later, we finally finished walking the cement road and entered the mountain forest section, followed by a cement trail about one meter wide.
At this time, our hiking trip officially began.
At the bend of the mountain forest, the view becomes wider, surrounded by mountains on all sides, and the back mountain of Heming Mountain stands majestically opposite.
The peaks next to it are towering and steep, which is Zhongnan Mountain.
Walking along the trail, there are cliffs on one side and deep ravines on the other. This road is a bit like the plank road outside Yinguang Cave in Qianyuan Mountain, Jiangyou.
The difference is that there is abundant water here, and the water flowing in the ravines is so powerful that it can be heard throughout the valley.
Here, we enter the scope of Longwozi.
Longwozi is adjacent to Zhongnan Mountain where Han Xiangzi, one of the legendary Eight Immortals, practiced cultivation. It faces Laoguanding, the highest peak of Heming Mountain, the birthplace of Taoism in China, and the first stop for the spread of Buddhism to the south in the north. The mountains in the fog are connected, and there is also a legend about the place where blue dragons gather.
As we walked upstream along the valley, the rain became heavier. Umbrellas were no longer suitable for such an environment, so we had to put on raincoats.
Probably because of the rain, there were almost no other tourists except me and my friends along the way.
Except for a cement mountain road for tourists to pass along the way, the rest is a very original natural scenery, with lush vegetation and beautiful mountains and waters. I heard that Longwozi is a popular summer resort for tourists in summer.
At 11 a.m., after two hours of hiking, we finally completed the cement mountain trail. This section of the road is a relatively mature and safe tourist channel.
At the end of the cement road, the terrain is flat and open, the water flow slows down, and villages appear. This is the end point that most tourists choose for hiking.
But our journey from Longwozi to Kaihua Temple in Wuzhongshan has just begun.
Leave the cement road and continue moving forward. The foot turned into a mud path embedded with bluestone slabs, which was a bit muddy on rainy days.
But in my opinion, hiking has to take this kind of path to feel good.
It is still going up along the creek, but the road is gentler than before, the surrounding mountains are relatively open, and the scenery is much better than before.
There are even patches of grassland and forest, as if you have entered a primitive secret realm.
It crosses many streams along the way. Although it is full of wild interest, such road conditions will be very dangerous if the water rises during the rainy season.
Occasionally I pass by the houses of local people. The houses built by the mountain people with wood and planks are very primitive, but they also look damp on rainy days.
I met a local old man on the road and learned through conversation that due to the inconvenient transportation here, most of the residents in the mountains have moved to the resettlement community in Qinglong Village at the foot of the mountain. Only a few elderly people still stay here.
Although it is remote, with the rise of tourism in Longwozi, there are still quite a few tourists who come here to escape the heat every summer. The locals who stay in the mountains can also open farmhouses and sell local specialties to increase the number of tourists. economic income.
When the old man heard that we were going to Kaihua Temple, he was very surprised. He was even more surprised when he learned that there were only two of us and we didn’t know the road yet.
According to what she said, to get to Kaihua Temple, we have to climb over the pass at the top of the mountain in front, and we have to walk several miles of mountain road to cross the pass. Just climbing up to the pass from here is enough for us, and that road Even the locals rarely walk there, and the roads may be deserted. She expressed her worry about how we would get to Kaihua Temple.
I told her that we can go wherever we can, and if we can’t find the way, we will go back the same way we came. We will not take risks, so the old man feels at ease.
Say goodbye to the old man and we move on.
At 12 o'clock in the morning, after passing the last house, the village road section has been completed.
Looking back in the direction from where they came, the misty and rainy Hanshan Mountains and the secluded farmhouses were such a paradise, no wonder they were reluctant to leave.
After crossing the last ravine, you will reach another mountain, and then enter a slightly more difficult section of the hike.
We walked into a metasequoia forest. There is an almost vertical slope in the forest, and the rocky road washed by the water is steep and rugged, making walking a bit tiring.
A rough calculation shows that the elevation rise from the valley to the pass on the mountain is about 300 meters, and this section accounts for one-third.
Surprisingly, Houttuynia cordata began to appear on the roadside. I think most people can't resist the temptation of this kind of wild vegetable.
The further you go up, the more metasequoias there are on the mountain, and the trees are older than those at the foot of the mountain.
In spring, everything revives, and new green leaves grow on the bare branches of the metasequoia, full of vitality.
However, in autumn when the metasequoia leaves turn red, the scenery here should be more beautiful.
More than half an hour later, after passing through the metasequoia forest, an open area appeared in front of us.
On the ground, Houttuynia cordata grows in patches, and it is more vigorous than what was seen at the beginning. It is obvious that the land here is much fertile.
But at this time we no longer care about those delightful Houttuynia cordata, because there seems to be no way ahead.
The road was covered with weeds and thorns, and there was nowhere to go. The map on the mobile phone showed that it had deviated from the track. It was raining heavily at this time.
Fortunately, this is not a virgin forest. Standing on the empty hillside, we can still vaguely see the farmhouses in the ravine opposite. Moreover, this situation has been encountered often before. At worst, we will return the same way, so we don’t Worry.
Just when we were hesitating to give up, our sharp-eyed friends accidentally discovered the road signs left by other outdoor teams in the grass.
Following the road signs, we tried to move forward and entered a bamboo forest.
The bamboo here is small and not too dense. There is an inconspicuous trace of someone walking in the bamboo forest, and there are road signs left by the outdoor team at regular intervals, so it takes less than 10 minutes. , we successfully passed through this bamboo forest.
Returning to the main road, there is still a Metasequoia forest, and it is not far from the pass.
The remaining section of the road is not difficult, it is still uphill, but the road is covered with dead leaves. Under the dead leaves is rain-soaked soil, which makes it easy to slip on it.
Along the way, we can still often see road signs left by the outdoor team. Thanks to these road signs, we will not go wrong.
At 1:30 in the afternoon, we finally arrived at the pass. We set off from Qinglong Village at 9 a.m. and took 4 and a half hours to get here.
The pass is surrounded by dense bushes. Through the branches and leaves, you can only see a few nearby peaks. You can't see Wuzhong Mountain and Kaihua Temple, but you can already hear the sound of cars driving down the mountain.
After crossing the pass, it is downhill. Looking at the trajectory map, the distance to Kaihua Temple is about one-third of the entire distance.
The way ahead was blocked by thorns and vines, and there was mud underfoot. It seemed that the rest of the journey was not easy to walk.
But we plan to stop here because the road conditions ahead are dangerous and unknown, and the long walk has consumed too much energy. Even if we get to Kaihua Temple, there will be no transportation. We have to go back over the mountain the same way we came. Besides, the rain has not stopped and my friends and I’s shoes are basically already wet. There is no need to take this risk.
The altitude of the pass was already more than 1,600 meters, and we felt obviously chilly. After staying for a while, we returned the same way.
Passing through the empty hillside again, we picked a handful of Houttuynia cordata. This may be the biggest gain from this trip.
It is easier to go up the mountain than it is to go down the mountain. The way down the mountain is no easier than the way up the mountain. I stumbled and fell several times along the way. My raincoat was scratched by branches and my shoes and trouser legs were stained with mud. I joked with my friends that I They both seemed to be on the run.
Although we did not successfully reach Kaihua Temple, the process of hiking on a rainy day was a different kind of experience. The eye-catching green mountains and beautiful waters, and the original village landscape were also a visual enjoyment.