Solo trip to Leshan and Emei Shan part 2

Part 2 of the solo trip....

After I finished at the giant buddha, I bought another bus ticket and went to the town nearest to Emei Shan, where I stayed overnight in a hotel.  The next morning, I got up early and started walking in an attempt to climb to the top.  I started from the very bottom with the aim of walking all the way to the top and back over 3 days.  It's about 24 miles and about 8300 ft of elevation gain to go up (and then you have to come back down).

The cool trail map...which leaves out a LOT of details and, as I discovered, is NOT to scale.  But it is pretty to look at!

The first temple, Baoguo

Also at the first temple

And then this started.  And they kept going and going and going.  Every now and then, just for a nice change, they'd go down.  Which means that you are going to have to go up even more to get to the top.  :-(

Some nice views along the way

There were some lovely rest areas too (this one was conveniently located where it was flat and I didn't need a rest)

The intended final destination is that mountain way in the background.  Uh, oh, that's a long way...and a lot more steps to go up.

This is Qingyin Pavilion, about 8 miles in for me.  Most of the people here took a bus and then walked maybe a mile.

The guys in the green vests will carry you in a sedan chair for a price.

Wannian Temple is just up there.  I decided not to go up any extra steps, so I turned right here to continue on my way to the top.  This is about 9 or 10 miles into my journey.

The top of the Wannian Temple is the gold looking circle in the middle of this photo.

And this is Xixin Temple where I spent the night.  Altogether I probably went about 13 miles or so, almost all stairs.  I was exhausted.  My adventures weren't exactly over though.

Beautiful view from the temple.  I started the day in the town at the bottom.

This was the room I spent the night in with 10 older Chinese women who between them knew one word of English - hello.  If you count beds, you will notice that there are not 11 beds, there are 7.  Think of it as a big slumber party.  They were nice enough to give me my own bed where I didn't have to share.  What I didn't know is that it was next to the chamberpots they would use many times overnight.  That was an interesting night....  I didn't get much sleep because they would turn on the lights when they needed to use the 'facilities.'

The next morning, they were up at 5:30am and then sat and chatted loudly while continually telling me to go back to sleep.  That didn't happen, as much as I would have liked a bit more sleep.  My legs were jello from the day before, but I started heading uphill again, in an attempt to see if I could make it.  I got about an hour further up the mountain and had to make the tough decision to give up.  It took me another 3+ hours of climbing down stairs to get to the previous temple where there was a cable car to a bus to get off the mountain altogether.  It wasn't my first choice, but by then my legs were shaking with every step.  So...I bailed and went all the way home.

Altogether I made it about halfway up elevation-wise, and over halfway up distance-wise, but the mountain (or really, I should say the stairs) defeated me.