A little-known but stunning mountain—Wulangzhang

Some pictures first:

 

To be honest, I have never heard of this mountain in the past few years of outdoor activities, even though it is near the Chayanding and Huangmeixuehou lines where I have been.

In fact, I am no longer interested in simply climbing mountains. In the past two years, I have mostly been traveling. The last time I walked a mountain trail of this level was the third trip to Wugong Mountain in July last year, and before Wugong Mountain, I had already walked the Yanggu Nao Route in December 2019. However, whether it is Wugong Mountain or Yanggu Nao Line, I always go there with the mentality of enjoying the scenery. This time I chose to come to Wulangzhang not to climb mountains, nor to complete tasks such as "Conghua Ten Climbs" or "Graduation Line". Just seeing the beautiful pictures introduced, I decided to take pictures of the scenery. desire.

I hesitated for a few days before signing up. Because I haven’t climbed mountains for a long time, especially the virgin forest that is more than 10 kilometers. I know that a sudden 12-kilometer hike up a mountain without training for a long time will cause great harm to the soft tissues and knee joints. Especially since I am over 35 years old, my body’s repair ability and the health of my meniscus cannot be improved. Compared to when I was in my 20s. But I don’t want to miss it. Because I found that many outdoor organizations in Guangzhou have not yet opened this route.

This is also my first time attending Slipper Brother’s event and my third time seeing him. The first time was in Miaowan Island, Zhuhai City, in April 2018. At that time, he was still called Wu Ma. Four months later, I saw him again at the Huangmei Xuehou Line. At this time, he was still called Wu Ma. As for when he changed himself into Slipper Brother, I don't know. The third time was the Gorozhang event after two and a half years.

The registration fee for this event was 98 yuan. At that time, I thought, had he filled in the registration fee incorrectly? I checked the map. Although Wulangzhang is said to be in Yingde, it is actually in the Chuandiding and Chayanding areas, and it already belongs to Shaoguan. The round-trip drive is nearly 400 kilometers. Excluding gas, tolls, and two meals for the driver, I don’t think there will be more than 30 people. The 98 yuan registration fee should not make any money. I even suspect that it will be repaid. Later, I thought that maybe the driver was a relative or good friend of him and did not take any money from him, but just volunteered to help. This was also possible.

The departure time was around 8:15 in the morning on March 14th, and it was already 11:15 when we arrived at the starting point. The drive took 3 hours.

Yuanyuan didn't come because she had something to do, and I felt empty in my heart. This little sweetheart would have a lot to say to me if I were here.

After we passed the first service area, the slipper brother introduced the trip in the car. He said that he had never been to this mountain. As soon as he said this, a lesbian in the car joked that the slipper brother always used us as guinea pigs. But I think it’s okay if you haven’t been here before. It increases the unknowns and increases the fun. And now there are track maps. Follow the track, even if it deviates a little, you can usually get to the bottom of the mountain. I remembered that I walked Guifeng Mountain with another private team in 2017. The leader and finisher at that time had never been there, so we developed a new route ourselves and turned a mountain that was originally only 2.5-star difficulty into a 5-star difficulty. When we were approaching the bottom of the mountain, a local farmer said we were so bold. No one took this route because it was too dangerous and the locals would not go up the mountain from here.

 

I felt that the slipper guy talked too much in the car that had nothing to do with the itinerary, at least for more than 20 minutes. Some are about his philosophy on life, and some are about hiking and sports. His knowledge about hiking and sports is very misleading. His opinions are entirely based on his experience and taken-for-granted understanding, lacking rigor and logic. I think that if he plans to continue working in the outdoor industry, it is necessary to supplement his knowledge with authoritative knowledge in related fields. This is of great benefit to him and his customers' impression of him.

We arrived at our destination around 11:15. After getting off the bus, we all warmed up for 10 minutes. Today's trip officially started at 11:25.

The way up the mountain is not hard, although it keeps climbing, but fortunately the slope is not high, it can be said that it is a gentle climb all the way.

