林毓的故事

林治中的故事

14-Feb-2009 -- The date was fast approaching for our next, long-anticipated, Confluence Hunt. Hours and hours pouring over printed maps, old US Army topographical maps and Google Earth and still we weren’t at all sure what to expect. Which made this CP trip no different than any other. To me, this is the attractive part of Confluence Hunting, especially for points that have not yet been visited. Take the earth and its people as you find them.

This hunt in China was for 10 new points in Shan Xi Province and Gan Su Province, crossing through the already-completed Ning Xia autonomous region. The points were: 1) 34N-107E 2) 34N-106E 3) 35N-106E 4) 35N-107E 5) 37N-107E 6) 36N-107E 7) 36N-105E 8) 35N-105E 9) 34N-105E 10) 33N-105E.

The tenth point was tried without success by my friend Rainer Mautz which, given his die-hard approach to confluence hunting, left us with little doubt that it would be a tough one. I only hoped he had made an error I could capitalize on ;-).

Night before, dog to the kennel and it was baking time. We like to mix a little luxury in with our roughing it, so our supply box included four loaves of homemade cinnamon-raisin bread, a few loaves of homemade sourdough rye, some croissants, a pound of espresso roast coffee with a coffee press and a can of whipped crème (which worked out very well for my coffee…compact, can’t spill, and quite delicious, actually).

The next morning, Friday the 13th, Jadelynne and I left our apartment before dawn and picked up her Dad at about 6AM. We had a long drive ahead of us to get into Confluence territory and figured it would be safe driving for a couple of hours on familiar highway until sunrise. The highway deteriorated badly as we went further north and our progress slowed considerably. There wasn’t very much to describe on this part of the trip, as the terrain was basically the same low mountains and forests that we have around our home in Chongqing. Maybe the most interesting aspect was the cantilevered walking path that forms part of the old “lychee highway.” As I understand it, some former queen loved that fruit and, as is often the case when royalty desires something, no expense or effort was spared to bring it to her. Hundreds of miles of roads built, and where the cliffs were too steep and too rocky, tree posts inserted horizontally into the sides of the cliffs and planks laid between them forming an incredibly precarious walkway for laborers to carry the treasured fruit back to her majesty.

We drove all day and after dark decended parked it in a dusty city named Han Zhong. However, the main entrance road to the city was blocked by construction forcing me to detour 20km or so to the north side...a detour not at all appreciated after such a long drive. But when there are no alternatives, there are, simply, no alternatives. So drive we did and crashed for the night in a rather nice little hotel (“nice” means relatively clean, hot water for showers, and under RMB 100 (US15) per room).

Next morning a quick porridge and baozi breakfast at the first little restaurant to open its doors and we were off at 7 AM toward 34-107. Each confluence, before actually visiting it, has some little detail that seems to stick in my mind. In this case, the small county road nearest the point formed three sides of a curious little square around it. This meant that there was some problem at the point which the road builders thought best to avoid, even at the expense of tripling the length of road needed. Two rivers joined below the point indicating that the problem was some sort of mountain ridge, and while the resolution on GE wasn’t high enough to be sure I thought I could make out what looked to be a trail of some kind winding in toward the point. Anyway, the absolute elevation wasn’t very high nor the differential very large so it didn’t seem to present any insurmountable problem.

We drove in from the east, circled the point and finally decided to approach from a little town called He Tao Ba on the west. There we met a nice family and traded some raisin bread for advice on how best to approach the point. It was funny to watch Jadelynne and her dad struggle across the divide of strong local dialects to understand what these people were saying. Sometimes I think I understood just as well as they did.

