Outdoor Travel Notes | Hiking in Medog (Part 2)

A lot of trouble preparing before the trip

October 5th, the third day of hiking in Medog.

This is the most arduous day of the trip. We will hike 30 kilometers, from Hanmi at an altitude of 2127 meters, through Lahuzui, Jiefang Bridge, to Beibeng at an altitude of 659 meters. The total climb is 1226 meters and the descent is 2244 meters. It rained heavily the night before, so there would be more mudslides and the water in the waterfall would be larger and more rapid. What made everyone even more worried about it and their expressions changed after hearing it was that they had to travel through the leech forest!

A group photo in front of Zeng Glasses Hotel before departure

October is usually the dry season in Medog, with not much rain. This year is an exception. It has been raining continuously for several months without stopping every day. I even doubted whether I brought this rain. The three long-distance courses I participated in this year were rainy each time. The Yubeng Hiking, which I did not participate in, had clear skies every day.

If you cross on a sunny day, there will be far fewer locusts, and the dry road will be much easier to walk. Anyone who walks outdoors knows that the difficulty and intensity of the same road more than doubles when it rains. What's more, leeches swarm on rainy days, and this species with extremely strong reproductive ability will be everywhere.

The night before, Mr. Zeng repeatedly told us how to prevent leech and gave us many vivid examples to illustrate the importance of these methods. He talked about a girl who wore short-sleeved shorts and exposed her neck, arms, thighs and calves in order to see clearly whether leech was crawling on her body in time. before. The result was as she wished, black locusts crawled on her body, and it was easy to find that when she walked out of the leech forest, her body was already bright red. She contributed her precious blood to the ecological environment protection of Medog.

Various means of preventing locusts have been used

I followed the method taught by Zeng Jiamen and smeared all my calves with salt, put on two layers of thick socks, sprinkled a thick layer of salt between the two layers of socks, and tucked the quick-drying pants into the socks. Wrap your head tightly with a magic bandana and put on a jacket and hat. Sprinkle salt into the gloves and tuck the sleeves of the quick-drying clothes into the gloves. The outer trousers are originally rainproof trousers. The black fabric makes it difficult to spot leech, but it is not easy for them to get in. I still sprinkled a layer of salt on the surface of my hiking poles and hiking boots, but I soon discovered that this was in vain. As soon as the rain came on, all the salt melted. In this way, he is fully armed. Except for his face, everything else is tightly wrapped, like a living mummy.

Important preparations before departure - Gesang, Sister Hua, and Sachiko were filling their socks with salt. Those long legs were SUNNY.

The harder the journey, the more important the overall coordination of the team becomes. Before departure, the team leader LK sorts the teams. Sunny, Sister Hua, and Brother Zhao's family, who were of medium physical strength, followed Gesang at the front. Using their speed as a standard, they drove the weak donkey in the middle of the team, and also suppressed Brother Yun, Sister Liang, and Brother Zhao who were walking at the back. Strong ass like the Three Musketeers, in the end it was LK who closed the team. I am the key target of assistance in the team, and I am the C position of the team. Sister Zeng, as one of the key targets of protection, walks behind me. This formation was fixed with scientific, thoughtful and reasonable arrangements.

After setting off, first walk on a simple road

Sister Zeng before entering the leech forest

Enter the path and start crossing the leech forest

After walking on a smooth and boring road, we soon entered a trail in the forest and began our journey through the leech forest.

The battle with the leech

Since I became a brave hero a year ago, diarrhea has become a major problem that bothers me, and it is also the condition I am most worried about during hiking. Soon after entering the forest, it was no surprise that I had a strong need to urinate. Although I took a few pills early in the morning as a precaution, I still couldn't suppress it. In a place where there are piles of locusts and can attack us indiscriminately at any time and anywhere, it is very difficult to solve the problem of Chu Gong.

I found a slightly open place and kept as far away from the bushes and weeds as possible. Before taking off his pants, he applied a thick layer of salt on his thighs and buttocks. After all, he was still unable to withstand the attack of the leech. I grabbed two leech from my white and tender buttocks. This is the pinkest part of my body, with thin skin and red flesh. Even though it is protected by the salt layer, it has no intention of showing contempt for the leech, and with this blatant temptation, no one else would let the delicious meal come to their doorstep. I tried to turn over the leech's belly like I did when I was a cowherd boy in my childhood, killing them. However, the mountain leech was much smaller than the water leech, and its slender body was like a crack. There was no way to get rid of the clothing needles, so I had to throw them away and let them return to the forest. Fortunately, I caught it in time and the erection was completed. The ass was perfect without any damage.

