Our second day in Western Sichuan was full of adventures. We left our little hotel in Luding (泸定) in the morning. We had planned to sleep in a bit and relax in the morning, but when Jaye and I were at breakfast downstairs, the boss told us that the electricity would turn off at 9 a.m. We informed the others, some of whom had just woken up. After we finished our noodles, we had a little bit of time, so we hurried and packed up our things. There was an elevator, and we were on 3rd floor. I really didn’t want to carry my big suitcase down the stairs if the electricity turned off, so we came down at around 9 a.m., praying the electricity wouldn’t turn off while we were inside the elevator. Jessica and Timothy came down shortly after with their luggage also.
I sat around chatting with friends and reading a bit while the others finished getting ready and had breakfast. 9 a.m. came and went, but the electricity didn’t turn off. When we asked the hotel boss about it, she said that it was very uncertain. It might turn off, but it might not. I was a bit annoyed that I had rushed so much getting around when the electricity still seemed to be working, but I was also glad I didn’t have to try to carry my suitcase down the stairs. Finally, at around 9:30, the power turned off, and I was glad I had listened to the boss. But after a few minutes, it was back on. I laughed, oh well. Better safe than sorry!
We debated about what to do for the day. Originally, we were going to go to a mountain, but the hotel people said there was another mountain that was free and more beautiful. We should go to that one instead. If we were gonna be climbing mountains, I realized I had better wear warmer clothes, so I changed into some pants and found my jacket.
We finally set off on our adventure. The trail up the mountain that we planned to do was on the way to our next destination, and I checked the map from there to our final stop for the night. After the trail, we only had about an hour to the next city.
The drive along this road was beautiful. We were definitely off the interstate now, and we got to drive along the famous road that went through western Sichuan. We saw a bunch of people parked off to the side at one point, so we decided to pull off and see what everyone was looking at. We found a bunch of black pigs. Shirley loved the animals, so she gave them some food and accrued quite the following. I was more interested in the scenery, and there was a river with lots of rocks in a valley surrounded by lots of mountains.
We walked around, enjoying the beautiful scenery and taking pictures. Unfortunately, most of the pictures Timothy helped us to take from this area were lost, but I’m still so thankful we had Timothy along as our photographer. He loves taking pictures, and his pictures are incredible. He gave me permission to share them on my blog, and I think you will notice that the pictures from this section of my trip have improved quite a bit!
Pretty soon we decided we had better keep moving, so we got back on the road. But we didn’t make it very far before we had to stop for animals again. But this time, the animals were on the road! The obstruction was mostly from a herd of goats, and cars coming from the opposite direction were also stopped for the goats. There was also a horse that seemed to enjoy standing in the middle of the road. Shirley, our animal lover, hopped out and guided the goats and horse off the road. While we were stopped, I also snapped some pictures. I’m from Kansas, and driving through Western Kansas, you’ll see lots and lots of cows, but animals on the road was kind of a new thing for me. It definitely kept the trip interesting!
As we drove along, we realized that there was nothing on this road for lunch. We were really in the mountains. And we hadn’t brought any food for lunch. At around 11:30, we drove through a grassland with some horses here and there that was also supposed to be a tourist attraction. We hadn’t planned on stopping, but then we saw some tents and people selling instant noodles, grilled meat, corn, and other random things.
We passed the area, but as we drove further along, we realized that the area we had just passed might be our only option for lunch. Timothy was also checking the road ahead, and he let us know that the road seemed to be just going through the mountains. I turned around (thankfully that went smoothly on the two-line highway), and we headed back to the food.
We found a place to park (not an easy task since the area was crowded and all the parking was just along the road), hopped out, and looked around. However, the biggest problem was that none of us had signal on our phones. That wouldn’t matter—there were no urgent messages that we needed to send, but in China, almost everyone uses their phones to pay for everything. Jessica and Timothy had a little bit of cash, but the rest of us didn’t have a way to pay for anything.
Jaye saw a coffee truck and got a coffee. Since she couldn’t pay without service, the guy selling coffee assured her it was fine. “Just take a picture of the QR code and pay when you get signal later today,” he told her.
When Jaye told us this, we were all a bit shocked. The people here were so trusting. And it seemed like most people did pay them for things. I felt like we were living in a different world, but I loved it.
Jessica and I got some instant noodles and sat at some tables that they had set up along the road under their tent. They gave us hot water to cook the noodles from giant thermoses that they had nearby. We sat on the little stools, enjoying the scenery with grass and horses. Shirley joined us with some grilled meat and Jaye and Timothy also found things from various tents before sitting down.