Anyway, the advice was to ford the river a kilometer or so further down the road, then drive up the logging road as far as we deemed possible. That small logging path took us 4-wheeling up the mountain to a small village named Zhong Wan where no one was home, so we just parked the truck and headed out on foot past farmhouses constructed of mud, and pens holding pigs and chickens. We saw a few farmers tending the fields but no one close enough to talk to, so it was just the three of us trudging along. Up the mountain to the narrow (maybe 10-meter wide) ridge where we discovered the point was actually another 70 meters down the other side. It was a pretty steep decline over there, so we called it a day at 58 meters, and hopped down the mountain back toward the car where we availed ourselves of some ice-cold well water to wash up and brush our teeth. Still no people around, so kind of an uninteresting visit other than a nice hike in the woods.

Total hiking distance was about 6 km over 2.5 hours. From the ridge it looked like another road came in from the northeast, but I think the hike would have been up a steeper slope than we had climbed.

From there, the drive west toward Point #2 was blocked for about an hour as two truck drivers argued about fault in a minor collision they had on a switchback mountain road. No amount of trying to persuade them to move the trucks worked until the police finally arrived. At another point I stopped quickly to avoid running over some kind of crop two old ladies had spread out on the road. Usually only half the road is covered with drying corn or something, but these two had taken up the whole road. I felt a little foolish after being old the purpose was to have the cars and trucks drive over the crop (still don’t know what it was) as that helped separate the seed from the husk. Always something new to learn.

We stopped for dinner at a little Islamic restaurant run by people of the Hui minority group. A great, fiery hot lamb stew with potatoes and vegetables. Yum! Then another of those “nice” hotels.

Trip continues at 34N-106E.

林毓的故事

14-Feb-2009 -- Jadelynne’s Narrative:

第一个交点位置在陕西省宝鸡市范围内, 位于留坝县、太白县和凤县围成的三角中心地 带。因为离我们出发地重庆（家）很远，所以我们预计第一天全赶车路，没有时间徒步寻 目标点。 不出所料，13个小时的车程，晚上7点多钟，我们按计划到达住宿地----汉中市，这是离我们目标点最近的城市，为了能找到象样的旅馆睡觉、休息，我们大都计划在县 级或市级城市过夜。我们旅行很多地方，积累了相关经验，知道路边小店或乡镇无法住 宿，除非我们决定在车里过一夜。从重庆早上6：00出发，沿渝长高速、渝邻高速、渝 达高速一直北上，过了四川达州，高速公路截止，转到万源的国道210路上，国道往往年 久失修，路况很差，大大影响了我们的进度。过了万源进入陕西界，翻越大巴山系，山体 不高，海拔1000-2000米，比不上川西的高山，但山系连绵宏厚，沟壑纵横，山路盘曲蜿 蜒，典型的黄土高原地形地貌展现出来。镇巴县、西乡县和城固县是我们经过的三个陕西

南部县城，典型的中国县城，城乡结合的热闹地带，有城市的喧嚣、有农村的无序。我们 一行人都不太喜欢这种结合城市和农村缺点的中心，要么正宗的城市，要么纯粹的农村，不伦不类的县城太多的社会丑态。但在古代，这些地区是重要的通商口岸，也是中国丝绸 之路南线的重镇，还是中国茶道文化的集结地。毕竟这里是强悍的秦人发源地，还在 繁华昌盛的唐朝势力范围内，古都长安也就是现在的陕西省会，西安就在200多公里以北。所以至今无论在乡间还是城市，无论是山路还是高速，我们都能看到、感觉到历史留下的 痕迹和脚印。“长安回望绣成堆，山顶千门次第开。一骑红尘妃子笑，无人知是荔枝来。”人人都知道这首晚唐诗人杜牧写的《过华清宫三绝句》，其中提到盛唐时期唐玄宗为杨贵妃飞骑以进荔枝之事。我们今天走的这条从四川万源往北、翻越大巴山的路程就是当年荔枝飞骑必经的南段。一路上我们还零星看到国道旁的古迹山路，石壁上的栈道，以及供马引水的马槽，供骑士休息的站点，和历史的距离越来越近了。只是如今换成了四个轮子的车而不是马，四天的飞骑变成四个小时的车程，当初举世无双的杨贵妃才能享受的荔枝待遇，如今人人都是杨贵妃了！一路上虽然景致不如西部的秀美，但历史的浓厚却胜出很多。到了汗中地势突然平坦，汉中平原又名“小江南”，把江南山水搬到黄土高原上的情景。我们到汗中已经天黑，遇到这段时间城市大兴土木，到处在修路。即使有GPS，我们还是转来绕去地迷失方向，到处尘土飞扬，下班的自行车满街流，我们艰难摸索，耽误了很多时间，才总算找了家旅馆住下。好象没有吃晚饭，还好中午饭吃得比较饱。

