Jay
Leading river traces regularly on my Meetup or Instagram 12 seasons a year.
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Jay
River:
梗枋溪 / Gengfang creekArea:
YilanRegion:
EastStart:
24.90694,121.85342The creek is short, but the trek took us more time than expected. We planned to finish it in about 2 hours, but surprisingly, it took 4 hours. The creek is full of shrimp, and we spent quite a bit of time watching them. There was also some climbing along the creek. We encountered the first small waterfall/obstacle just dozens of meters from where we ... entered the water. It was about 3 meters high. I carefully climbed up and found a rope lying at the top, which then I threw down for the others. The rope seemed to have been there for over a decade. Climbing down would have been nearly impossible without it. Then, we entered a small gorge with a large boulder blocking the creek, forming a very small waterfall about 2.5 meters high, just barely qualifying as one. This "waterfall" pool was the only spot where we could fully soak ourselves. After about 50 minutes of tracing the creek, we reached the main waterfall. It was in the right fork, and there was a massive landslide just 10 meters away from it. The strong flow of water poured down from this 10-meter waterfall (but keep in mind, this was a week after a typhoon). We took pictures, enjoyed the natural spa, and had our lunch there. We did this trace a week after a typhoon and the water flow was satisfying. I can imagine how dry the creek could be during a dry period. In general, creeks in Toucheng are often a good choice after heavy rain. -
River:
中平溪 / Zhongping creekArea:
HualienRegion:
EastStart:
23.3871,121.29691We went to a tributary of Zhongping Creek (中平溪). We walked mostly on the hunting trail from the beginning to the fork, which took us two hours to reach and one hour to return. The trail was not easy to navigate because it was full of bushes. The creek is full of life. We saw a lot of fish, big crabs, and shrimp. We even saw a barking deer falling to ... ward us and running away. We also saw a goat on a slope, but it quickly fled. We were amazed by how much wildlife we encountered. We visited two waterfalls in the tributary. They were close to each other. The first one has a beautiful shape like the one in Qiedong Creek (茄苳溪) or Jianshanhu (尖山湖瀑布). We went up the waterfall by its right side (facing downstream). The bushwhacking was full of thorn vines—quite painful. We carefully climbed through bushes and thorn vines and set up a rope to climb back down to the creek. The second waterfall was just ahead of us. It was a 50-meter waterfall and looked very similar to 九龍瀑布 (Nine Dragons Waterfall) in Pingxi. If you trace up Zhongping Creek instead of its tributary, you might reach Valau Waterfall. It's giant and can be seen from satellite images. However, the trace takes 12-13 hours and requires skills and massive stamina. -
River:
馬鞍溪 / Ma'an creekArea:
HualienRegion:
EastStart:
23.68982,121.37294A beautiful creek with a lot of climbing. We visited two waterfalls and a pool between them. The distance isn't long, but it took us a lot of time (eight hours in total). There's a third waterfall, but we didn't go there. Beginners will have a very hard time, but ordinary river tracers or people good at climbing should be fine. A rope is strongly r ... ecommended for this trip. We visited two waterfalls. The first one is quite beautiful, located in a half-encircled gorge. The second one is a three-tiered waterfall. Between the two waterfalls is a pool similar to Goddess' Pool in Melburry Creek (you need a rope here to make sure you can climb back after jumping in).