Locusts on the roadside

Later on, during the journey, I saw all kinds of "sewing needles", even smaller than the smallest sewing needles. They were seamless and impossible to guard against. Even the smallest gap in the zipper pull of the jacket is a door for the leech to enter and exit freely. There are two suckers at one end and one at the end. After elongating the body, it moves like a farmer measuring the land with a pole. One suction cup is attached to the person's body, and the other suction cup moves forward, exchanging rapidly. The speed is amazing.

Leech on the leaves by the roadside

One is sucking blood from Brother Yun's leg

The colors of leech are also varied, mainly black and cyan. There are also fatter ones, with patterns clearly visible on their bodies. I grabbed a plump and plump leopard leech from my body. Its wild and sexy appearance made me unable to bear to kill it with salt.

Everyone is fighting with the locusts, and everyone brings a pound of salt for this purpose. For convenience, I put the salt in a mineral water bottle and put it in the side pocket of my hiking bag.

Mineral water bottle filled with salt

Fangfang, Nana, Sachiko, and Sister Liang filled their socks with salt and held them in their hands, ready to fight back at any time. Facts have proved that this approach is the most intelligent. Once you find a leech crawling on your body, you slap it with a sock. The salt particles seep out and stick to the locust. The leech curls up and falls off.

Fangfang was scared to death by leech in the car the first day.

Fangfang had already experienced the invasion of locusts when he walked through the virgin forest the next day, and now he is very calm and calm. She held a smelly sock in her hand, and when she saw a locust on someone, she would pat it with her sock. She repaired hundreds of locusts along the way. Especially my sister Zeng and I were particularly favored by the leech, and my exposed skin and face had countless close contacts with their smelly socks.

Fangfang shows off her weapon - a salt bag made from smelly socks

Locusts on socks

There are so many locusts that it's not clear how they stick to me. Initially, when the leech crawls on the body and trekking poles, salt is sprinkled on them to clean them. But there are more and more locusts, and it's impossible to clean them all. As long as they don't crawl on the skin, they don't bother to take care of them. The bodies and hiking poles are covered with leech of various types and colors. They climb up quickly. As long as they don't climb onto the hands or face, just let them be naughty for a while and ignore them.

When everyone walks for a while, they have to check each other's faces, and other places can no longer be controlled. Nana spotted a leech in my eyes, but I didn't even notice it. After peeling off my long beard that I hadn't trimmed for many days, I discovered that there were also locusts lurking in it. At first, I silently counted in my mind how many leeches there were on my face. Later, when the number became too many, I stopped counting. When we were about to walk out of the leech forest, Nana discovered that my forehead was bleeding. A leech was attached to my forehead. The blood that flowed out just formed the character "王". Everyone was so excited that they came over to help me. I take pictures. This should be a literate and knowledgeable leech, otherwise how could he write my last name?

The word "王" written in blood on the forehead

Leeches have two special functions. First, it comes with anesthesia, so people won’t notice it when it stings. Second, it has anticoagulant function, so the blood will not stop after being bitten. Therefore, it took LK several pieces of styptic cloth to stop the bleeding on my forehead.

During the entire journey, everyone became extremely sensitive. If any part of the body felt strange, they would suspect a leech infestation. But except for the naked face, I could only tolerate the strangeness in other parts and could not stop to check. As long as we stopped for a moment, we would immediately be covered with a bunch of locusts, and we could only keep moving forward.

Later, a friend told me that she had watched a documentary about the Brahmaputra Grand Canyon, in which a Japanese man walked through a locust forest alone and was eaten by the locusts. This shows how terrifying and rampant the leech here is.

The road is extremely difficult to navigate, so you must pay attention to the safety of your feet, watch out for locust attacks, and watch out for mudslides, and stay focused. My feet were soaked with mud and water, and my two pairs of socks became swollen after being soaked. It was like wearing small shoes on my big feet. It was extremely painful and my walking speed was greatly affected. LK was worried that he would not be able to catch the collapse before dark, so he urged me to speed up. At this time, I was moving forward at my maximum speed. It was impossible to move any faster.

