Woke at about 7:30 AM. I hesitated for a second thinking whether I should go to Ganheba (干河坝) again as I missed the trekking trail to the dry river dike area the other day. Online lessons would not start until late evening, I should have enough time to finish it before the my long-desired Joseph Rock's route. I sent a message to Jennifer, "Jen, shall I go again to Ganheba?" Before Jen could answer my message, my decision had already been made - "Yes, I am going!" When I almost finished packing, Jen said, "Go!" "Haha, you know me best buddy, love ya!" as I replied.
I wanted to be in the Yuhu Village as early as possible this time, so I grabbed a bun and a boiled egg from a nearby restaurant then hurriedly biked to the bus station. Unfortunately, the bus seemed to be always late, I tried to persuade two couples of tourists to share a taxi but they refused. While I was struggling whether to take a taxi myself or not, the bus came so I went on the annoying slow bus. Same as the other day, I arrived to the entrance at about 10:20, reached The Goddness Lake at 10:50. Without too much time for being courtesy, this time I only brought a bottle of coke for the sheepherder. A local guy who seemed to be the sheepherder's friend added me on Wechat and promised me he would show me the way to the dry river dike. I was skeptical but without thinking too much, I hastily said goodbye to them and ran into the forests.
With the experience from last time, the roads through the forests seemed to be a lot easier. I soon arrived to the great plain area. The map pointed to the left where the mountains are located instead of going straight forward - which was what I did two days ago - straight away to The Milky Lake. So I turned left into the steinig path. The path led all the way to the foot of the mountain, it cannot be wrong.
Being alone on the way, seeing other tourists fading from the other side, the wind started to howl and it was also drizzling, I began to feel a bit frightened. From what? I don't know. My mind was making up story from the sign indicating black bear and boar. I slowed down my pace and became more alert, kept looking around from time to time.
"You come back for the dry river dike and the mountains, don't give up half way!"
"But it could be dangerous! See! No one is around and I am all alone! What if there is bear! I'd die!"
"Come on! The trees are not even dense. How could there be bear around?"
"I don't know! The only thing I know is that I am all ALONE. And if anything happened, the game would be over!"
......
Two little ones started to fight against each other in my brain.
I had no idea how I finally reached the real dry river dike. I also found the trickling streams which the guy told me earlier - "you have to walk upstream." Ah! This is why people call it Ganheba (The Dry River Dike) The vast riverbed was covered with small white (mostly white) stones flowing out from the canyon. How magnificent nature is! I couldn't help but take photos.
"I have to walk faster to catch up." I told myself. Weird enough, no matter how fast I walk, they seemed not reachable. As soon as I got to the decayed burnt trees area, they were already up on the hill with giant rocks. When I made it to the rocky hills, they were long gone and disappeared from my eye sight. What the hell! Are they humans or ghosts?! How could this be possible! I had not even stopped for a second! "Keep walking, they are there. You can't miss them." I murmured.
The rocky hills were painful. Basically there was no "road". It's easier to proceed when stepping on bigger rocks but sometimes I also needed to be careful because the stones were not stable. After the long trudge up and down the rocky hills, again I found the orange spot but where was the white one? Did she stop? Indeed, soon I caught up with the girl.
I walked towards her and asked, "Are you sitting here and wait for your boyfriend?"
"Yes, it's enough for me. I don't feel like walking anymore."
"But you've gone this far already! Come on! It's not that far! We can catch up with your boyfriend together!" With my encouragement, they lady agreed to join the journey again.
In about 30 mins, (It really looked like only 30 mins' walk but it took forever!) we arrived the second last slope at the foot of the mountain where the girl's boyfriend stood and waited for us. To my surprised, he said that he also had given up and did not want to go further.
I looked up, again, it seemed only 30 mins' walk! I sat down with them, finally got some time to have my quick lunch. I gobbled a piece of cake, quaffed the energy drink so as to swallow the cake. Suddenly, we all saw one guy in black moving upwards. Nobody saw him along the way, he just popped up from nowhere! I blew my whistle to draw his attention yet the effort was in vain.
Now came my dilemma: the couple seemed pretty determined not to continue. The man in black had been up there for quite some time and soon he would come down. If I went up now, I would definitely be alone again! How weird! This exact feeling of loneliness - being the only human in the wild, was intimidating enough to impair my confidence and ambition.
The top was right there, the waterfall was right up there. There's no way I should give up here. The only thing that I could hope was that the MIB not to come down that early. I left my power bank to the couple. They promised to back down slowly and wait for me along the way. After saying thank you, I advanced myself towards the final destination.
As expected, the MIB was descending while I was ascending.
We met halfway and I said to him, "Big brother, please don't leave. I do not dare to go if no one's around."
No worries. It's safe up there. You can go and take some photos."
"Oh, please stay! The couple did not come. I have the confidence only because I saw you."
"But I have to go because it's getting late."
"Aw, that 'getting late' worries me even more!"
"It's not far. You can make it!"
"Could you please go up again? With me?"
"Hmmm, alright then."
"Thank you so so much!"
The last 20m of the rubble pile slope was even steeper. Five steps forward, a long pause; another five steps forward, and then pause.
"How far is it?"
"10 minutes."
"Are you sure I can get on the top in 10 mins?"
"Sure!"
Thanks for the encouragement big brother! I pressed on without letup and FINALLY, I (We) did it! The waterfall! MIB was happily helping me take photos. Ouch! Rocks were falling from the waterfall! "Don't get to close to the waterfall." said MIB. I am not good in front of cameras, yet MIB seemed to be more excited than me. He kept asking me to change pose. A lot of photo shooting then abruptly "BANG"! A huge rock fell from the midst of the mountain range. I was shocked!
"Did you see that? What if it hits us? We'd die! Come on big brother! Let's get back! It's very dangerous here!"
As we descended, the light inside the valley was getting dim. We looked back to the mountain, the feeling of "the awe of nature" hit me. The fjell became an elfland, intertwined with the ever changing fairy tale-like fogs and clouds. At that very moment, I felt as of the mountain was talking to me. I was scared, but thankful. Thanks for letting us touch you, and for keeping us safe.
After 2 hours or so, we were back to the grassland. MIB headed back to Yuhu Village and me to The Milky Lake to join the couple. I said goodbye to MIB as he stood and saw me leave. It's getting darker, I trotted towards The Milky Lake and reunited with the couple.
This journey is wilder than I expected. Think about how the Canyon is formed. It looks exactly like a rubble suffered from severe landslides after earthquakes. Later, I heard several people talked about the 1996 earthquake in Lijiang. I should be thankful that I come back safe and sound. Without those three nice human beings I met on the way, I could not have made it on the top.
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