We enjoyed a rather nice little lunch there under the tents, and I was very thankful we had stopped. There were some portable restrooms, but someone went in and told us they were nasty, so we opted for a more natural restroom in the trees further away from the road. We also saw lots more horses!
We drove for a bit longer before arriving at the place where the trail was supposed to be. This part was a bit tricky because I was expecting a trail head with a sign or something telling us that we had arrived. We saw some cars parked on the side of the road, but that was all. My friends had various maps open on their phones, trying to figure out where we were supposed to go. I wasn’t sure if maybe there was a parking area ahead, and we did see some people, so we stopped and asked them about it. They told us we were basically at the right place, but they also didn’t seem to know much about where it actually started.
We finally decided to go back to the first place we had seen the cars parked on the side of the road. Hopefully that was safe! I really can’t remember the name of this area. It wasn’t developed, and there didn’t seem to be an official park. But we got out of the car, and headed to the side of the road. Jaye had found some directions in a hiking app that we often use (两步路 liang bu lu) in China. At this point, we were already quite high, around 3,700ish meters (I can’t remember exactly, but I know we hiked up to around 4,000 meters. Since this was only our second day in the mountains, our lungs hadn’t quite adjusted, but we decided we would do as much of the hike as we could. The locals back at the hotel who recommended this hike told us it would take around 3-5 hours. I’m not sure why, but when I hear this, I always assume that I will be able to do it in the shorter amount of time, and especially at high altitudes, I almost always take the longer amount of time.
By this time, it was around 1 or 2 p.m., and I figured we should have time to do the whole hike. I really wanted to at least. Only doing part of a hike just feels sacrilegious. In Western Sichuan in the summer, we usually had daylight until around 8 p.m., and I figured since the next city was only about an hour away, we should have plenty of time even if the hike did take us longer. So we set off.
Unfortunately, we were hiking through pretty heavy fog. We could see most of our immediate surroundings, but we couldn’t see any kind of distant views. I didn’t mind so much because I hadn’t seen any pictures, so I didn’t know what we were missing, but at one point, when we were on the side of the mountain, Jaye called out mournfully, “According to my research online, this is supposed to be an incredible view.” She pointed toward the fog.
I wished the fog would clear, but I haven’t mastered fog-moving mind powers, so it didn’t. Today, God seemed to be giving us this weather, and while it wasn’t ideal, I was too tired to be too sad about it.
The beginning of the trail was ok because it was mostly along the side of the mountain, but I still felt out of breath just walking for a short distance. I stopped often to rest. But then we started going up. Everything was hard. I felt like I was always out of breath.
But I have realized that climbing mountains isn’t about rushing. Climbing mountains is slow and hard, but it’s also beautiful. I tried not to think about how far I had to go and just focused on the next step in front of me. When my heart was pounding too much, I stopped to rest, and we also stopped often to sit down.
Jessica and Timothy don’t usually enjoy hiking, but they agreed to go with us because they know that Shirley, Jaye, and I love hiking, and they were willing to do it together. I was glad because there wasn’t anything else to do back at the car, and it wasn’t a very good place for them to sit and relax. There wasn’t even a coffee shop for them to sit in and read or something. We really were in the middle of nowhere. They climbed with us, with the understanding that they probably wouldn’t go the whole way. They stayed with us though, and kept persevering through the challenges, resting and walking, resting and walking.
Shirley was the person that none of the rest of us could understand. We would be walking along, fighting for every breath and stopping to rest frequently. Shirley would stop to rest also, but after a moment of resting, she would pull out her harmonica and start playing. I don’t know how she had energy or breath to play. Just thinking about blowing on an instrument made me even more exhausted. So we sat there trying to breathe while Shirley played worship songs.
We met lots of animals as we walked along. Sometimes there was a path, but sometimes the path disappeared and we just went in the general direction that Jaye pointed us towards. Basically, as my uncle says, if you’re mountain climbing and you’re going up, that’s generally the right direction. So we kept going up and up and up.
Sometimes I wonder why I like mountain climbing so much. The process isn’t the most enjoyable. It’s hard and exhausting, but the views are incredible, and I love the sense of accomplishment that comes from doing hard things. I love looking back and seeing how far we have come. The tough thing about hiking at high altitudes is that you look back and see how far you have come and then realize that it wasn’t very far at all. But we labored on and on and on.
Photos by Timothy of our hike up:
We reached the ridge of a mountain and looked down at the fog drifting through the valley. A hawk soared through the fog. It was beautiful. I tried to take a picture, but Timothy was still there, and he took some better pictures. Now that we were on a ridge, we could also feel the strong, cold wind.
