Originally Posted by
yytleisure
thanks for the response! your suggestions sound right up my alley - yes sounds like we have a similar interests.
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Yellow mountains sounds right up my alley - unfortunately i'm a bit of a sweaty man and from the sounds of it i'd perish halfway up of heatstroke/dehydration. uneven/difficult to navigate/strenuous doesnt bother me but in 35 degree humid heat won't work too well for those of us living in the middle of the north atlantic. how long would you say it took to get to the top? possible to take breaks along the way for side sights?
I highly recommend the Yellow Mountains. I think we went in hot weather August/Sept or some such last year. The air up in the mountains was a lot cooler than further down. I'm a big, sweaty 65 yr old and got along OK. Make sure you have water (you can buy it along the trail at main points). What we did was to stay in a guest house/hotel at the bottom of the mountain and got up early (as most everyone does) and took a bus to the base of the mountain where you catch a cable car up to the area where you hike from . So you don't have to hike in the lower/warmer areas. As I said we stayed over night, but some folks just go up and down in a day.
The cable car to the top is 15 minutes or so. And once there you are close to the area where all the hotels are. So you can rest, eat, etc. There are also some places where you can buy food, water, and so on. Once up in that area the trails (which are all concrete steps or steps carved into the mountain rock) go in many directions. I think there are 3 or 4 main trails which lead to different areas. Each trail involved going up/down the equivalent of 10-20 flights of stairs and ended at a lookout point where you could rest, get water, etc. Some trails are in a loop, but all go back to the central hotel area.
Here's a link to a map of the hiking area.
http://www.china-map-guide.com/attra...w-mountain.htm
I don't see distance markers on the map, but I think we went on one trail the first day and a second trial the second day which wound around to a high point and then a spectacular trail on the edge of the mountain. I seem to remember each day's hiking was in the area of 4-5 km.
Oh and one other thing, if you go up take with you ONLY what you absolutely need. Once at the top of the cable car everything is hand carried. We took a back pack each and I took only prescription medicine, CPAP and a change of clothes. You can store anything else for a day or so at a hotel down in the city or some such.
If I can figure out how to upload an image, I'll do that.
Best to you.