The Songpan Experience
I was just sitting here lamenting the fact that I don’t have enough time to tell you much about my horseback trip to Songpan last week. Then I checked my email and found that one of my traveling companions sent me an excellent narrative about her experience on the trip!
So, without further ado, here is the Songpan story, as told by the lovely and talented Kelly Foley!
From Xian, I called an old friend from college who some of you may know, Lance Webel. He has been teaching English in China this past year … and ironically was flying to Chengdu that weekend (where I was going) to meet two of his teaching friends (Mary Claire and Rick, who is from my hometown of Hudson, Ohio). They were planning to go on a 3-day horse trek in northern Sichuan, so I joined them (Gracias Sarah P. for connecting us together!).
We left on the morning of the 16th for Songpan, a ~10 hour bus ride north, which mostly included driving on some intense roads in the mountains. Although I had been sick and now was at serious altitude (~3000m), I was relieved to get out of the big Polluted Chinese Cities! Also, my excitement of being in the mountains and just feeling ‘free’ helped me forget any ailments!
On Tuesday morning, we joined ~26 others (including the guides) for a 3-day horse trek in the mountains. Participants included people from China, Taiwan, France, Canada, and us 4 from the US. Pictures snapping, leg muscles gripping, building a relationship with each of our hairy animals (i.e. the horses), we quickly left the town of Songpan and made our way up into the ‘hills.’ These hills had all been, for the most part, stripped of their trees with very few replacements planted to encourage re-foresting. The view was spectacular! And although I usually don’t like fabricated experiences, I did very much enjoy riding the horse with good company and great views.
Getting into camp ~4 hours later, the guides quickly unloaded the horses, put bells around their necks, and set up our tents on the grounds where the horses just relieved themselves (awesome-sarcasm). The camp sight was lovely, however, the sanitation situation was quite, hummm, what should I say, hummm, oh yes-disgusting (sorry, L, R, MC,…I had to say it). Many of the horses quickly hit the ground doing back rolls to relieve them of their itches from the heavy loads. Then, one of the guides left with the horses up some trail and we didn’t see them until much later.
Mary Clair, Lance, and I took off down-river for a hike and to stretch our legs from riding. We arrived back to camp just as the skies opened up and we dove into the tents to avoid the rain. The guides worked quickly to direct the water away from the tents. Just as dinner was ready (cabbage and noodles), the rain completely stopped! That evening was spent with the 4 of us playing cards in the 2-person tent while some of the guides and some of the French got drunk and sang loudly, which was more like yelling.
Waking up on Wednesday morning, my whole body felt like it had been run-over-by-a-truck, but moving slowly I worked my way up and out of the tent. We ate a breakfast of fried dough and boiled potatoes, then mounted the horses and road towards ‘Ice Mountain.’ Trotting en masse through the flat surfaces, all of were relieved to have a change of pace from following in-line on the trails. Climbing high on the trail, some of the people saw a monkey, at which the guides decided to throw stones. Reaching a leveled surface on the side of the mountian our group (horses et. al.) took a break. Rain started coming down so most of us took cover in an abandoned house while the guides made a fire. The rain was light and several of us started hiking up without the horses. This was my playground! The last time I remember frolicking on high mountain trails was in Nevada on a Geology field trip, it had been way too long! Nearing another flattened area well above tree line we took a break to wait for others hiking up.
Low-and-behold, ALL the horses came up over the horizon. The guides brought them up b/c another group of horse riders came up riding their horses. Initially with the rain, I don’t think the guides were planning on bring up the horses. We mounted the horses and road higher. The sedimentary rock layers were beautiful! Having horses climb a narrow and steep trail of fallen rock chunks (mostly shale), I was quite nervous, however, we made our way higher and higher and finally reached the mountain lake, which I am assuming was our plan. It was very difficult to know what was going on because the communication was nil, however, the guides were good and I could see that they cared.
We mounted the horses to take a look at the lake and rest, then the horses walked solo while we hurridly headed downhill following their lead. Part of the way down the trail we mounted the horses and rode back down the mountain, through the Tibetan village in the valley, and back up through another valley to our camp. Being a part of the horses ‘fight’ for lead horse was intense. Many of the horses nipped as Wa-Ma, my horse, tried to pass.
Back at camp we had dinner, played cards, and went to sleep. The next day we were driven out of our tents at 7am for breakfast so we could eat, pack, and head out. The weather for the trip out was magnificent! We took a different path out and along the way stopped at a Tibetan monastary for a look around. It was sad pulling into town, dismounting, and saying bye to the horses. I could have kept going for several weeks!
From Songpan, Lance, Mary Clair, and Rick headed back to Chengdu and I headed north to a National Heritage park (Jiuzhaigou). I headed back to Chengdu the day after (Saturday) and met up with Lance, Mary Clair, and Rick for one more evening and dinner at Peter’s Tex Mex (who knew, ‘Tex Mex’ in China!). Sunday, I went to the Panda Research Station with Grahm, one of Lance’s friends. Dinner was at the Shamrock Bar (again, who knew, ‘Irish’ food in China!). Of course you can find “Western Food” here, I’m just being cheeky.
So there you go. A brief summary of my past week. Hope all is well with all of you.
Spoken so much better than I could’ve. Thanks, Kelly.
Indeed, the trip was fantastic … maybe even more pristine and beautiful than my previous favorite, Tiger Leaping Gorge. Skippy (my horse) and I formed a solid relationship, cantering in some open fields and putting some of the other horses in their place. And it was nice to simply be out in the elements … even if I did spend three days in the pouring rain at 3500m with nothing but a pair of half-broken sandals.
T’was spectacular!