When we saw the simple work sheds built by road construction workers at the foot of the mountain and knew we had walked out of the grasshopper forest, everyone cheered in victory. At this time, it was already three o'clock in the afternoon. Before we knew it, we had been walking through the leech forest for a full six hours!

Ali Second Bridge is a place for rest and inspection of leech. From here to Beibeng, the whole journey is a simple road, and there will no longer be any intrusion by locusts.

Under the cold wind and drizzle, we took off our backpacks, took off our clothes, pants, shoes, socks, and snow jackets one by one, and inspected them carefully. There were countless locusts left on everyone's body. They picked up the prepared salt and slaughtered the locusts crazily. On the snow gaiters, backpacks, knee pads, as well as in the gaps of hiking boots, socks, and hiking poles, there are traces of leech everywhere. We had no choice but to take our shoes, socks, snow boots, and hiking poles to the river under the bridge to wash them. We spread all our clothes on the ground, endured the cold, and carefully inspected them one by one. Some teammates simply threw them away because there were too many locusts on their snow jackets and socks and they couldn't see if there were any left inside. In reality, a real case finally happened where children were thrown out together with dirty water.

Brother Yun is cleaning the leech on his legs

The ones who were bitten the most were the Johnson family of three. On the first day, Johnson's wife sent all the long socks to Medog County, so they had to wear short socks. When the three of them took off their shoes, everyone's feet were bloody. Classmate Xiao Zhao had 28 bites on his feet. After using a lot of hemostatic cloths, he finally managed to stop the bleeding.

Checking the leech at the Ali Second Bridge, Xiao Zhao paid the most blood

There were many dead locusts lying in my hiking boots. After they got in, they rubbed between the feet and the shoes, and they had already turned into thin black strips. Poor them, only a hundred or so people come here throughout the year. They finally waited for us to arrive, but they lost their lives just for a good meal.

The luckiest one was Sunny. She wore socks that reached her knees and were stuffed with salt. Except for the corpses of many locusts lying in her shoes, she was not bitten. Afterward, she said that the leech in those shoes must have been salted to death. The strange thing is that her face was not attacked. I wonder if she, who has no medical background, used a secret recipe that we don't know about.

There are countless leech hidden in the gaps of every pair of hiking shoes

After the hectic cleaning, everyone put on their clothes and pants again, and it was then that they breathed a sigh of relief. So I took out the dry food, ate the road meal in a hurry in the drizzle, and rushed on my way. I took off a pair of socks, and my feet immediately felt relaxed, but one toe on each foot was black and covered with blood.

After walking on the road, my steps became brisk. Although I still found uncleaned locusts from time to time, there were not many of them anymore. Before dark, we finally reached the Jiefang Bridge. After crossing the bridge, there is a back collapse at the end.

Walking out of the leech forest, from left to right are Sister Hua, KK, Fangfang, Sunny, Sachiko, and Nana

After walking out of the leech forest, Sister Liang and I celebrated our victory on a bridge

The Johnson family after successfully crossing the locust forest

Sister Zeng’s photo with Fangfang

After embarking on the simple road, there are still landslides everywhere, making it impossible for vehicles to pass

At the police station in Beibeng, we completed the border procedures and it was already completely dark. The car to pick us up is already waiting here. In the dark night, we drove to Medog County.

That night, we stayed at the best hotel in the county. We soaked our clothes in water with salt, and found many leech one after another. They came out of the body and clothes, and even found them in the toilet. . Regardless of their shyness, the female teammates stripped themselves completely and carefully checked each other's bodies, otherwise they would suspect that there were locusts crawling on them when they went to bed at night. My roommate, Xiao Zhao, was Johnson's son, and he suffered several more locust bites. It wasn't until I returned to Linzhi two days later that the leech was finally cleared away. Did someone take the leech on the plane back to Guangzhou? It's entirely possible.

In the hotel room, the leech we brought in

Leech in the toilet bowl. Did it fall from my body when I went to the bathroom?

Due to continuous heavy rains, the Zhamo Highway, the only passage for vehicles entering and exiting Medog, that is, the road from Zhamu Town in Bomi County to Medog County, has suffered multiple serious landslides. It crosses the Galongla Snow Mountain and has to be restricted due to bad weather. Medog County stipulates that all vehicles enter and exit according to odd numbers on the calendar, that is, the highway can only pass in one direction every day. In this case, we must leave Medog on the next day, otherwise we will have to wait two more days, and all subsequent itineraries will be affected. As a last resort, I had to give up the planned hiking trip from Beibeng to the county seat, leaving a trace of regret.

