Fire Mountain Hike

–by Pickles

We heard about a hike not too far from Taichung from Passionfruit’s friend Julia who we met hiking in another part of town. People are so friendly on the mountains.

Just north of the city is a bright red rock formation that can be seen off the highway. We decided to tackle Fire Mountain on a hot Sunday afternoon. Hot here means the “feels like” temp registers between 100-105 F.

The back story (pun intended)

Passionfruit got an MRI of her back a week prior. Diagnosis: herniated L4 disk. Ouch! She was told to lay off the biking, but hiking is a-ok as long as she doesn’t carry anything. I am now her pack mule.

The hike up offered a little bit of shade.
Approaching the red rocks
Although this was primarily a hike along a trail, there were still some sections of stairs. It is still Taiwan after all.
View from the top

As we started to make our way down the mountain, we heard a lot of voices. We were nervous that we were about to run in to a group of tour buses, but when we came round the corner we came across these folks enjoying tea and lunch. Social harmony in the woods.

A common hiking scene
Stone (on right) and his friends enjoying noodles and Oolong

They insisted we stop and join them and a rest felt quite nice in the afternoon heat. Because it’s Taiwan, it wasn’t long before we were offered a cup of tea and some lunch. Taiwan hospitality!

The friendliest place we’ve ever traveled/lived
New Friends!

We were told that this group shows up every Sunday to do the 6 km hike and that we are invited to join in any time. At the end of the hike, we came across this house, covered in quotes and proverbs.

Sometimes a majority simply means all the fools are on the same side.

Happy hiking out there! Love,

pp

Pickles & Passionfruit


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