Planning

Basianshan Main Peak is known as the “big boss” of the Guiguan Seven Heroes. The trail is 6 kilometers long with a vertical elevation gain of 1400 meters. The official estimate for the round trip is 8 hours, and netizens suggest that amateurs should estimate 9 hours to be safe. Most people start climbing in the early morning. In short, I had heard from friends who hike that Basianshan Main Peak is very tough.

Marine and I stayed in a cabin here a while ago. Because we were greedy and wanted to eat cheap breakfast at the restaurant at 7:30 the next day, plus we’re amateurs, we didn’t dare to dream too much about summiting. However, we still estimated the time: if we started climbing at 9 after breakfast and returned to the starting point by 5, we would need to turn back by 13:30 at the latest. This time frame indeed wouldn’t allow us to summit, so we decided to climb until around 12-1 o’clock, eat lunch, then turn back.

If we weren’t planning to summit, what were we looking forward to? We were just looking forward to making a hot bowl of miso soup to drink during lunch, enjoying the feeling of drinking hot soup at the summit. Also, we had heard early on that this trail doesn’t have much of a “view”—no view, no hope—so not summiting wouldn’t be much of a regret.

The evil thought

The starting point of the hike is less than a thousand meters above sea level, so it’s not very cool, not like the feeling of being in high mountains. But the trees are very tall and dense, creating a conflicting feeling of being deep in the mountains.

The time estimate was quite accurate. We started climbing from the trailhead around 9 o’clock. Right from the start, it was a stone path with very high steps, and the elevation rose quickly. I remembered to pay attention to deep breathing and reducing my pace. Fortunately, we had eaten a full breakfast at the restaurant, and we still had plenty of energy at the beginning, so we walked straight to 3K before resting, which was around 11 o’clock. During this time, we only stopped once to take photos when we saw a cute little snake in the roadside grass.

The elevation really kept rising the whole way, with almost no downhill sections. Because the air pressure gradually decreased, I started to experience ear ringing, and the temperature gradually became cool and comfortable, starting to have the slight chill of high mountains.

I love this feeling.

Around 12 o’clock, when we were almost at 4.5K, we caught up with a hiking team from Changhua. They were definitely going to summit. At that point, the two of us suddenly had an evil thought: could we make it to the summit in time?

However, the section from 4K was really steep—I was eating my hands, so to speak. It could be said to be the steepest section of the entire trail. I was like swimming, desperately adjusting my breathing and steps, using all my strength to finally reach 5K. Still 1K to go.

It was 12:30, and we rested to eat lunch. When I was peeing,

marine: Pee further away.

me: I’m peeing super far, okay? I’m peeing all the way to the “mountain below.”

marine: You might as well say you peed to “mountain K” (3K).

We ate scallion pancakes, made the long-awaited Japanese miso soup, and calculated our uphill speed. We should have a chance to reach the main peak at 13:40. And since downhill speed is faster, we should have a chance to return to the trailhead before 5 o’clock, when it should still be light.

Let’s try

After the calculation, we decided to go for it.

We set off at 1 o’clock to summit. The later section wasn’t as extreme as the earlier section, but the breakfast calories were mostly burned, and lunch hadn’t turned into energy yet, so it was still quite strenuous. It’s worth mentioning that when we reached near 5.5K, there appeared an extremely tall tree that covered the sky. That tree had its own space, with no other trees nearby, only moss. It was like coming to the movie Avatar. I marveled: “This is the spirit of a sacred tree.”

Later, just before the main peak, my left thigh started to feel a bit like it was about to cramp. I stretched, and perhaps the salty miso soup’s electrolytes also started to take effect. We successfully reached the main peak at 1:30, before I actually cramped.

The main peak was indeed as boring as the legend said, with no view at all, but there were quite a few flies. We really had a chance to complete in 8 hours what amateurs usually take 9 hours. I secretly thought happily, “Looks like we’re not vegetarians,” then quickly took a “been there” photo before being overwhelmed by the fly swarm and hurried down the mountain.

Theoretically, what should be seen was seen on the way up, so the way down shouldn’t have any surprises. Unexpectedly, before 4.5K, we encountered an amazing scene of sunlight piercing through the fog.

Acting relaxed

After the amazing scene, I thought we could relax all the way back to the car, but unexpectedly, the way down felt super long, and I got tired of walking.

Because this trail has many steps with large height differences, when going downhill, if you’re tired and let your knees go straight down the steps, your knees might become uncomfortable after a while. I would keep my knees slightly bent, use my thighs to exert force, and run slightly to the sides of the path, a bit like a snake moving in an S-shape, so I wouldn’t constantly impact my knees hard.

In the end, we finally returned to the trailhead at 5:15. When we got back to the parking area, we met a couple who were going to climb the main peak tomorrow. Let’s call them Main Peak Wife.

Main Peak Wife: What time did you start climbing?

me: 9 o’clock from the trailhead.

Main Peak Wife: You’re really fast!!

I acted relaxed and said: It’s okay. Good luck tomorrow.

Actually, we were sore all over, and our shoes were almost impossible to take off.

The beauty of the process

A few days before this hike, I had been immersed in the virtual world of code. Having the opportunity to detach and feel real nature with muscle soreness felt great. The body was tired, but the mind was fully charged.

Basianshan Main Peak was indeed as difficult as I had heard. Summiting is really tough, but I think whether you summit isn’t the most important thing about hiking. Even the view from Basianshan Main Peak isn’t very good. I think the most beautiful scenery from this Basianshan Main Peak hike was actually the unknown small forest at 5.5K and the sudden appearance of the divine light scene on the way down.

This made me think: although we all know that switching careers to become a web developer is feasible, as everyone says, it’s very difficult and hard. But I think the point isn’t whether you can successfully “summit” the career change, nor is it whether the scenery of the web developer industry is really beautiful after switching careers. The point is whether you can enjoy the difficult growth process of switching careers, whether you can appreciate the sudden beautiful scenes that appear along the journey of switching careers.