Butterfly season

The end of May saw Sharon and I on the bus back to up Yangming Shan for a day of hiking. This is now the second year in row we've done this - could it be becoming an annual event? Anyway, it proved to be a day of great luck for many reasons. First, despite researching our prospective route in depth the night before, Sharon was still unclear as to just how to get there. Luckily, a couple on the bus was going to the same place and helped us transfer to the bus we needed to get there and then to point us in the right direction on the path. The path was butterfly way, which is particularly popular at this time of year, considering that's it's apparently butterfly season up on the mountain. So, along we went, but no butterflies did we see. Seemed like our luck was quickly running out. But, we were greeted by some wonderfully mysterious and foggy ways, which offered Sharon the opportunity to teach me how to say "fog" in Chinese - wuuuuuuuuuuuu.

Next, once we were on the way to the top of a peak she wanted to take me too, we could hear thunder rumbling incessantly over the mountains. It kept threatening rain, but from where we were, the sky remained blue and clear. The path we were on was also surprisingly free of other hikers. When we did finally meet someone on the path, we were worried that they were actually aliens disguised as humans. We also hypothesized that the constant rumbling was not from thunder but from an elusive mountain monster that duly gobbled up unwitting hikers as they came around the bend. Well, we made our way around the bend only to be greeted, not by the monster, but by butterflies! Wonderfully colorful butterflies that flitted playfully between us and the trees.

Our feet refreshed from having stopped to admire the butterflies for a while, we renewed our climb up the seemingly endless stairs up the mountain that stared mercilessly back at us. But, each step higher afforded a wider view of the surrounding mountains and the bike path we had taken just a month before up to Danshui.

After catching our breath at the peak - which we were surprised to learn is supposedly the highest peak at Yangming Shan, we headed to the road to make our way back down. We were greeted with the grand finale of luck as the road was lined with a curious white flower and butterflies galore! And this time the butterflies rested long enough to let us get some decent shots of them.

After enjoying so much luck in one day, I'm a tad worried I've maxed out my luck account for the year, but even so, I'm looking forward to a hopefully 3rd annual Yangming Shan hike with Sharon next butterfly season!