Fortunately, the next section of the hike was down into what seemed to be a valley. We were nearly done! Finally, we saw the lake that was our destination. The wind was strong, blowing ripples across the lake, and we went out to the dock.
We walked around and enjoyed the scenery for a bit, but it was chilly, and the fog kept us from being able to see too much. So we took some pictures, wandered around for a while, and then headed back.
The fog cleared a bit on our way back, and we even got to see some blue sky. The spot that Jaye really wanted to see was a bit clearer, so we could see a bit of the view!
By the time we got back to the car, I felt like we’d been gone for days, but it had only been a few hours. There were some men setting up a sign by the road, next to the trail entrance. But after we walked past and looked at the sign, we realized that it said, “Do not enter.” I laughed to myself, but the men didn’t seem to care that we were leaving.
We were very tired, but we were all very happy. We had finished our goal! We’d done the hard thing, climbed the mountain, seen the lake, and we had made it back. It was around 6 p.m., but that shouldn’t be a problem. The next city was only an hour away.
We loaded up into the car, and I found the hotel and then put the destination into my maps. Uh-oh. “Guys?” I said. “Our hotel is still 2 and a half hours away.”
“What?”
“Yeah, how did that happen? The city is only an hour away. I checked before we left,” I said.
Timothy checked the map also. “Yeah, your destination is right. That’s the hotel.” He said. “It must be outside of the city because the city center is in one place, but the area is much bigger.”
“But that’s gonna put us there after dark even if we don’t stop for dinner, and I need to eat dinner.”
We drove for thirty minutes or an hour before we came to a little village. We saw a sign for a restaurant and pulled in. After all the energy we had expended climbing the mountain, I knew that I wouldn’t be able to drive safely without a proper dinner.
The food was incredible. We were all exhausted, but I remember walking in and looking at the food at the tables next to us and basically just saying, let’s get that and that. The others also added a few things, and we enjoyed our food quite a lot.
However, by the time the food came, we ate, went to the restroom, and got back on the road, it was nearly dark. Well, it is what it is, I said. Let’s just do this.
And then it started raining.
At one point, we had to get back onto a highway, but there was lots of traffic, especially lots of big trucks. I kept trying to get in, but no one would let me in. There was on little van that pushed past me. I was annoyed, but that little van ended up being a godsend. We finally managed to squeeze onto the road, and we began the grueling drive through the mountains in the dark and the rain.
The two-lane road had cars going in both directions, but sometimes our side of the road added another lane. But the road lines were unclear, and if that little minivan hadn’t been in front of us, I would have been completely lost. Apparently, all of the huge trucks come out at night, and there were lots and lots of trucks on that road. The extra lane allowed us to pass them. Or at least, I passed them when the minivan in front of us also passed them. Most cars driving in Western Sichuan liked to drive faster than I was comfortable with, but that little van drove at a speed that was reasonable and comfortable for me. So we stuck to him like glue. Well, maybe not quite that close.
We followed that minivan around the hairpin turns up the side of the mountain, all the way up to 4,000 meters. Timothy’s watch told him the altitude, but even if he wasn’t telling it to us whenever Jaye asked, we could feel the difference. Several of us noticed headaches that came and went as we went up and down.
Then we followed that minivan—we started calling him our 大哥 (da ge; older brother)—back down more hairpin turns on the way down. I was a bit disappointed that we were driving at night in the rain because I’m sure the views must have been amazing, but my eyes were glued to the tail lights of the van in front of us, making sure that I didn’t lose him. I prayed quite a lot on that trip and tried not to imagine all of the horrible things that could happen.
Thankful that Timothy snapped these pictures from the passenger side. That was a night to remember!
The first time we passed one of the giant trucks, I held my breath and when we pulled over in front of him, my friends cheered and I breathed a sigh of relief. I followed the minivan as we passed other trucks, sometimes on the two-lane road and sometimes when there were three lanes.
My body was tense, and my mind was focused. Since it was raining and night and there were lots of cars, the trip actually took quite a bit longer than it was originally supposed to, but at around 11 p.m., we finally pulled into the hotel. I slumped into the driver’s seat, glad that we were safe and that we had made it. God is always good, and sometimes God’s provision includes a minivan that doesn’t drive fast and goes in our same direction for hours.
I shared a room with Jaye and Shirley, and they were very kind and allowed me to take a shower first. I was asleep before they even turned off the lights. What a day!