Everyone who walks this road is a hero

The road in the rain was extremely difficult. Mud roads and gravel roads are considered the best roads. There are also countless mudslides and waterfalls, which are full of difficulties and obstacles. In many sections, the road is a ditch, the ditch is the road, and the ditch is filled with large and small stones. The shoes under my feet were washed clean by the flood for a while, and after walking dozens of meters, they were filled with black muddy water. It doesn't matter how many locusts there are in the shoes. As long as they dare to get in, they will be dead due to the constant friction between the feet and the shoes.

The road is rough

A dirt road that is easier to walk on

We are very lucky to have such a road. The picture shows Brother Yun and LK

While fighting the locusts, you must always pay attention to the road under your feet. If someone accidentally sprains his foot, he will need to be carried down the mountain, and everyone will be affected. What's more, there are rolling rocks above your head and cliffs at your feet. Danger is everywhere.

Laohuzui is one of the most dangerous sections of the journey. Zeng Glasses repeatedly warned us to walk carefully. He showed us the video, which was really frightening. Fortunately, when we passed Tiger Mouth, the cliffs were shrouded in thick clouds and mist, which gave us courage. Since you can't see it, just pretend that the cliff doesn't exist, and naturally you don't feel the danger. But the large and small waterfalls above my head were flowing down in a shameful way. As I walked through them, my head was buzzing from the beating of the flowing water. The biggest fear is that rocks will roll down. If they hit, this mountain wilderness will be a burial place, and the trip will end forever at this point.

Through the tiger's mouth

We walked to the first waterfall formed by the largest mudslide. The water rushed down from the high cliffs, making an ear-splitting roar, and then rushed towards the abyss below. Huge rocks rolled down from the heights to the bottom of the cliff with the roar of the rapids. At the narrowest point of the mudslide, road construction workers built a temporary bridge with wooden planks, drove steel nails into the cliff, and tied strong safety ropes. Two workers hung the safety hook on the rope and walked to the opposite side to explore the path. Several other workers were on this side of the bridge, assessing the degree of danger.

Workers said the mudslides and water flow were far greater than usual due to heavy rains the night before. Even if this section can be passed, there will be mudslides and countless paths destroyed by floods. Whether it can be passed is completely unknown. They thought for a long time and decided not to move forward and to withdraw all. They said that even if there were safety ropes, they would not dare to let the workers take risks.

At this point, we are faced with a difficult choice

It is obvious that if anyone is unable to hold on to the rope when crossing the bridge and is washed off the cliff by the flood, he will surely die with no chance of survival. But giving up and retreating with the workers, the trip to Medog ended with this, which was also difficult for everyone to accept.

"Safety first, safety first." These were the only four words I thought about.

Gesang was the first to pass, and LK walked from the back of the team to the front, tentatively tightening the rope to cross the bridge. He walked back and forth twice to confirm the function of the rope. At that moment, I really wanted to suggest to LK that the entire team withdraw and not take risks. Then I thought, if we didn't travel through the past and wanted to go back, we would have to turn back and cross the Duoxiong La Pass, which would be equally dangerous.

After testing back and forth, LK decided to pass through this section and continue moving forward.

Brother Yun stood up and tightened the rope at this end. LK responded at the other end of the bridge. Gesang urged his teammates who had already crossed the bridge to move forward quickly. Directly above their heads was the landslide of the mudslide, and there were constant rolling muds and rocks. fall.

Fangfang hugged Nana tightly and started to cross the bridge with tears in her eyes. Later, Fangfang told me that at that moment, what came to her heart were various heroic images from movies and TV series. At the moment of life and death, she said goodbye to her comrades around her, accompanied by an exciting and tragic BGM. Sister Zeng said that what she was thinking about was what would happen to her elderly parents if she fell, and what would happen to her son, who had not yet married a wife. And what I thought of was that I absolutely cannot die here. The index finger of my right hand is still not flexible and cannot play its role. The strength of my left hand is too weak and it is difficult to rely on it. How to hold the rope tightly without letting go is the focus of my thinking.

