Climbing Horse Saddle Mountain / 爬马鞍山

Over the weekend staff members of The Green Education Center took advantage of the beautiful weather and took a hike to the local Horse Saddle Mountain 马鞍山。It is  a gorgeous bit of scenery, and whats best is hardly anyone ever goes there. One reason that makes it so fun, it that there aren't really any hiking trails. We had to find our own way through the forest and to the peak.

Our Director Chen Yongsong lent me his GPS device, so I was able to do a bit of cartography along the way, recording our co-ordinates and landmarks along the way so it will be easier for future interns and GEC visitors to find their way to the peak.

A view of Horse Saddle Mountain from outside GEC (looking east) The north peak to the left is  9,863ft
and the south peak to the right is 9,930ft. GEC is at 8,092ft.

Chen Yongsong and myself walking through the foothills.

Another GEC volunteer Sinan on the left, and myself pause to record our co-ordinates and landmarks.

Atop the southern peak facing east overlooking Lijiang City.

Atop the southern peak facing west overlooking Lashihai. GEC is located at the bottom of the mountain in the middle of the picture.

Just before reaching the north peak. We were all carrying plastic bags around with us as to clean up some of the trash we found along the way. Although not many people make it all the way to the top, those who do still have a very relaxed attitude about throwing their garbage anywhere they please. We filled all 8 of our bags before making it back to GEC, and decided the rest of the trash would have to wait for the next time we hike with more volunteers to clean the rest up.

That night I plugged all the co-ordinates into google maps and got a visual on our  hiking route. The left most blue dot is GEC and the blue dot at the very bottom is the southern peak. On the left side of the picture you can see the east bank of Lashi Lake. On the right side of the picture are farmlands and the edge of Lijiang City.