A-Yu Stream River Tracing 阿玉溪溯溪

A-Yu Stream River Tracing 阿玉溪溯溪

By YiRu Li for 2012/9/22 river tracing trip       Photo by Ching-hung Liu

Hot summer has lasted for a long time. We have to find a river to cool down! Where is a good river which is easy to reach, beautiful, wild and suitable for swimming? A-Yu Stream in Wulai area is the best choice.

There was a typhoon one week before our trip. We may expect a lot of water for fun! Judging by the trash along the river side, the water in A-Yu Stream could be at least 3m high during the typhoon days.

There were two places of the river we set up ropes to pass the strong currents. It was dangerous, so we didn’t have time to take pictures. We also needed to climb rocks and cross the river at many deep spots. Our leader has really good skills to ensure our safety and overcome the strenuous challenges of the river!

Let’s start our happy river tracing right now!

Itinerary:

AM9:00 Taipei MRT Xindian (新店) Station and take bus 849 out of the station (NT45). à AM10:00 Arrive Wulai and take taxi to A-Yu (阿玉) Stream (NT400). à AM10:30 Arrive Xiaoyi (孝義) Police Office and apply permits. à AM 10:50 Arrive A-Yu Stream and start river tracing. à PM 15:30 Arrive confluence and climb to Xikeng (西坑) Forest Road. à PM 17:30 Arrive main road and call taxi. à PM 18:30 Arrive Wulai.

In this trip we have 4 people. Our leader is Ching-hung Liu (middle). He is a former captain of the Mountaineering Club of National Chengchi University. He is good at rock climbing and river tracing. During the trip he carefully took care of us by setting ropes and belaying. It’s a great joy and safe to go river tracing with him!

The water flow of the rivet is gentle and good for beginners.

It’s like hiking in the river~

Climb higher to avoid strong currents.

Keep hiking comfortably in the river~

A calm river~

Arrive at the famous swimming pool of A-Yu Stream~

Many deep ponds of A-Yu Stream had lots of white foam on the day of our trip.

Rock Climbing

The deep pond we can’t swim in.

Our lunch time was on an open riverbank.

The rotang seemed washed by at least 3m high water and floated to an unusually high place.

Strong current~

Climbing high again~

Cross river~

Arrived at an amazing smelling super great waterfall and there was a fisherman fishing in front of the waterfall. It seems the water is broken by the cliff’s stones into very little particles and it makes the atmosphere smell so great! What a joy to fish here! I didn’t want to leave here, either!

Happy fisherman~

Hope to swim in this deep pond, but we can’t…lots of white foam means it’s very dangerous for swimming.

A stone that looks like a shell.

Arrived at the confluence and there is a trail on the left side connected to XiKeng Forest Road西坑林道.

XiKeng Forest Road西坑林道. We followed it to the main road and back to Wulai.