The route takes in two peaks and 2 (possibly
3) waterfalls at the end and it feels very wild. We saw no other hikers until we reached the more popular trail near the end and we could hear barking deer as we were walking. There are not many views but the climb to
Mu Mu Shan is rewarding and the waterfall at the end makes it all
worthwhile on a hot day! This is a tough hike. The first part of the route is
very rough and not easy to follow. It’s also a steep climb up to
the summit of MuMu Shan.
Distance/Time: About 10 + Km (I forgot to turn on the ViewRanger app until after we had already been walking for about 20-30 mins). It took about 7.5 hours including breaks. We were moving more slowly than usual because it was a very hot day and route finding was difficult in the beginning.
What to bring: I would recommend lunch/snacks, plenty of water and definitely long pants and long sleeves as the path is overgrown in places. Maybe a set of dry clothes if you want to soak in the water near the end. There is nowhere to buy anything at the beginning or the end of the hike.
Transportation: We took bus 795 from to Shifen (not all buses go all the way there so make sure it is the one to Shifen) from Muzha MRT Station about 8:05. I think these buses leave about every thirty minutes on the weekends so it would probably be okay to just show up at the bus stop. But I always check ahead of time. We got off at the Dongshige bus stop, a few stops after the town of Lingjiao. Actually we missed the stop and had to walk back along the road for one stop and we started hiking about 9:00.
The hike: I decided to go hiking for the first time since late March. First I had hurt my knee in April and had to take some time off and then, in May every one was staying home for weeks and weeks due to the Covid 19 outbreak in Taiwan.
Friday and Saturday a typhoon had passed by Taiwan and there had been heavy rain. So I was unsure of the state of the trails. But Sunday morning I woke up at 5:30 and decided to go. I messaged my friend to tell him I was going hiking and surprisingly he was up and impressively he jumped in a taxi and met me at the bus stop.
My plan was to climb Mu Mu Shan 畝畝山 starting near Lingjiao Station and then go over the mountain to end at the road near Huiyao Falls on the other side but I didn’t really know anything about it. It was just an area on the map I wanted to explore. When we arrived the trail head on the map seemed to be nonexistent. Maybe the trail has been damaged or maybe we just couldn't find it. However, we found another trail just a few meters further down the road, disappearing into the forest next to a drainage canal. It seemed to be going in the right direction and we thought it would join up with the trail we wanted, which it eventually did.
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| The trailhead |
The first part of this trail is a little hard to follow but if you go slow, follow the flags and keep checking your location you should be fine. Of course if more people walk it, the trail will become clearer. During this part our phones showed we were completely in the middle of the forest and not on a trail, but someone else had clearly been through here. In some parts there were even old stone steps and we found the ruins of an old stone house and a more recent but apparently abandoned building. There were two forks that I remember. At the first, the trail on the right seemed to head back toward the road and we turned left. At the second, just past an abandoned metal building, there was a small sign post on a tree in Chinese that pointed to Pingxi Zi Shan and following the sign we turned left and uphill. The trail was unclear and very rough and overgrown but we kept following the flags, sometimes having to backtrack when we missed a flag—and in about an hour and half we joined the original path we had wanted. Here we turned right and uphill.
Before long we reached the small peak of Pingxi Zi Shan (411 m). From
here the trail was much clearer and easier but still with some rough
parts. The final push up to the summit of Mu Mu Shan was steep with some ups and downs. It was probably made harder by the July heat and the
fact that I was feeling hungry and a little dehydrated. It took us
about 3 hours and 45 minutes to reach the summit from the road.
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| Pingxi Zi Shan |
MuMu Shan does not have a view but there is some shade and it was nice to take a well earned rest and have some lunch and water. After maybe 30 minutes we headed down the other side of the mountain (toward the Shikongzi Historical Trail)
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| Having a rest and a bite to eat on the summit |
It was clear that the trail on this side was more popular and it was a lot easier going down. There was one fork not shown on the map but we went straight. It was very hot and by this point I realized I had not brought enough water. I was feeling a little uncomfortable and dreaming of coming upon someone selling cold drinks once we got back to the road. But on the way down we passed a clear stream with plenty of water. My friend drank right from the stream. Since I had iodine, I treated my water with iodine just in case and later after a drinking a full bottle of water was feeling much better.
We came to the junction with the Shikongzi Historical Trail about an hour after leaving the summit. To get to the bus back to Muzha, its a left here but first we went right for the short detour to the Stone Raft Waterfall. This was a beautiful path beside a stream with deep pools. Generally it was well maintained but there were still some rough and eroded parts. Along the way you come to a waterfall on the right that flows over the path. Keep going further a short way to the Stone Raft Waterfall.
The Stone Raft Waterfall was absolutely beautiful and definitively the high-light of the walk. There was lots of water from the recent rain and a nice pool at the base of it for soaking and washing off. We stayed here for maybe the good part of an hour before going back out the way we came and following the trail out to the road.
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It was another hour's walk along the road to get to the Pingxi Zenkou
bus stop. Along the way we passed Huiyao Falls. It was closed
because of the COVID outbreak. When I had been here before it had
been crowded but still worth a visit. Today we could only get a
glimpse of it because the trail entrance was wrapped with yellow
tape. I was thinking of visiting nearby Wanggu Waterfall. Its a
beautiful waterfall in shaded glen. But when we got to the bus stop
the bus was coming soon and I had been there twice before so we
decided to take the bus home.
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| Huiyao Falls on a previous visit. |
It was a rewarding walk but if you wanted to do it the easy way and avoid a 7 plus hour hike you could just take the bus to the Pingxi Zenkou bus stop and walk for a little over an hour along the road to reach Stone Raft Waterfall.
Or for a slightly longer but easy walk, you could get off at Lingjiao Bus stop and walk into the village to see the Lingjiao Waterfall. There is an easy and clear trail connecting the village of Lingjiao to Wangu Waterfall that takes an hour or less. Then you could walk from Wangu to Haiyao Falls and Stone Raft Waterfall, before returning to the Pingxi Zenkou bus stop. The whole route would take between 3 and 4 hours. You could also drive and visit them all but I like walking. There is a shop selling drinks and snacks in Lingjiao near the train station.
Trail head GPS: 25.024281, 121.750932
MuMu Shan: 25.006655, 121.764033
Stone Raft Waterfall: 25.012472, 121.773734
https://my.viewranger.com/track/details/MjAxNzQzNzk=
