I enjoy hiking and I especially like doing it alone. I feel it’s very relaxing to be able to go at my own pace, slow down or speed up as I want, take as many or as few breaks as I need, and not having to consider other people at all. I also feel there’s something special about being alone in nature, nothing but my own thoughts and the sounds of the animals around me. With that in mind, you’ll understand that I felt quite skeptical when my colleague sent an invitation in our group chat for a bunch of us to go hiking together. However, the trail he suggested was for climbing Gaotai Mountain (高台山), which I had in the back of my mind as a future route, so I decided to join. This turned out to be a good decision. Of course, it wasn’t as peaceful as hiking solo, nevertheless it was quite nice to chat with my colleagues as we walked. What’s more, as you can see below, it can be good to have other people to act as models for your photos.

The Gaotai trail in itself is just OK: it only took us an hour of relatively easy hiking to get to the peak, which is a bit too short and un-adventurous for my taste. However, the trail continues to a series of other peaks called three Daotian (小島田, 中島田 and 大島田). This increases the total length of the hike (there and back) from around two hours, to five or six. It also adds a couple of sections of scrambling which definitely increases the adventure factor. All in all, the full route including Gaotai and and the three Daotian peaks makes for a very fun dayhike. If you want more detailed information about the route, including GPS coordinates, it’s worth checking out The Map Room.

There’s not much more to say. Now on to those photos I mentioned.

Jetsin
Wayne
Jordan
Lynn
The whole crew

Starting to hike
The sun filtering in through the trees is beautiful
Throwing this in here because I think it’s a cool pic. This wouldn’t be possible when solo hiking
The trail is getting steeper
Sometimes the route requires more than just walking

The plateau after Gaotai peak

Sometimes looking up can give you the best view
Heading upwards again

Most of the time you’re in the forest but every once in a while you reach a clearing.

As you get closer to the Daotian peaks the terrain becomes more difficult

Eventually it becomes more like climbing than hiking
Up here the woods are such a jumble of trees

Wayne is making good progress
Jetsin waiting for his turn to climb

Upwards and into the light
The view from here is even better than at the last clearing
Continuing to the last peak

The terrain continues to be difficult
When climbing gets too tiring you can stop and check out some cool moss

Finally at the last peak
I love that this tree is big enough to have a small cave in its trunk
On the way down we stumbled on this old engine. It’s not connected to anything so it’s hard to know why it was there
As we were heading down the fog started rolling in
I love these fog drenched landscapes

Hiking through fog looks so dramatic

I love the effect of the sun behind the fog
One more because it looks cool
As we got lower down the fog lifted a bit
Eventually we could see blue sky overhead again