Lijiang Ganheba -1 The Milky Lake (丽江干河坝 - 牛奶湖)

      After having spent quite some time visiting Joseph Rock's former residence turned into a museum in Yuhu Village (玉湖村) , I did not get to go on the hiking trail starting from The Goddness Lake (女神湖). Today, I decided to get up early and try again. It was not wise to save several RMBs and wait for the cheap public transport to Yuhu Village. For one thing, it takes long time to wait for the bus, for another, I was naive enough to think that this hiking trail would not interest many tourists and it proved me wrong. The packed shaky bus trudged up to the village as if it suffered from severe high altitude sickness. After 40 mins, we finally arrived at the parking lot (the entrance). 

      The driver shouted:"It's the last stop!" yet people hesitated to get off. I was annoyed by people's laziness so I rushed myself off the bus and then strode hurriedly up to the starting point. From the entrance to the lake, it took me about 40 mins. When I reached the pasturage, I soon found the sheepherder who I had a pleasant chat with yesterday and gave him some pears. He insisted to give me something in return so I had another moon cake and a banana. After saying goodbye, I followed a group of hikers and voila, here went my journey!

      In the beginning of the hiking point, of course the gov. set up a sign warning people not to enter underdeveloped forest area. One good thing about Chinese is that they never care about those warning signs.
 

     The first part was through the forests. It was pretty easy and straight forward, keep left and one would not miss the main lane. And of course, the fresh horse shit along the way also showed us the right way.

      After about 1.5 hours, the easy forest routes were over. Now came the real upward stone road. When you see the "BEAR" sign, you should go towards the "BEAR" and not go straight. The altitude is not a problem here but the sands and stones. One needs to be careful not to twist their ankles.

    There were not many trees along the rocky road. This meant that the view was immensely open. Many young university students rested and took photos here. I also asked one of the girls help me take photos. Abruptly, she awkwardly asked me for some water with scrupulosity. I gladly offered her some water. She told me that she and her mates did not bring enough water so now all of them ran out of water. I was shocked! How careless they were! We were in the middle of nowhere! Thinking that one bottle was enough for me, I told her to keep the other one.

      Leaving the young girl behind, I proceeded with my adventure. Some other girls along the way might misunderstand me as an experienced hiker as they kept asking me how far the Milky Lake was. To be honest I had no idea. With no signal on my phone, I didn't even know where I was heading but simply followed the crowed and the path. In the end of the rocky road, there seemed to be more tourists resting around a vast plain. I felt released cos I was not lost.

     

      The other side of the plain was the final destination of most tourists - The Milky Lake. I myself did not really have a clear goal so I just went with the flow. Apparently, there were a few tourist groups coming up on horses with the locals. 

      Right in front of the lake, I saw a man digging something out of the ground with a hoe. I slowly approached the guy and asked what he was digging, he told me that they are precious herbal plants. I continued to ask what it was for and how he knew it was medicine. 

He said, "My father was a doctor and we use this herbal medicine to cure intestinal tract disease." 

"Can't you just buy tablets from the pharmacy for this issue? They are fairly cheap." 

"No, the medicine in the pharmacy is not as good as this natural one."

"Why do you only dig this type of herbal medicine but not others. I remember in the mountains of Sichuan, people also dig herbal medicine."

"Specific plants grow in specific mountains. The types of herbal medicine varies from regions."

"Can you only dig this plant in this season or you can find they throughout the year?"

"We harvest them mostly during now because they become ripe."

great burnet, anguisorba officinali, 地榆

great burnet roots

great burnet, anguisorba officinali, 地榆

 

      I spotted some same plants and yelled for the big uncle to come dig it out. Apparently, there were so many of them and he was pretty busy with the ones that he found. I put the leaves in my backpack and left for the Milky Lake. 

      The dry season has begun so a large area of the lake has dried out. We could basically walk on the lake bed and not be caught by the mud. However, the closer to the water side, the softer the lake bed was. One still needed to be careful.

      The Milky Lake, as its name suggested, looks purely white and sticky. After several minutes walking across the lake. I started to feel a bit of snow blindness and felt the urge to leave the lake as soon as possible. I hurriedly went on shore and rested my eyes with the green color trees. The view from this side of the lake was magnificent. It would be a lot more impressive if the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain was not covered with clouds.

      Started at about 10:30 and now it was only 13:30, a bit earlier than expected. I sat down, enjoyed the view, and had my quick lunch by the lake side. On my way back, Becky asked with a surprise, "Did you not go to the Canyon?" "What Canyon?" I was confused. There supposed to be another path leading to the Canyon among the snow mountains. Oh no! I missed it! I was annoyed but well, I did not have a proper plan nor a map so it was myself to be blamed. It seems that this trip is to be continued then!