Camping in Wulong

stop along the way picture by chinese student!

This weekend I left the hubby at home in Yongchuan while I went away with a chinese outdoor group to explore the Wulong County for some hiking and camping adventures. Myself and two other Canadian teachers joined a group of 9 on the long journey east. We had to take a 2 hour bus, then a 2.5 hour train ride. We had to stop/make camp in Wulong City as we arrived at midnight and the buses stopped running. Once we arrived into Wulong City we hiked along the road and down towards the river. We found a nice flat spot among farmer's land and set up camp down by the river. We woke up to farmers picking their vegetables and grooming their land. Some folks bathed in the river(not sure if that made them any cleaner?!?).

Wulong City Camping, picture by chinese student

We slowly packed up, had breakfast in town and then got a mini bus to take us about one hour into the mountains of Wulong County. We passed by some huge gorges where we stopped to take some photos and eventually found ourselves at a lake. After too many pictures we hiked for about 45min/1 hour over some hills and around the lake and found ourselves in a pretty valley. Here we had lunch and would be where we would camp for the night. It was a family owned guesthouse/camping site. Who knew?!? After lunch we headed off into the mountains. I wish I knew what the area was called but I don't. There were other camping groups staying the night there as well, some hiked in and some drove in!

the lake, picture by chinese student

   After lunch, we hiked into the mountains, there were some nicely groomed single track trails for us to walk along. Elaine and I were out front and we decided to head straight up and see if we could get to the top of this ridge. Unfortunately, the trails slowly disappeared on us and we found ourselves bushwacking through bamboo. The others caught up and hung out by the kiwi trees, shaking down and gathering kiwis to bring home while we continued to bushwack until the wacking just got too much. We arrived back into camp about 5pm. I decided that I needed a little more sweat in order to call it a day and went for an hour run around the lower trails. Dinner was mutton lamb cooked over an open oven... Looked nice but I stuck to the veggies!

Sunday I woke before the others and went for a fast 40min run and later joined Elaine for another 20 min run before breakfast. After a slow beakfast of egg/tomatoe noodles and left overs we hiked back out just too find out we had to wait an hour for the van to get us. I had  seen a lower trail around the lake as we hiked out so Elaine, another man and I decided to check it out while we waited, we found a mini waterfall and some more nice scenery plus got in some more exercise! It was perfect, we arrived back and the van came by not too long afterwards. We began our long journey back to Yongchuan. We arrived home about 7:30pm. A nice weekend away in nature!

eating!

Other exciting news:
 Our Yukon River SUP Expetidion Video will be shown at the Cumberland Mountain (Amateur) Film Festival, January 12, 2012 at the Riding Fool Hostel in Cumberland. Tickets are $15 and  they go towards raising funds for the Cumberland Community Forest Society. If you are around that area go check it out!

live, love, laugh,...DREAM!
lina

A different kind of trail run

This past weekend we decided to explore a somewhat nearby town called Chengdu. It was going to be a weekend to explore the city and its somewhat close surroundings. We managed to arrive late friday night via bus. 4 hours bus ride form Yongchuan. We got ourselves set up at the Traffic In Hostel and then cruised along the river, past the night clubs, enjoyed some fine fried noodle street food, hung out at the local pub by our hostel and called it a night.

Saturday morning Andrew and I went for an hour run along the river. It was a beautiful fall morning and many chinese people were already out and about. We found out later that we were fittingly running on the fitness trail! We then walked ALL DAY to temples (Wenshu and Green Ram Palace), shops, parks, and coffee shops. We found a great little alleyway with tons of coffee/tea shops, little funky bars, restaurants and a couple of outdoor shops, we loved it! After a full day of walking and seeing the city we spent the evening on Jin Li street, a touristy food and shop street full of lights and people. Not really our thing but a fun experience to check out regardless.