This route is probably taken by very few outdoor groups. First, it is quite far from Guangzhou, so it is difficult to price. If it is a two-day trip, it will be expensive and most travelers will not be willing to participate. If you go back and forth in one day, you may have to worry that some travelers are too slow and it will be dark when they go down the mountain. But I think it’s not a problem as long as you bring a flashlight and a headlamp. Second, when we went up the mountain, except for some man-made garbage at the foot of the mountain, we could hardly see any in the mountain. This shows that very few people take this route. Third, on generally mature routes or routes taken by many people, you will see many ribbons from outdoor organizations. We saw very few this time, which also shows that few outdoor companies develop this route.

I feel lucky to have experienced the pristine beauty of this place before it became a popular route. Once the route matures, the flavor changes. The most difficult thing for me to accept is to see garbage (except peels and cores) in the mountains. On some routes with extremely beautiful scenery, you can actually see garbage piled up in hills. Whenever I see this scene, I really want to grab it. Ask those who throw away garbage, why do you do this?

Although I have seen pictures of Wulangzhang before setting off, there will still be unexpected surprises when I actually arrive. There had been heavy rain in the mountain forest about two days ago. After the rain knocked down the flowers on the shrubs, it formed a road of flowers around it. I heard the fellow travellers’ shouts of exclamation after seeing it. I also had a cry of exclamation, but I only heard it in my heart.

This mountain is not only primitive, but there are big trees in the mountains to provide shade, and little sunlight penetrates, so the mountains are always green and misty. The rocks are covered with light green, dark green and orange moss. Although I have seen yellow moss before, this is the first time that it has grown so thickly like here, like man-made graffiti.

There is a big tree covered with green moss from its trunk to its branches. Even if you look closely, it looks like it is covered with a green filter. When you press the shutter, not to mention the readers, even I wonder if the filter was turned on at that time.

Most of the rocks are covered with moss. I wore hiking shoes with good anti-slip effect and fell several times. There are many places where you need to use your hands and feet to get up safely. In such a dangerous place, trekking poles become a burden and affect the body's balance.

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After reaching the top of the mountain, I saw another team. They were also about 20 people. They seemed to be called "One Meter Outdoor", which I had never heard of. They crossed from Chayanding via Dazhupingding and Zhuzhang Mountain. The total journey was more than 17 kilometers. They got up at 5 o'clock in the morning and set off at 6 o'clock. The time to get down to the foot of the mountain was about the same as ours, which was also around 18 o'clock. When I heard about their itinerary, I remembered the Huangmeixuehou Line that I walked through in 2018, and I still feel scared when I think about it. It seems that I am no longer willing to walk a mountain road that exceeds 15 kilometers in a day.

Today I met an old woman on the top of the mountain. She is a member of One Meter Outdoors. When she saw me, she asked me to take a picture of her. I had just sat down and was going to rest quietly for 5 minutes while transferring the photos I had just taken to my phone. I originally wanted to refuse the old woman, but seeing that she was probably close to 60 years old, I couldn't bear it. After taking pictures of her, she was still not satisfied and asked me to take pictures of her at another corner, which was a better angle. Is it because you are older that you can command young people like this? Or do you think I became your photographer? After taking the photo, when I handed the camera to her, I didn’t even say thank you, I just yelled at her companions.

I remembered a saying that was once very popular on the Internet. The general idea was that the post-80s generation was ruined, the post-90s generation was inferior to the previous generation, etc. To be honest, among the people I see in reality, the younger they are, the more ethical and quality they are than those born before the 1970s. But here in China, it seems that people born in the 60s to the 40s tend to like cutting in line, pushing, littering, spitting, and smoking in public places.

After taking pictures of this old woman who bored me, I walked not far away and saw members of another team one meter away. They were about 30 years old. They politely asked me if it would be convenient for me to take a group photo with them. I said no problem. Since the sun is shining down from above at this time, this kind of light is not the best time to take pictures of landscapes or portraits. I told them the results might not be very good. After taking a group photo, they asked me to take a separate photo of them. Here, I probably wasted another 15 minutes or so.

