Help!! Taipei Hikers needs volunteers/ new input

[Richard Saunders]

Hi again,

               Taipei Hikers has been going now for 11 or 12 years in some form or another (it began as a way to check the 30 walks and day trips in the long-gone Taipei Day Trips Book 2 during the writing of that book, way back in 2001) and I'm hoping to carry on admin-ing it for many years more, but it could be a lot better still. A shining example for us is Hiking and Riding in Taipei, set up by the inexhaustibly energetic and creative Edouard Roquette, which now has several volunteer hike leaders taking people out on a range of trips, and a Facebook page full of interesting bits and pieces garnered from various volunteers.

 

NEW HIKING LEADERS

 

 I already mentioned it in an earlier email, if any other hikers are willing to follow Grant's good example and lead a hike or more, please pipe up. As much as I enjoy being the center of attention Taipei Hikers is of course not about me, but about getting as many of us out to appreciate Taiwan's magnificent countryside as possible. Hikes organised by me are almost exclusively of the more strenuous or adventurous kind, so it would be especially wonderful if someone would run a couple of hikes of easier difficulty/shorter length, maybe in Yangmingshan, where there are tons of good, easy walks. You can run them under Taipei Hikers or feel free to start your own club and I'll of course advertise it here. 

 

OK, now back to me! I have some plans for scooter trips, a camping weekend and (possibly) a high mountain trip this autumn, but really want to branch out a bit and do something new. However I'll be mega busy getting 100 minutes of sometimes tortuously difficult piano music polished to a kind-of-a-shine before my impending piano recital (September 14th - hope to see some of you there!) so I really need someone to share the burden, and plenty of fresh ideas to make the group even more interesting and hopefully of use to everyone, not just us adrenaline junkies who like the rougher trails.

 

   

HIRING TRANSPORT

 

The one thing that would really increase the group's options would be finding our own transport. In the past (5 years or so back) we were able to car pool at regular intervals, which worked fab, and got us to some really out-of-the-way places. That seems to have dried up recently, but there's still of course the option of hiring a minivan and driving it ourselves (or hiring a driver). We've hired minivans several times in the past for high mountain hikes but with driver they can end up being pretty expensive. We need someone who is willing to do a little research and find a reliable source where we can hire say an 8 or 12-seater; something at a reasonable per-person cost. We just need someone willing to take control and organise the transport: there are countless interesting places to visit, both one day and weekend.

 

 

 

FRESH IDEAS

 

Get involved! Although I'm very flattered, my knowledge isn't nearly as wide-reaching as some people I know seem to think, and pooling ideas, info, experience, views etc will make the trips we organise better, more interesting and safer. Just a few random ideas swimming around in my head that I should have addressed years ago:

 

- Bringing walkie-talkies on hikes and having 'leaders' at the front and back to keep track of larger groups

 

- Insurance/liability waivers so that us leaders don't end up in trouble - just in case something bad happens! Thankfully in over a decade and hundreds of trips we've never had anything worse than the odd bruise, cut, and one chipped tooth, but there's always a chance!

 

- Marking trails in the Taipei Escapes books with our own customised trail ribbons (although possibly a bit environmentally unfriendly)

 

- Getting the Taipei Hikers wiki (http://taipeihikers.wikispaces.com/ thoughtfully set up by group member Elisabeth last year) up-to-date again.

 

- Forming a small groups of admins to pool ideas, organise upcoming trips, and find ways to improve the group for everyone.  

 

There must be loads of other ways we can improve the group. 

 

As I said earlier this group is certainly not a one-man show.  I've been really grateful for help in the past: among others from Elisabeth (setting up the Wiki) from Jodi and others for regularly donating their car and selves to drive us to harder-to-reach places, to Grant for organising the hike this summer.... It's time though to get more organised and see if we can make this group even better. The growing network of foreign-run companies (Taiwan Adventures, Barking Deer, Hualien Outdoors) and free hiking groups (Taiwan Adventures again, Hiking and Riding in Taiwan etc) is now an extraordinary phenomenon in Taiwan. Let's show the Taiwanese how much expats know and love this magnificent country, and maybe one day they'll sit up and listen and take heed so we can show them the right way to promote Taiwan's magnificent landscape (and culture).

 

Cheers

 

Richard

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