Sunday morning, we went out to check out the Panda Breeding Centre. I really wanted to check it out as Chengdu is really known for this centre and the pandas. We had gone with the hostel bus to make it simple and ensure that we would make it back in time for the hash run. The breeding centre is large with lots of walking paths, and happy cute pandas. We walked around, took photos, and hung with the pandas all morning.

I've been craving some trail running ever since we landed in china. We have found some dirt roads and short trails among the bamboo in Yongchuan, but nothing that has satisfied my craving for some good trails. A couple weeks back, I found out that Chengdu had a hash harriers running group every second Sunday. After some emails, I found out we were able to get to Chengdu for one of their runs and made a trip of it. We made it to the meeting spot no problems. I had never been on a true hash run so was excited to see what it was all about. We enjoyed a cold beverage while we waited for more people, buses, and t shirts. About 60 people showed up for the run, a good mixture of expat and chinese. They drove us about 1.5 hours out of the city to a small farm village. After some explaining, beer drinking and bathroom needs were finished they let us free to follow the flour markers and yell ON ON. It was good fun running through farmer trails, animal trails, and there was even some "bushwacking". It was just over an hour run with lots of sprinting for us as we stayed out front. We got a good workout as we ran through various intersections trying to find the correct trail to continue while others strategies were to wait at the intersection until one of us keenrs yelled out the correct route... Unfortunately, our statistics of choosing the correct trail was about 1% so we had lots of extra sprinting to do in order to get back in the front group. After the run there are some charges to be dealt which involved chugging beers and getting flour thrown on you. The whole experience was fabulous and we loved meeting new people, running on trails, and getting out into the farm land but we needed to get back to Yongchuan for work the next morning and it was getting close to night time by the time we left the spot.

PHOTOS HERE

We luckily managed to catch the night train home (long story) and we will be back to this great city and back to participate in the hash run.

live, love, laugh,...DREAM!
lina

Playing in the bamboo forest

Saturday we had a fun day playing in the great outdoors. We managed to get out before the rain came down. It was fun crispy fall day.

We rode our bikes up to the Bamboo forest on the dirt road along the ridge. This is actually quite a descent climb up on dirt road. It is about one hour to the top from our house with some fairly steep sections and washed out dirt.  If we get out and ride this every week it will hopefully keep us fit and ready to tackle the NorthShore Mountains when we return to Vancouver (hopefully) without too much extra pain!

We stopped at some trails we found a few weeks ago and rode some single track on our hard tails...

We then continued to the top where the dirt road meets the paved road. We locked our bikes and went for an exploration hike through the bamboo. We found some paths both concrete and dirt, an old house, some wells, ponds, ridges etc. Once we started to get hungry we jumped back on our bikes and started to head down. Back to the lower section of bamboos we set up the slackline and played around on the line for a bit... We tried walking the line with running shoes as there were many sharp bamboo ends around the ground.. It proved to be a little tougher than I imagined at first,... but after a while we got the hang of it! Once our tummies couldn't handle being empty any longer we packed everything up and heading back to town on our bikes!

Today we walked around old town and found some excellent random chinese things.... it was such a nice fall day that I really wanted to out of town on our bikes so we rode up cucumber hill found a new road that gave us a great 1.5 hour ride on bikes.

I am proud of our continued effort to explore our surroundings... it keeps us on our toes!

live, love, laugh,...DREAM!
lina

Hangzhou International Marathon in a nutshell

While in China for only 3 months I have already been itching to find some races. To be truthful, in my spare time I perouse through international race sites dreaming up plans of racing here, there, and everywhere. Sometimes, back in reality world I inquire into races that might actually be possible to enter rather than just dream of every possible race I would like to do on earth...
About 3 weeks ago during one of my 'perousing the internet for races in my spare time' moments I stumbled upon the Hangzhou International Marathon. With a thrifty entrance fee of $15  and a possibility of prize money I just couldn't not sign up for it. I somehow managed to convince Andrew to run a marathon in three weeks  with no training or preparation?!? I quickly found some flights and figured out how to pay the entrance fee on time (Thank you Elaine, a friend with an online chinese bank account) and we were set. The only problem was... we had not been training for a marathon at all and were about to WING IT BIG TIME.