In fact, I am not very willing to take photos for others when traveling, mainly because it is a waste of time, especially on this kind of hiking route, you will definitely meet a lot of people. You help take pictures of this one, and then you’ll be asked to take pictures of that one too. It’s not good if you don’t. Moreover, it takes time for me to take photos myself, and it will take more time than other members to complete the itinerary. Taking photos for others took me at least more than 30 minutes before and after today. Otherwise, I can probably get down to the meeting point at the foot of the mountain before 18 o'clock.

The scenery on the top of the mountain is also good, mainly because it is primitive enough without any trace of development. There are also a few large grassy slopes in the mountain, but compared with the long grassy slopes such as Chayanding, Dabuxu and Huangmeixuehou Line, they seem a little barren.

It seems that the mountain roads in Shaoguan are always painful during the descent. This time is no exception. Maybe it's because I haven't walked this kind of mountain road for a long time. Starting around 16:00 in the afternoon, I started to feel pain in my knees and feet.

Because I was taking photos for others in the afternoon, I was disconnected from the team. They called me in the WeChat group, and Brother Slipper also called me, but there was no signal in the mountains at that time, so I didn’t know. It wasn’t until around 16:05 in the afternoon that I saw the messages in the group, and I also received many unknown calls on my phone. They said they hoped I would catch up soon, otherwise I would have to walk at night. I thought to myself that they were almost at the bottom of the mountain, and I couldn't keep the team members waiting for me for too long, so I accelerated my pace, which made my knees and feet more painful.

Around 17:30, I met Brother Slipper on the way down the mountain, and he caught up with me from the bottom of the mountain. He said there were people who couldn't walk and seemed lost, and he wanted to go back to find them. To be honest, if I were the team leader, I really wouldn’t be able to go back to the mountain to look for the team after reaching the bottom of the mountain. I can't do it because I don't want to. I have always believed that you must have a clear understanding of your physical fitness before going hiking. The kind of person who feels like he can't walk any longer or is very tired and can just ask the tour leader to help him get his backpack is not qualified to go hiking. Before setting off, don’t you write down clearly how long the trip will take and how much time it will take? Since you have written it clearly and you are still willing to participate, you must be responsible for yourself. It doesn’t mean that if someone opens an outdoor company and charges you tens or more than a hundred dollars, they have the obligation to help you carry your backpack and take care of you. Unless you are injured or have an old illness, this is an unexpected event that is unpredictable. At this time, not only the team leader should take care of you, but also the capable friends in the team should help.

But asking the team leader to help with backpacking and carrying things because of lack of physical strength or so-called pain and unable to walk, I really think is very excessive. It doesn’t matter if you ask others to help you with your backpack. Do you give red envelopes to the people who helped you afterwards? Many scenic spots that require climbing have porters, and they are asked to pick people and things to follow for a certain distance, which can cost as little as one or two hundred yuan, and longer distances can cost five or six hundred yuan.

 

Just because someone else is the leader, should they carry your stuff for free?

What bothers me the most when I go hiking is meeting such hiking friends.

I saw that the slipper guy still had the patience to look for them. After finding them, he helped carry a few backpacks and didn't complain about it on the way back. I still appreciate this.

Because I would definitely not be able to do it if I were the team leader. If I were the boss, I wouldn't be willing to take on such a business. I couldn't bear to see my team leader working so hard just to earn this little money. I didn't want the team leader I hired to gain reputation in this way.

I hope that all travel enthusiasts can compare themselves with each other, clearly estimate their physical fitness, and train well before setting off, not only to protect themselves, but also to protect the team. Once someone is unable to walk due to lack of physical strength along the way, the entire group's trip will be delayed.

At 18:50, the team all gathered, we took a few photos together and then returned.

Finally, here are some pictures of this trip: