Tiger Leaping Gorge

Wow. That's what I kept saying to myself as I hiked through the Tiger Leaping Gorge. It was a great hike, and it was a nice mix of, developed enough to have a few hostels on the way and a clear trail, and wild enough to have a few "i could fall off the enge and it'd be days before rescue (maybe) came" moments. Lijiang the city is at about 2400m altitute, and the trail at the gorge (about 2 hours from lijiang) is about 2400-2700 meters. Matt and I took a van from the hostel and so met a couple other people also doing the trail, a couple from Sweden/England, nice people. WE hiked a ways with them, and every now and then caught up to/passed/were passed by other people who started when we did. After sloshing through silver mud for about 15 minutes we had lunch at the 'Naxi family guest house' where we were introduced to Mint tea. Which since it grew in profusion on the mountain (along with sage, and pot), was super cheap and delicious. then onto the 28 bends, which is called as such because it's super steep. I had to take it really slow, later i decided not because I was out of shape but because of the elevation. men with horses/mules followed us in case we got tired, but we persevered! the top was amazing, and really after the bends it was a nice hike. The sun came out in the late afternoon (it started out as an overcast misty morning) and we pushed to halfway house to arrive just before the sun set. The guy who runs it is a very humble host, and the food was good and the beer cold. We watched an almost full moon rise over the mountains as the air quickly cooled and were in bed by 10. the next morning we got going on the trail about 11 and had a nice sunny hike to Tina's, walking over the waterfall covered path where all there was was a 4 foot path covered in wet rocks and showers from the waterfall. scary moments but good ones. Once at Tina's we decided to just stay there and have a huge leisurely lunch then go down to see the tiger leaping stone.
The gorge gets its name from the story about a tiger running away from hunters, and jumping over the narrowest point (27 meters) to safety.

The hike down was scary and slippery, but totally worth it, hiking all the way down to the river to look up at the huge mountains above. We had to scream to be heard over the roaring river, which you did not want to fall into; little chance of survival if you did. The way up was scarier, up the 'sky ladder' which was more or less rebar and wood somehow lashed to the mountain. I was shaking by the time I got to the top but it did make for a quick ascent. After hiking up aa steep trail tot he top, we stopped for a cup of mint tea at the Bridge Cafe and then back to Tina's to hang out, have a nice dinner with a few victory beers and chocolate baba. Naxi sandwiches for breakfast the next morning then back to Lijiang. From Tina's a new road was being built, which was almost as scary as the sky ladder with its hairpin turns and half covered in landslides road.
We could've kept going past tina's to another part of the trail but were content with where we hiked, and on the way to being a bit sore. no need to push things, there's always next time right? I'd love to come back in the spring, when there's supposed to be an astonishing array of wildflowers all over the mountain