Once Upon a Rainy Day at Yangmingshan National Park

Reaching the peak of a mountain in ordinary days and familiar places are is one heck of a feat. But reaching one in the midst of a typhoon, in an unfamiliar place and alone? That’s an achievement worthy of bragging rights and is, well, borderline reckless.

Yangmingshan is one of the nine national parks in Taiwan. Wikipedia says so, so it must be true. This beautiful majestic mountain has several trails which I’m only finding out as I’m writing this piece. My adventurous reckless personality chose the trail heading towards the highest peak, Mt. Qixing, also known as The Seven Star Mountain. I mean, why not eh? It was a simple typhoon and I’m alone. Who cares? (my other personalities do!).

Mt. Qixing has an elevation of 1120 meters (3,674 ft.). Its peak is the highest point in Taipei. The trail was pretty solid and easy to navigate. But it can be treacherous especially during periods of rain, let alone, typhoons. Countless times during my hiking escapade in Mt. Qixing, I thought of giving up. Not because I grew tired but because it was a scary situation be to in. There was a downpour. The wind was blowing hard. It was getting dark. I was getting deeper into a forested mountain. I was dead scared. My fear though was coming from the fear of people attacking me. But I thought to myself, who the heck is crazy enough to go hiking in the middle of a storm? So I went on. There were a few people along the way but everyone was friendly and showed concern that I was by myself.

It took me about two hours to reach the peak of the mountain. And guess what I saw… Fog. Everything covered in a cloud of nothingness. That was to expected though. Despite not being able to see the whole of Taipei from the peak of Mt. Qixin, it made my heart happy that I conquered this unfamiliar, beautiful mountain on a stormy day. That when I doubted myself to finish what I’ve started, I pushed through. When fear loomed above my head, I fought and conquered.

This experience is one for the books but I will go back and do it again but this time, it would be on a beautiful sunny day.