Wenhai Lake Hike
5 September 2005
The other day while we were having lunch in Baisha at a café run by a trekking guide, we read about a short hike to an “ecolodge” at a place called Wenhai Lake in the mountains forming the west side of the Lijiang valley. The lake is on the southern flanks of Yulong (Jade Dragon) Snow Mountain, the big peak to our north, and is currently part of a Provincial Nature Reserve that the Nature Conservancy is helping to upgrade into a National Reserve. We stopped into the TNC office in Lijiang and got a crude map of the area (it’s impossible to get good maps here) that was better than any other maps we have, and decided to take advantage of our still light schedules (freshmen classes start next week) and take a lazy three-day weekend trip. The hike up is about 4 hours and you can do sort of an open loop to avoid backtracking on the way down. Tony, an Australian teaching here (he teaches comparative religion at a university in Australia – studying Aboriginal religions) and Suzanna and her 10-year old son, Ned, from Wales, decided to come along.
Friday, after Bei got home from kindergarten, we all piled into a taxi and headed for the trailhead, about 6 or so miles north of here. After a bit of conflicting information on where to start, we found ourselves slogging in a slow, middle-aged sort of way, up a paved staircase that tunneled through pine trees and rhododendrons in a beeline for the valley rim 1500 or 2000 feet above. I carried Bei in the kid carrier and Ellen hauled our stuff in my climbing pack—thankfully we didn’t need to carry a lot since it’s consistently warm here and our target was a lodge where food and beds are provided.
After that first day, the weather was about as good as it gets during the rainy season (hardly any rain and quite a bit of sun) and we had a great time exploring around. Here are some photos from the trip.
Here we are, part way up the staircase in the rain. All of us got soggy. The hike was strenuous and raingear just made you sweat more.
This is Tony, the Australian. He's a good guy and fun to explore with. He worked in academia for many years and wrote 4 or 5 books on aboriginal cultures in Australia before burning out and taking time off to live in China. He only started smoking recently, but enjoys it.
Here's Ellen carrying Bei after we topped out above the giant staircase. It continued to rain, though the rain tapered off and it got nicer.
Trails, horses, cows, goats and the rainy season are perfect for Ellen's Keen sandals. At least the mud oozes out of sandles rather than staying inside.
We ran across this goatherd moving his herd back into the village of Wenhai Lake when we were almost there. First we passed him in a field at the top of the last hill down into town. He looked a little like Darth Vader in his black cape and we weren't sure whether he was friendly or not. Then he caught up to us and, from beneath the cape, produced a handful of sugar crystals for Bei and Ned to ease the last part of their journey.
This was taken from an upper deck at the Wenhai Ecolodge looking south towards Yulong Snow Mountain. The lodge using solar heat to make hot water and has a biogas generator as well. It was written up in the New York Time in December (I think) 2004 and listed as one of the 10 best ecolodges in the world by Outside Magazine in 2003. We found it to be quiet and rustic with no other guests. The food, cooked by a cooperative of Naxi locals, was great--freshly harvested mushrooms, potatoes, tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplant and other greens along with fresh chicken eggs and pork. Total cost for food and lodging: $12.50 USD/day.
Here's our room on the second level. The view out the back window was toward Yulong Snow Mountain.
The lodge provided plastic sandals for wearing into the bathroom -- these were one of the strong points for Bei. If you want 4 year olds to come to your establishment, just provide a variety of large shoes for them to wear and, ideally, to scrub.
The standard Chinese broom collection.
The fences are made of vertical sticks woven together with long thin sticks. This view is through a fence towards the mountain.
The Wenhai Valley is dominated by Wenhai Lake which is apparently ephemeral--it grows to full size in the rainy season and then drains into the Karst in the dry season. There is lots of water in general in the valley--these channels are near the lodge. In December something like 70 species of migratory birds stop at Wenhai. We'll have to head up there then to see. There are also huge forests of rhododendrons to see in bloom in the spring.
I walked up to have a look at a limestone cave above the valley. Excellent climbing lines were everywhere, but the cave was seeping and mossy in the rainy season.
A Naxi woman taking a break. The village of Wenhai Lake is Naxi, but there are also Yi (another ethic group) villages around. Ellen hiked to a Yi village on Saturday with Tony while I hung out with Bei at Wenhai.
Bei, Ned and I went for a hike around the lake while Ellen and Tony were hiking and Ned's Mom was taking a break. The flats around the lake are lush with grass and grazed by horses, cows, pigs and this solitary yak that we approached for a photo. It was the first yak I've seen.
He charged! Ned jumped about 5 feet in the air and took off running. With Bei on my back, I stood my ground, waved my arms and made a loud and intimidating noise that apparently worked since I don't have any horn wounds.
On Sunday we enjoyed a gentle and beautiful walk out (4 hours) to Shuhe, the village near our apartment. It stayed dry the whole day for us.
Grazing pigs near the lake.
A short rest near the "Little Sea", a small lake beyond Wenhai Lake on our trail.
Lunch about 2/3 of the way down.
And finally, back to the restaurants and tourists (and hungry dogs) of Shuhe.
