Machete required

I made another attempt for the peak. It gets bigger looking the closer I get, it is really a huge rock face, I'm guessing at least two pitches (at least 180'), but I'll have to figure it out. There's enough growing on it that I'm thinking I could probably top rope it.

I took the same new road out of town. I like being able to get out of town so fast. The constant attention is really tiring sometimes. I don't get the really annoying "hell, nice to meet you" heckling in Xiwu very often anymore, but even friendly, but constant attention in your face can wear you out. It's strange, sometimes it feels like all the eyes somehow tires me. So, since Xiwu is mostly around the East/West highway, anything perpendicular gets you out of town pretty fast.

As I mentioned before, the road heads through rice patties, which have canals and ditches snaking around each square. I'm guessing that this is the source of the snails that are so easy to get along with all the other shellfish around here. These snails are about the size of a ping pong ball (funny how references change).

There's the bridge over a large canal that is a favorite fishing spot. I've never seen a fish larger than 5" come out of it, but still it can be pretty fun watching the line bob. They don't use one big bobber like we do, they use a string of small floats about the size of a bb gun's pellet. You can barely see the string sinking down in this photo. Any night you can see a few powerful lights shining down on the water watching their strings. The lights will mostly die out if I pass the bridge twice during a run, but it's also a nice place to stop since no one pays very much attention to me.

Last time I came out to the lake I saw a small road heading up the hill towards a small radio tower at what looks like a quarter the elevation of the peak. I ducked down every alley until I found a small one that dead ended into a small gate but had a foot trail going around the side of the house. I found myself going through random grave plots and on the small road. It was the first time I'd run on a hill so it was fun seeing the valley fall away. I passed a scooter parked at the base of an especially steep section and soon passed the owner. I waited for him at the end of the road, the tower seemed to only have a single track trail to it. He was working on a large project building terraces. I wish I had returned earlier, I saw the signs of drilling holes for dynamite and heard the boom of it later in the afternoon. I headed up several old road beds that didn't seem to go anywhere before deciding to just get on the ridge and stomp my own trail. I took this photo of the town at the base of the dam just before I ducked into the dense brush.

I was guessing that level ground would make progress easier, but it was very, very dense. I think it had been cut within 5 years, so there was that painful mix of brush, small trees, and dead trees on the ground covered with brush. I spent about two hours pushing through the stuff. I spotted this caterpillar about four inches from my nose, as was most the other brush.

I started this hike intending to mostly run, but decided next time I would wear pants and carry a machete. I still haven't found one, I'll post photos of the heavy bladed knives they use here. They don't have them at every corner hardware store like in the U.S.

Woe is me, or my leg. It wasn't deeper than a thorn, but it sure didn't feel good getting covered in it. I felt like was doing an adventure race.

I noticed a washout, or gully, like I had used on the previous hike heading straight down the hill towards the small town. I continued along the ridge, but the progress was so slow I finally retreated down this. It was very steep, which have me some nice views of the valley, but none of the bluffs were too difficult to down climb around.

I almost grabbed this when I stumbled - I'm glad I didn't.

They don't seem to have grave yards here in the rural areas, just random groups of graves. I was trying to control my descent when I spotted this next to the trail. As you drive down the highway, where there has been allot of earth moved, a hillside cut out etc, it is pretty common to see coffins that have been cut in half, or are sticking out of the hillside.

I was suddenly in an open bamboo grove, then back on the edge of the small town, totally unnoticed. Usually in the small towns I've basically got a small crowd following me, and the overwhelming thought in my head is getting out of there as opposed to looking at the town. I enjoyed the peace for a minute and took a few photos of the ubiquitous clay roofs. Stacks of spare roof tiles are stacked wherever they fit, in this case along the wall of the alley. You can see how they construct the roof too. Notice the solar water heater, they're very common too.

Brick construction is structural here. Check out the straw hats, pretty cool looking huh? The country folks don't wear the stereotypical pointed cone hats here.

I took a photo of this guy after trying out his finishing trowel. They aren't as strong as the ones' from Marshalltown, but are still solid. Of special interest to me (as an ID) is how these tools seem to all be scaled down just a little for their smaller hands.

I saw this old man loading some more scraps onto his bicycle and leaning into it to get it started again as I came into town. I don't feel so tough.


( Sorry about the weird formatting. I'm going to have to strart writing my own html code. It seems impossible to control where the photos fit in with the text and the spacing.)