第二天一大早，我们开始直奔目标点。从汉中市继续往北，沿着汉中市的“护城河”，我们看到了小江南的真面目，护城河是一个昌秀的大水库，城市用库坝将穿城的小河拦截住，把清凉的河水蓄成一汪平静的库湖，湖的另一面是黄土山，很有护城河的战略意义。不过现实意义更多的是保证城区的饮用水源问题，不是最近陕甘岭地区严重闹旱灾吗。还好我们的旅途好象没有受到严重影响。湖的这面是进城、出城的县级公路，都是新修的柏油路，沿着河谷缓缓蜿蜒北上，路况非常好，心情也就爽起来。顺利到达留坝镇，眼前出现两条叉路，两条路况都不错，而且都可以到达我们的目标范围，我们斟酌了少许，决定从东面进入。到靖口镇改走乡间土路，目标点开始明确，在乡路包围的山体中，我们意识到很快就要步行进山，但为了节约时间和体力，我们希望找到最佳步行起点。沿着这条唯一的乡间路我们从东往北、再往西，交点始终在同等的距离范围，看来我们是围着交点转圈。问了很多当地乡人，他们的口音很难懂，但个个都非常的热情。终于遇到一位老乡，熟知当地情况，听了我们解释，好半天才明白我们到底要到哪里去，因为我们也不知

道我们要去的地方叫什么，最终我们一致同意目的地是一个叫“中湾”的村，在山里面。我们按照老人的指示开车到核桃坝，趟水过石坝桥，沿着狭窄的山路往中湾方向进入。进山后，伐木的山路很快就消失了，我们将车停在村外山坡谷地小坝子上，于是决定开始步行。离目标点还有2.4公里，山路虽然狭小但毕竟是路，所以我们快速接近目标点。一切都如此顺利，到还有500米的时候我们放弃不同方向的山路，开始我们一贯的徒手爬行。山上带刺的灌木很多，不小心就划破手脚，同行的老爸被刺击中了，刚好在手上毛细血管处，他后悔末及，责怪自己怎么不带手套。我们摸索上山，发现山脊处比较好走，因为山上树木稀少，主要是干枯的灌木，所以灰尘很大。我们沿着山脊开始一步一步靠近目标点。最终来到山顶, 进入100米范围, 在靠近目标点50米处我们才发现"0点"交点在山谷里, 我们都不愿意再下山谷, 50米范围内已经算我们胜利。 在山头我们还发现另一条从东面进入的山路，看似可以开车行进，我们分析如果我们从那条山路进入山区，可能会更容易

找到目的点的。 无论如何，我们总算是胜利夺取了此次旅行的第一个交点。我们握手庆祝完工！不算辛苦，比较顺利，真是个开头红！

林治中的故事

14-Feb-2009 -- Jerry’s Narrative:

二月十四日，我们的第一个访点位于陕西南部一个叫中湾的村民房附近．虽然距离不远，但是最后三百米却是一座高山，我们无奈只好步步登高，到了山顶才发现零点目标在与对面高山之间的谷底，要到目的地已无可能．经过观察，我们发现从另一个山口进山可到达谷底寻求最佳位置，但只能作罢求其次了.