I observed the movements of the people in front of me crossing the bridge and figured out the essentials of my own movements. Put away the trekking poles and put them into your backpack, fasten your backpack and hat tightly, put on your gloves, hold on to the rope tightly, and start crossing the bridge.

We passed over the waterfalls formed by the mudslides in turn

The rushing waterfall is very violent, like continuous heavy punches hitting the top of the head, and the only deafening sound of the water is rumbling in the ears. I tried to move as fast as I could, but in the end I couldn't hold the rope firmly with my right hand, and I was reeling when I was about to step out of the rapids. LK grabbed my arm tightly, and I used his strength to exert force and finally crossed the bridge! At that moment, one sentence echoed in my mind: I'm here! I'm not dead!

The teammates crossed the bridge safely one by one, with many surprises and dangers. This was a battle of life and death. LK, Brother Yun, Gesang, and Johnson, four men, played a very important role. This battle turned us from teammates into comrades-in-arms.

This is the most thrilling part of the road. Although we encountered many mudslides, waterfalls and rapids since then, they were not as dangerous as here.

On the way, I met several workers who were returning home. They had been traveling here for many years in order to build roads. We give them a thumbs up and call them heroes. The workers replied:

"Everyone who walks this road is a hero!"

Postscript – Song of Life

As I write this, one month and five days have passed since the Medog hike. The two toes that were bruised and bruised when we walked through the locust forest on the last day are still black and it will take some time to completely disappear.

Today’s toes have changed from black to dark red

People should always do something that surprises them and makes them proud of them!

The night we arrived in Medog County, we gathered at a fish and meat hotpot restaurant. Everyone toasted to each other, spoke in turn, and shared their feelings about the trip. What everyone said was filled with sincere gratitude to their teammates.

In fact, we should also thank ourselves.

The scenery on the road

Before I left Medog, I didn’t dare to call myself an outdoor person, I was just a donkey. I think, donkey, this is a title with a very high threshold, and I am not qualified to have it. Not just because of physical strength, not just because of outdoor experience and knowledge, not just because I haven’t traveled much yet, but more importantly, because I don’t have the basic qualities of an outdoor person. After walking through Medog, I could finally proudly call myself an outdoorsman. Just as I said to Sister Liang when we were training at Liupianshan before the trip, I could brag about it with others for a year after walking through Medog. In fact, I can brag about this bullshit for the rest of my life.

Arriving at the Jiefang Bridge, after crossing the bridge, the back collapse

Outdoor people, like everyone else, have their own different experiences, unique personalities, and their own values and outlook on life. However, this group of people have common characteristics that belong to this collective:

They are brave and persistent;

They love life;

They love to share;

They are united, help each other, and have a high degree of cohesion;

They are cheerful and unpretentious;

They respect nature and care for the environment;

They never take the usual path;

They endure hardship and abuse, but also love to enjoy themselves;

They like simplicity and simplicity and can fully appreciate the power of simplicity and simplicity!

More importantly, outdoor people can personally feel the power of life and feel the power of life! This kind of power is indestructible, it is the driving force of living, the source of living, and the meaning of living!

Inches of beautiful moss

Gorgeous flowers blooming in the valley

Tall and thick trees in the forest

Monkeys looking for food and playing around

New shoots growing on dead wood

parasitic long vine

singing bird on branch

Herds of cattle and sheep in the river valley

Rain in the sky, clouds around me

The wind above my head, the snow on the ground

rapids in the valley

extremely difficult road

Even the leech that makes us miserable, such a simple annelid, is full of extremely powerful vitality. They work hard to reproduce in order to survive, and never miss any opportunity to drink human blood, even if it costs their lives, they will fight to the death.

Outdoor people should be the group of people who feel the most, deepest and strongest sense of life force from nature.

I think about the question I sat in Zeng Glass Hotel in the morning and thought, why did I come to Medog? Why did you come here? The best answer is now available.

Medog is my destiny in my previous life and my dream in this life. I came here to find her, and I left with endless nostalgia for her.

Every inch becomes a beautiful memory;

Every scene becomes a window to the soul;

Every mountain becomes a hometown in dreams;

Every road becomes an eternal thought.

I firmly believe that I will go further in the future!

Finally, I will end with a quote from Wang Zengqi’s "Love Life":

I don't think about whether I can succeed,

Since I have chosen the distance,

He only cares about the journey through wind and rain.

I don't think about whether I can win love,

Since I love roses,