Jay
Leading river traces regularly on my Meetup or Instagram 12 seasons a year.
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Jay
River:
澳花溪 / Aohua riverArea:
YilanRegion:
EastStart:
24.350508751927908, 121.73356879504816It wasn’t an easy route at all, but we were lucky and didn’t have much trouble reaching the final waterfall, the Mysterious Waterfall. The first part of the journey was along a trail filled with thorny vines—a type of green plant covered in thorns that grows in bushes. The dirt was loose, and the slope beside the trail was steep, making it easy to f ... all off. I heard a friend fell 20 meters off the trail but, miraculously, he was fine and made his way back up. At the end of the trail, we reached the first waterfall. The only way to go over it was to climb along the side, which was only possible when the area was fairly dry. Fortunately, there wasn’t too much water in the creek, so we climbed over it easily. We had planned to rappel here on the way back, but due to the low water flow, we were able to climb down directly through the waterfall. Afterward, as we walked further, we encountered the second obstacle: a vertical gap several meters high, with a steep, almost slippery slope at the top and barely any holds. Falling would mean landing on bare rock, but this was the only way up. Thankfully, a long rope was already in place, so we managed to get up with minimal risk. Not far from the last obstacle, we finally arrived at the Mysterious Waterfall and its massive pool. The waterfall stands around 50 meters tall, with a powerful flow that crashes into the rocks below. The pool is an impressive oval shape, about 100 meters long, 50 meters wide, and up to 5 meters in the deepest. Swimming in such a vast, natural pool was a wonderful and unique experience. On our return, we didn’t need to rappel and finished the trace in seven hours instead of the ten hours we had planned. In summary, the Mysterious Waterfall river trace was a challenging route that required thorough planning. However, we were fortunate, and everything went much more smoothly than we expected. -
River:
碧旦溪 / Bidan creekArea:
YilanRegion:
EastStart:
24.42521,121.71871Most people visit only the entrance area of this creek, where the famous gorge of Bidan is located. Bidan gorge, with its red brown stripes, looks like the small version of Hayou River. And the gate to Bidan gorge's hallway(not at the fork of the big creek, a bit farther) resembles to the one in Melberry Creek. Tracing in this section of the creek u ... sually takes only 1–2 hours at most, but it's quite beautiful. We traced all the way up to the final marked spot. Along the way, we passed two pools and their small waterfalls. The first pool was large and clean. We climbed along the edge of its small waterfall on the left side (facing downstream), which was not too difficult. The second pool, however, was more challenging. We climbed up on the left side (facing downstream) and set up a rope to descend onto the top of the waterfall. We left the rope there for our return. Soon, we saw the first tall waterfall, about 50 meters high, with a gentle flow. The creek split there, and we took the left fork (facing upstream). The terrain grew steeper, and we did quite a bit of climbing—very different from the flatter section before. The final climb up to the waterfall was a bit tricky due to unstable rock plates (I cut my finger on silver grass while climbing down). Finally, we reached the last waterfall, which had a unique shape and a beautiful pool. Overall, the trace was enjoyable and not particularly difficult for experienced tracers. -
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.
