This Beagle Explores Stage 3 of HK Trail

This beagle loves exploring sections of the Hong Kong trail, a nice change from my regular walks on Bowen Road. The 50km long trail spans five country parks across Hong Kong island. The trail is divided into 7 stages, starting at the Peak, on the western side of the island and ending at Big Wave Bay, on the eastern side of Hong Kong.

The HK trail has distance post along the trail to help hikers figure out where they are and in case of emergencies. The way you can work out how far you've walked is to take note of the number on the post. The distance between each post is 1/2 km. So the starting point at the peak is H001 and the ending point at Big Wave Bay is H100 (50 km).

Whilst it is highly unlikely that I will be able to cover the entire Hong Kong trail (this beagle is 10 years old after all), over the last 1.5 years, my humans have taken me for walks on different sections of the west end trails. So far, I've covered Stage 1 (7km) of the Hong Kong trail, which starts at the Peak's Lugard Road, and then crosses over to Lung Fu Shan Country Park, before looping over to Pok Fu Lam Country Park. My humans and I also regularly hike on the Lady Clementi's Ride, which is the initial 2.5km of Stage 4. A few weeks back, we covered Stage 3 (6.5km), starting from Wan Chai Gap and ending at Peel Rise, near the Peak.

 

My humans usually let me go off-leash on the trails, with one human leading the way upfront and another human behind this beagle to make sure that I don't roam off. Sometimes, I will stop to check that the human on back patrol is still following me. "Hurry up, we've got lots to explore."

 

 

 

The trail is really lovely. It's shaded, fairly flat and passes a couple of streams. We stopped for a water break and my human decided to dip her toes in the cool water of the stream. Me, I'll keep my paws on firm ground. In case you don't know, beagles do not like to play in water, unlike my fellow canines, the Labradors and Retrievers.

The most difficult part of the trail is the last kilometre or so leading up to Peel Rise. It is a very steep climb! So, on our last visit, we skipped the last section and turned around back to Wan Chai Gap. At one point of the trail, there were a series of steep large steps. Since my humans did not want this beagle to climb the stairs (old age = joints issue), my human carries me up.

After that lovely long outing, this beagle catches a snooze out in our balcony. A pretty good weekend indeed!