This was a really great morning!  We hiked on two different trails on Hehuan Mountain.  The view was spectacular.  On the first trail I was part of the group that reached the summit first :) With me was Jenny, Yang Fan, Corinne, and Sharon.  The air was pretty thin because the top of the trail was over 3100 meters.  The altitude changes gave me a slight headache, but it was still so much fun.  On the way back down, we took a narrow, unpaved trail across the ridge instead of the paved, switchback path that we had taken on the way up.  The adventure aspect made the trip so much more fun, and it was a much faster route.  We finished the first hike at least thirty minutes before most everyone else.  This was definitely one of my favorite activities.  Fan and Jenny are serious dare devils when it comes to climbing things.  They went up a trail on a tall rocky outcrop that had a "Danger, precipitous trail" sign posted.  They may be a little crazy, but they got some awesome pictures.

On the second trail, the official route was quite short, but our adventurous group managed to add to the excitement.  Fan went way off on a goat path trail/free style on the side of the mountain towards the little pond in my pictures.  Corrine, Jenny and I met him down there by taking a slightly better established goat path alongside the main trail.

Working backwards now, I would like to comment on our transportation today.  We took two small buses on what were some of the most rough and winding roads we have experienced yet.  In a way I have started to get used to fearing for our lives on our road trips, but it doesn't really make the way any less bumpy or worrisome.  One funny thing was that they were playing music on the bus like instrumental versions of The Big Bad Wolf, Reflection from Mulan, the theme from Titanic, and Ode to Joy.  The traffic on the road to the trails was ridiculous...so many tourists!

Another interesting thing that happened today was that at our first rest stop there was a fruit stand selling peaches and apples that had just been picked this morning. They were even cutting off slices for people to sample.  The peach was probably the best I have ever eaten, but I didn't buy any because they were too expensive.  The apples were also good and a little bit better in price, so I bought two.

Moving forward again, after our hikes, we ate a pretty good boxed lunch sitting on the bus in a parking lot.  Another random fact of the day, we saw two people on mopeds that were wearing full body Pikachu suits! 

After lunch we went to Cingjing Farm, which is basically just a tourist trap.  The most interesting thing we saw there was a sheep dog herding a flock of sheep and a windmill painted like a cow.  For the most part though, there was very little to see and even less of serious interest for people that know what real farms are like, or have even lived in a rural community.  We did get to taste some peach honey and pollen, and see the queen bee of a hive, so that was neat.  The honey was very good as well.  

Crazy mobs of tourists gathered to see the sheep shearing show....that's right, sheep shearing.

The bee that looks like it has red eyes is the queen.

Then we stopped at the second highest 7 Eleven in Taiwan to pick up snacks and such.  Because of the high altitude, the bas of chips and other packages look all puffed up.

We finished off the day with an introduction to Mei-Feng Farm lecture and a video about some of the bird species that can be observed on the farm.  I actually found both the lecture and the movie pretty interesting, and I am excited to go bird watching and tour the farm tomorrow.  We do have to leave at 6am for bird watching though..yuck.  I need to be getting to bed, so I will call this the end for today.