In the back of my mind I thought I was still a young 24 year old who could just pull off any type of sporting accomplished I wanted with grand success... well, last weekend I found out that I am no longer 24,  I am 31 and I guess some things become a little more difficult with age.

What happened out there on the race course was not exactly what I had dreamed up in my head a few weeks back when I signed up for the race. The first half of the race was nice. We ran around the famous West Lake and then up through some mountains, farmlands, small villages, temples and pagodas. After about 21km we hit the river. We had an awfully long there and back on straight road and then it was a horrid 19km or so of straight flat unscenic(because you couldn't even see the river) run along the river. It was awful. I was bored and really had to push hard in my head to just keep running. My legs started to get sore from the constant pounding of similar terrain and I was pondering the reasons I wanted to sign up for this race so badly. I worked hard through the mountain stage to pass three girls and then lost the positions on the flats. FRUSTRATIONS... They clearly were better road runners than I. I tried all of my mental techniques to get me through to the end. I tried to disassociation by thinking about past memories and future plans. I tried to focus on my breathing and stride and associate myself with the present by focusing on what my body was doing and what was happening. I tried a lot of self talk, telling myself I have run longer and that this was easy. I broke down the run into segments and visualized how easy 5km of running is. I tried all of these methods many times throughout the marathon race. I didn't walk, I didn't give up, I smiled (and grunted), and I pushed myself through pain and I also crossed the line with the slowest marathon time to date for me... BOO..While I didn't get my goal of 8th place female(prize money cut off) I did managed to get in as the 13th female. Not too shabby for my first marathon since 2006 and without any training for it either... maybe there is still hope for my running career?

Two days following the race.. I still can't walk properly and I cringe every time I need to get off my butt and move but mentally I am ready and pumped to get my train on...and as always I seem to only remember the exciting and nice parts of the race. Funny how the brain seems to block out the bad and embrace the good!

Bring on the Great Wall Marathon in May...

Hangzhou is a pretty city with tons of temples, pagodas, buddhist caves and of course a big lake on which you can explore. We spent Saturday hiking through the hills by the lake (not relaxing like maybe we should have done?!?). It was a maze of stone stairs, caves, and temples. Pretty cool little place in which it is very easy to get yourself turned around and lost. Lucky for us we brought our handy dandy GPS. Got to love technology (sometimes). We also ate some food, cruised around some local shops, and found a fun little coffee shop where we did manage to sit and relax with some mighty fine americanos!
All in all a fun little weekend away!

MORE PICS HERE

live, love, laugh,..DREAM!
lina

Almost like flying through Bamboo...

We both got sick this past week... I blame some long work days and cold weather that moved into Yongchuan.... we are trying to get better in time for our marathon in Hangzhou next weekend... I think we will... with rest, yoga, tea, and good food we will be ready to hit the pavement hard and run our little hearts out!

Friday night we both felt a little achy, I felt a little fidgety, so we decided to do an evening ride up Tea Mountain to get some fresh air and a change of scenery... Andrew took some nice pics of the sunset and tea bushes!

Saturday we had to work.... luckily, it was a gorgeous day and it was our outdoor sports event day so we got to run around and take in the sun.

