Sichuan 2019-20 Day 6

Quick breakfast of porridge, stir fried veg, and Momo (this baked bread thing) and then we tried to set off for Changpinggou, only to find out there's no public bus there. Had to go through some hassle to hire a driver to Shuangqiaogou instead (the Milan people were so helpful, much appreciation). We ended going with this random Chinese dude who was here on own to take pictures.

By the time we got to the entrance and took the bus up to the top, it was almost noon. We'd planned to start at 10am. Oh well. There were two dogs at the top, one a fat older one a bit like a pug, and the other a white puppy. And a fat cat that kept meowing and retreating under the boardwalk once no food was discernible. Super adorable. Had a quick soup with songrong and radish from one of the shops. Did a short round trip route uphill and then set off downhill, following the bus route.

Shuangqiaogou is gorgeous. Iced up dark forest rising up on either side with mountains rearing up in the background. Every turn reveals a new beautiful sight. We got out the drone again and flew it as we matched down the road.

For some reason we were really tired by 3pm. Only 3h of downhill walking. How were we supposed to conquer Dafeng? We planned to wait at a bus stop but we didn't get to one by that time. So we just stopped at a random viewing point to wait for a bus.

We saw one go up. But none came back down. Or OK, it did, but it took half an hour for what should have been a ten minute trip. Turns out the bus stops at every viewing point and waits for everyone to take photos and get back on. Also, we were 5min away from the next bus stop. Not too bad.
We were so puckered out (at least, I was) that we just fell asleep the whole way through and had to be woken up to get off at the end. Almost an hour's good sleep.

Driver picked us back up and went to gaoyuanhong chaoshi to rent our extra layers for the hike. Met our guide there. He was surprisingly young, turns out 2nd youngest among us, by a matter of days. Helped us figure out what we needed to rent/buy. Mostly we got things like extra down, thermoses, buffs, and gloves. Our driver was sooo nice, he had another engagement after so he went to go do that before coming back to pick us up.

I don't know how to embed the map so here it is: Gaoyuanhong Chaoshi

Dinner was the same chicken hotpot, but with J joining. Early night at 9pm after fully packing all our stuff.

- Things we don't want to bring in luggage, to be stored in the hotel
- Things we need immediately for the hike in our 20L backpacks (layers, sunglasses, water, snacks)
- Things we don't need immediately for the hike to be thrown together in a bigger bag for the ponies to bring up (layers, sleeping bags)

120y Shuangqiaogou entrance
9y radish soup
20y cab to Shuangqiaogou and back
60y 2 breakfasts and 1 dinner at Milan

• *All nice photos were taken by W. Anything not as nice was likely taken by me.*
• *Unless otherwise mentioned, all listed prices are per person*