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Photos by MJ Klein

Last weekend, we went on another geocache hunt with Michael Turton. This time, his wife and kids joined us. We had a really great time together, hiking the trails and hunting the Balance Rock geocache.

This is a map of the route we took. We began where it says “You Are Here” and hiked up trail #8. We came back down trail #7, so it was a nice loop with some great views.

Sylvia points out a new hospital being built in the area. You can kinda get the idea from the background that we are somewhat higher than the surrounding area, even though this is the very beginning of our hike.

The Turton’s live in an area that features many trails. This grassy section is really a nice place to walk through. On the other side are several trail heads.

Everything is well marked.

Michael is always on the lookout for critters to photograph.

I have spent years in forests in North America and Asia, and I have never met anyone who can spot insects like Michael Turton! He kept saying “see that one over there?” “Uh, no….” was my reply until took a good look. I would have missed everything that he saw without him pointing them out. Here you see what Michael does best: shooting spiders!

We walked long the trail and then came to the dreaded log steps! These steps suck! Fortunately they don’t go on for very long.

Eventually we reached the summit and saw the balancing rock. Apparently damaged in the great earthquake of 9/21, the Taiwan government put it “back” in place with an iron strap.

This is some kind of reference marker up on top of the mountain. It looks like the actual marker tag itself is missing.

I can’t show you where it is hidden, but eventually we found the geocache. Here we see Michaels’ children checking out the contents. Dan-dan is showing us what she wants to put into it: a Hello Kitty pin.

After recording our visit in the logbook, we packed the geocache back up and went back down along the other trail.

This is part of trail #7. Its a very nice walk.

Check out the views of Taichung.

On the way down, we passed these bee hives.

Not to mention, a karaoke-club-on-wheels. They were cranking out tunes at high volume while patrons drank Taiwan Beer and sang along with wireless mics. Ah….. I just love Taiwan!

technorati tags:Taiwan, Taichung, geocaching, hiking, Michael Turton

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