Half Wall Spot Jan 23 Hike

On this beautiful freezing cold Wednesday morning January 23 we followed our intrepid leader Leslie; it is always an adventure hiking with Leslie and today was no different. The day began normal as one would expect. We drove past a village into an area where rock mining was taking place. This particular valley known ignimatically as Half Wall Spot is known for its beautiful rock formations.



This is our group for the day minus the photographer, Rachel. I am in the back on the right. It looks cold because it is. It is 9:30 in the morning. We all warm up as we wind our way up and up.


The hiking route is a loop that winds its way up to the top of this pass and around to the left before decending to the bottom where we began.


Along the way we look for a rock that marks a pathway up to a ridge on the left. From where we stand it seems impossible to reach that ridge. There is a hidden cave in the mountain where the Japs are perported to have bunked (the hidden path was marked by a secret rock in this valley of rocks), we couldn't find the path even with no undergrowth hidding the ground.









We encounter a farm about half way up the mountain that Leslie tells us was run by a man who had 6 children. There are many feildstone walls that leveled the ground for planting crops.





This is a series of troughs the highest one is sitting on the edge of the well. There was heavy frost in the well and a stone dropped in let us know there was ice down below.




This beautiful picture above was inside an area where animals were kept. The basket is used for "night soil".


This is the home of the farmer. There is a kong inside that takes up half of the room. Above the bed is a string that has the bedding hanging from it as a clothes line would hang. There are vegetables hanging in plastic bags from the rafters and wood piled up near the door.

Look closely and you will see the stove to the left of me. My foot is pointing to where one would put wood in. The top is where the wok would sit. A device allows for the warmth from the fire to divert into the home for heating.
It is a small one place to have raised 6 children.

It seems like someone is using the home and maybe herding sheep. It is locked up tight today.



From the top of the path we can see down into the plain where Beijing lies. A shroud of pollution covers the city.









On our way down we came across a temple ruin. It was once a large temple and there are many large rocks nearby where we imagined contemplation took place. This is picture of a peice of a column.

The temple was situated along a once beautiful but now dry riverbed that fell over large boulders into the valley. We found more feildstone walls and the path was sometimes supported by hand stacked rock walls.












A picture for you Em.


















This beauty was Leslie's favorite rock on the trip. She did manage to find another smaller rock to carry home. There were three of us walking together and we all took turns carrying her treasure to the car.

Our adventure for the day occured at the end. There were 10 hikers to begin with and just over the top and after lunch Leslie wanted to take a path she thought might lead us the the secret cave. Five of the hikers went on to the car and left for home. We knew there was only 1.5 hours to the car and it was early yet, so off we went through what seemed to be a rabbit path. It lead nowhere, so we backtracked and took another "path". We wound our way to a ridge and still had no luck figuring where the cave was. We reluctantly headed down the path into the valley. Leslie found her prize rock and we
were just about 5 minutes from the car when Mr. Zhao came driving around the corner. He was in a hurry. He was also relieved he found us in time. The dynamite men were there and ready to blast. They were going to go ahead and we would just have to wait until the dust settled. A close call and another adventure.