Tiger Leaping Gorge Day 2

The 7:30am alarm came all too early. I woke up a little stiff from trekking 12 miles and sleeping on a rock hard bed but ready to begin the day. Breakfast was served at 8:00am and we were out the door by 9:00am.

The sky was a bit overcast and a light drizzle was falling. Robert's forecast was for the rain to stop when the sun warmed things up and caused the dew point to rise. Do I even have to tell you he was right!

On the patio of our hostel, ready to go.

The Plan - hike down 1.5 miles to the bottom of the Middle Gorge and get as close as possible to the "angry tiger river." Up, via ladder climbing, then walk 16 miles out of the gorge, through two small villages to the Yangtze River Ferry and drive 2 hours back to Lijiang.

Tiger Leaping Gorge of the Yangtze River

At the bottom

The hike down through a steep bamboo forest was aided by holding on to chains and cable. At the bottom a 5 Yuan ($0.75) toll was charged to climb on the rock that jets over the raging river, the one from which the legendary tiger jumped. The huge volume of water that was being squeezed through such a narrow valley caused water to spray the rock which made things slippery. Robert was a little too excited and had a decent fall but everyone else made is scratch free.

Angry Tiger River

After a half an hour of watching we headed to the Sky Ladder to get out of the gorge. The ladder, built by the local landowners, was completely vertical and hung between two rock faces on the mountain wall. We had two to climb. The first one had at least 50 rungs and the second about 20. It was crazy, scary, and required 110% focus and concentration so Robert risked his life for a few photos. We all speculated that if this had been in the U.S.A. we would have had to sign a liability release form, wear helmets, climbing harness, ropes, carabiners, have three guides, compete a training course plus a multitude of other features to ensure our safety and diminish the company's liability. 

Sky Ladder

     

                                        We made it to the top and out of the gorge!

At the top and ready for lunch

The 16 mile trek out was long but enjoyable. The boys showed our guide the thrill of "doney rolling." For those of you who have not hiked with the Sheldon boys I'll explain. This game is played by rolling large, round, donut shaped rocks down the steep hill to the river below. The person who's rock makes it the farthest is the winner. There is always tons of laughs, shrieks, and thrills as you watch rocks roll, fly, bounce and split their way down.

Since were lallygagging once again, taking our time, it was looking like we would miss the last ferry across the river at 5:00pm since we still had a ways to go. Our guide reassured us that we would get across the river no matter what. We walked through the last village at 5:50pm. OOPS!!


The Last Village

Our guide's confidence led him to ask a local family for the cell phone number of the ferry captain and sweet talk him into taking us across the Yangtze River. Yes, people in this remote Chinese village who still farm by oxen pulling a plow use cell phones!


Almost There

The Captain and his First Mate agreed and arrived 15 minutes later on horseback. They offered to let the boys ride the horses down the steep switchback hill to the river. Cameron and Taylor were the first to hop on then Taylor gave Ryan a chance to ride the rest of the way down. The boys were grinning from ear to ear as the horses did the work for them.

We made it to the bottom with barely enough daylight left for the Captain to see to pull start the diesel engine and the First Mate to get us safely loaded on deck. As we crossed the river the sun set and they left us in darkness to climb up the other side. The reward was watching gazillions of stars sparkling in the night sky.

Our Tiger Leaping Gorge is one adventure that will be etched in our memories for a long time.