Unfortunately I got sick about half way up the first mountain, so Soso and Lonely Old Man turned around with me and we did a flatter hike this day! I found out later that I was probably 'on fire' from traveling, and the season changing. All that week I had ringing ears and lots of burps! 

For the first (planned) part of the hike, we climbed about 570m over the course of about 3km. The rise was slow at first, as we climbed into the forest service center, and then there was a step ascent going directly up the mountain! The aim was to go over the top and then keep going up and down a few more. However, about 2/3 of the way up my body decided this wasn't really a good idea. I had the feeling of too much gas stuck inside of my stomach, along with a bit of ringing ears. The group stopped for a bit, and that was when I threw up =[ So, back down the moutain. 

With Soso and LOM I managed to make it back down to the forestry center. There was an old temple near by, but the gate was locked, so we continued on. There was supposed to be a lower altitude path that cut through the valleys to the other side. However, when we got to the place to cross the stream, we found the bridge was broken!  At this point, it was decided that this shadey spot by the fish pond was a nice place to have a bit of a rest (as I was still feeling shakey and off-balance) and we stopped for lunch. 

The rest of the day was spent wandering around the villages and exploring some abandoned places. According to my GPS tracker, we had a gain of 700m over the course of the day, with lots of little ups and downs. The total hike was around 5 hours or so, and we managed to walk a bit over 16km. Not too bad for an improvised course day!

 

Thanks always to Soso for helping me get out with Cuzo, and for making sure I was okay that day!

I felt so bad that my body decided to back out... I was really looking forward to getting out into the mountains, especailly with all of that beautiful blue sky we had that weekend!! 

I hope to get out once this month, too, before the weather starts turning too cold! =]