Today we finally got to sleep in, which we did quite well! after a loungy morning we got on our bikes and rode up the dirt road along this ridge that eventually leads to the Bamboo Park. Last weekend we found a bunch of Bamboo just below the top and thought it would be cool to set up a slackline in the bamboo forest. So today we came back on our bikes and did just that... It was about a 45 minute ride to the spot... we were out on the line playing for about 45 minutes and then it was a fun downhill ride all the way home..

live, love, laugh,..DREAM!
lina

A wet weekend in Yongchuan

We were both feeling tired from the hectic weekdays of teaching and everything that goes along with it! This week was my birthday, we got to judge a singing contest, teach yoga, play ping pong, learn Chinese, run, go to the gym to do weights, spin and yoga lessons AND teach over 70 kids and get them ready for ‘real’ life which will appear before them sooner rather than later…

This weekend proved to be a misty one in Yongchuan. We had a well deserved sleep in on Saturday, and did some things around the house. I also finally got around to fixing up my itune songs and ipod touch playlists. We were going to head out on a bike ride but the weather was unmotivating so we decided instead we would hit up the gym with weights and a spin class. I managed to do a yoga class at home with my online yoga program which was grand! In the evening, Andrew and I headed out to the gym to buff ourselves up and spin our brains out with flashing lights, really loud pop music and a very entertaining instructor and about 20 other Chinese people. I was thoroughly impressed with the lady in the back corner, she was wearing a fancy dress, with leg tights and nice shoes… We finished off our evening by watching House of Flying Daggers, a movie that was shot on Tea Mountain in the Bamboo Forest not too far from where we live. I have to say I am proud of the bamboo scene... Proud of little Yongchuan and its now famous park!

Sunday we enjoyed another sleep in, made a great breakfast of eggs, potatoes, and veggies along with a banana/date yogurt/black sesame smoothie and coffee. We then headed out towards Tea Mountain, the secret way up along dirt roads, farms, and forests. The fog was thick which gave the run a little bit of a surreal horror movie feel to it. We found some trails through bamboo forests and decided to play in there for awhile… The run was about 3hours with some playing around in the bamboo… Our first and last long run before the Hangzhou marathon coming up Nov 6^th.

live, love, laugh,...DREAM!

lina

Catch Up Time

Biking and Hiking on Tea Mountain (about a month ago)

We biked to Tea Mountain/Bamboo Sea weekend of Andrew's birthday . It is on a ridge not far from our house... It is about an hour ride to the gate and then about 10km along a windy road until you get to the place they filmed a movie called "House of Flying Dagger". There they have paths through a bamboo forest. it is very pretty as you get to walk along a rolling ridge top and explore temples, and other buildings.

Here are some of our favorite pictures:
PICTURES

I think we will run up a secret way towards the ridge for our long run this weekend... I am stoked...We are entered into the Hangzhou International Marathon in two weeks time... so it is time for some last minute brushing up on our running. It is taking place around a famous Lake in China called West lake (but apparently they name many lakes West Lake in China...so it is the one in Hangzhou City. ) This marathon is going to be interesting as we just decided this week that we are going to race and have not prepared whatsoever for it... I'm pumped.. My last marathon was the Vancouver Marathon in 2006.. I have done many ultras and trail runs since then but on the road it is just different... There is prize money though... so I banking on luck to do well and win back my money I will have spent on flights etc.

Chongqing City
We went to Chongqing for the weekend last weekend. We thought it would be fun to explore the BIG city for a whole weekend. We have been there for a couple of hours before for visa stuff and school related things but never got to really enjoy what the city has to offer.
We explored an old town of Ciqikou....We managed to take the subway and city bus there (yay for being like a local in China). In the process we had to buy a new camera as Andrew's managed to die that morning. Ciqikou is a cool place but it is full of Chinese tourists. We had fun checking out the Temple, enjoying coffee on the patio while everyone took pictures of us like we were part of the attraction of Ciqikou!
 We met a friend from school who lives in CHongqing for Indian in Jiang Bei District... It was nice to have something different! yay Naan bread! We then managed to catch a night cruise on the Yangtze and Jianlin rivers. It is a 1.5hour cruise with a whole load of Chinese tourists. There are plenty of lights, beer, and good times in general.
We also got to do a little shopping (I like the hole in the wall little shops... found a fun sweatshirt). We finished our time by heading to another temple hidden amongst the modern buildings of Downtown Chongqing.

Pictures of our time are below:
PICTURES

live, love, laugh,..DREAM!
lina