The Waterfall

Well, it was time for another adventure, so we packed up our backpacks, and hit the trail this weekend with our Chinese hiking friends. The eight of us met early at the bus terminal that would lead us out of the Spring City and into the rice fields of Yunnan. We had to make a bus transfer about halfway there, so we bought our seats and waited a bit. Nothing out of the ordinary, the (16 passenger) bus was oversold by about five tickets. And to boot, there was no underneath luggage storage for our eight enormous backpacks. We managed to get everyone on, even the extras, sitting up front with faces smashed against the dashboard, and our backpacks cramming us in all along the small aisle. A common question foreigners often have about these busses is 'how many people can you fit on a Chinese bus?' And the answer is always...'one more'. On our brief route to our destination, we pulled the 'one more' rule an additional four times, including a 5'5'' man carrying a 6' piece of marble on his back.

We managed to arrive safely and begin the 4 hour hike to our camping destination. We were so excited because we'd seen pictures, and heard about this beautiful campsite right next to a waterfall. The hike was really quite incredible...teetering on the edges of rice paddies, through fern covered jungle-like areas and across dozens of little streams. We stopped for an occasional rest, where we would open up our granola bar or trail mix, and the 3 guys with us would smoke a cigarette or two.

We began approaching the 4 hour mark when Jon and I realized we were not close to the waterfall, or even on the marked trail we had been following before. We graciously continued to follow our crew and enjoy the views. At around 5 hours of hiking, just when you think, ah, yes, we are getting away from it all out here - just us and nature...we began to hear some really loud music. And as we crept our way over the next hill, we realized we had come upon an entire village, and they were cranking up the karaoke in this valley as if it were downtown Beijing. Well, it was a perfect place to ask for directions to this alleged waterfall we'd been searching for. We were just one mountain away from where we wanted to be, so we creatively carved a path in the right direction. And roughly 1.5 hours later, we caught our first glimpse of it! And honestly, it was amazing to finally see it. Everyone cheered and hollered as we made our way down the steep path and towards the promised campsites sitting nearly in range of the dropping waterfall.

The time was perfect to set up camp, get our jetboil stove fired up, and put together the delicious camp meals we had packed. Except what nobody told us, is that we were going to a nearby restaurant for dinner! (what?!) We got a really, deep good laugh out of this one. After hiking for half a day to this beautiful, and what we thought, remote spot...we began to look around a little more and realize that there was another way to arrive at this waterfall camping location. Drive your car, walk down a few steps (past the full service restaurant), jump on the cable car, and get the same views we worked so hard to earn. Even still, it's all about the journey, not just the destination.