The other day while we were having lunch in Baisha at a café run by a trekking guide, we read about a short hike to an “ecolodge” at a place called Wenhai Lake in the mountains forming the west side of the Lijiang valley. The lake is on the southern flanks of Yulong (Jade Dragon) Snow Mountain, the big peak to our north, and is currently part of a Provincial Nature Reserve that the Nature Conservancy is helping to upgrade into a National Reserve. We stopped into the TNC office in Lijiang and got a crude map of the area (it’s impossible to get good maps here) that was better than any other maps we have, and decided to take advantage of our still light schedules (freshmen classes start next week) and take a lazy three-day weekend trip. The hike up is about 4 hours and you can do sort of an open loop to avoid backtracking on the way down. Tony, an Australian teaching here (he teaches comparative religion at a university in Australia – studying Aboriginal religions) and Suzanna and her 10-year old son, Ned, from Wales, decided to come along.
Friday, after Bei got home from kindergarten, we all piled into a taxi and headed for the trailhead, about 6 or so miles north of here. After a bit of conflicting information on where to start, we found ourselves slogging in a slow, middle-aged sort of way, up a paved staircase that tunneled through pine trees and rhododendrons in a beeline for the valley rim 1500 or 2000 feet above. I carried Bei in the kid carrier and Ellen hauled our stuff in my climbing pack—thankfully we didn’t need to carry a lot since it’s consistently warm here and our target was a lodge where food and beds are provided.
After that first day, the weather was about as good as it gets during the rainy season (hardly any rain and quite a bit of sun) and we had a great time exploring around. Here are some photos from the trip.
Here we are, part way up the staircase in the rain. All of us got soggy. The hike was strenuous and raingear just made you sweat more.
This is Tony, the Australian. He's a good guy and fun to explore with. He worked in academia for many years and wrote 4 or 5 books on aboriginal cultures in Australia before burning out and taking time off to live in China. He only started smoking recently, but enjoys it.
Here's Ellen carrying Bei after we topped out above the giant staircase. It continued to rain, though the rain tapered off and it got nicer.
Trails, horses, cows, goats and the rainy season are perfect for Ellen's Keen sandals. At least the mud oozes out of sandles rather than staying inside.
We ran across this goatherd moving his herd back into the village of Wenhai Lake when we were almost there. First we passed him in a field at the top of the last hill down into town. He looked a little like Darth Vader in his black cape and we weren't sure whether he was friendly or not. Then he caught up to us and, from beneath the cape, produced a handful of sugar crystals for Bei and Ned to ease the last part of their journey.
This was taken from an upper deck at the Wenhai Ecolodge looking south towards Yulong Snow Mountain. The lodge using solar heat to make hot water and has a biogas generator as well. It was written up in the New York Time in December (I think) 2004 and listed as one of the 10 best ecolodges in the world by Outside Magazine in 2003. We found it to be quiet and rustic with no other guests. The food, cooked by a cooperative of Naxi locals, was great--freshly harvested mushrooms, potatoes, tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplant and other greens along with fresh chicken eggs and pork. Total cost for food and lodging: $12.50 USD/day.
Here's our room on the second level. The view out the back window was toward Yulong Snow Mountain.
The lodge provided plastic sandals for wearing into the bathroom -- these were one of the strong points for Bei. If you want 4 year olds to come to your establishment, just provide a variety of large shoes for them to wear and, ideally, to scrub.
The standard Chinese broom collection.
The fences are made of vertical sticks woven together with long thin sticks. This view is through a fence towards the mountain.
The Wenhai Valley is dominated by Wenhai Lake which is apparently ephemeral--it grows to full size in the rainy season and then drains into the Karst in the dry season. There is lots of water in general in the valley--these channels are near the lodge. In December something like 70 species of migratory birds stop at Wenhai. We'll have to head up there then to see. There are also huge forests of rhododendrons to see in bloom in the spring.
I walked up to have a look at a limestone cave above the valley. Excellent climbing lines were everywhere, but the cave was seeping and mossy in the rainy season.
A Naxi woman taking a break. The village of Wenhai Lake is Naxi, but there are also Yi (another ethic group) villages around. Ellen hiked to a Yi village on Saturday with Tony while I hung out with Bei at Wenhai.
Bei, Ned and I went for a hike around the lake while Ellen and Tony were hiking and Ned's Mom was taking a break. The flats around the lake are lush with grass and grazed by horses, cows, pigs and this solitary yak that we approached for a photo. It was the first yak I've seen.
He charged! Ned jumped about 5 feet in the air and took off running. With Bei on my back, I stood my ground, waved my arms and made a loud and intimidating noise that apparently worked since I don't have any horn wounds.
On Sunday we enjoyed a gentle and beautiful walk out (4 hours) to Shuhe, the village near our apartment. It stayed dry the whole day for us.
Grazing pigs near the lake.
A short rest near the "Little Sea", a small lake beyond Wenhai Lake on our trail.
Lunch about 2/3 of the way down.
And finally, back to the restaurants and tourists (and hungry dogs) of Shuhe.
posted by Ken, Ellen and Bei | 4:56 PM
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