Last visited 19 Feb 2013
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After 4 days camping around Guguan, one of our planned was to search for a wild hot spring around Guguan. We headed into the Dajia River 大甲溪 in search for an unknown hot spring who had previously been explored by other hikers.
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After 4 days camping around Guguan, one of our planned was to search for a wild hot spring around Guguan. We headed into the Dajia River 大甲溪 in search for an unknown hot spring who had previously been explored by other hikers.
Guess it was my mistake, I did not search further as I took the information back in 2010 and when we arrived at the hot spring the whole river bed was different. I could not find the hot spring according to the information. It seems the hot spring had been covered by landslide however I did find traces of hot spring but was not good and safe enough to have fun but only a warm feet dip.
Just above the hot spring there were loose rocks kept falling into the river from the valley so it was not a safe place to camp and we ended up camping across the river away from the hot spring just to be safe.
The whole river trekking one way 6 Km with a serious foot reflexology in search for the hot spring and it took almost 3.5 hours. We set off around around 11:30am and arrived the hot spring at 3pm. Disappointed or not, the journey did provide some splendid views so we decided to camp a night beside a small waterfall across the hot spring.
We did find another campsite which is much nearer from the trail head and there is a small lagoon that is ideal for summer camping and a cool dip. If you are adventurous you might head down to the dam which is around 3km more from the hot spring site.
Overall the hike was splendid and challenging as we needed to traverse the river almost 20 times. My advise is that you need a trekking pole to balance and a good felt shoe's sole to grip on the slippery river bed. Bring a water purifier, 400ml water bottle and 2lts platypus bottle for camp cooking. We had purified almost 6lts of water on the whole trip for 2 for 2 days and did notice it purified the odour smell and algae from the hot spring water. I am saying it because partner did took water from up stream and it tasted awful just to brush our teeth but the water at the same location filtered everything away including the smell of the water.
first gate.. restricted entry with surveillance camera, close your eyes and just walk through
second gate...head left and there is an small opening to navigated across
climbing across the second gate
heading to the river bed
one of the river crossing...need good footing and at least 20 times doing it
man-made waterfall??!!
used to have a suspension bridge to the structure behind but now is just a ruin
our swimming dog ..simply love the water
totally beaten by the heat and trekking
Hot Spring residue
Hot Spring Algae... close to 50 deg C
this was Maling hot spring...disappointed
Getting purified drinkable water
Chilling Out ... camping on river bed, advise to build a rock tower around the tent to prevent sand storm
Dinner
purified water...took 4 mins to fill a litre
Stove broke down so we have to do the survivor way
Dinner
camp fire
stove came back to life ...morning breakfast
cool soak
everywhere were tadpoles
cold tea from from purified river water
Blue lagoon, just on the left is an ideal camp ground behind the rock away from the wind and can go for a cool dip. There are plenty of wood for camp fire.
More important a compression waterproof backpack
2 days of water purification and it did filter out hot spring odour and other stuff
