Today we’re previewing Hong Kong Trail Section 3, which begins at Peel Rise and winds it’s way around to Wan Chai Gap above Aberdeen Reservoir and meets up with Hong Kong Trail Section 4. We’re calling this a preview as we’ve had some niggling injuries over the last few weeks and haven’t been out, we had to turn around half way to make it back to pick up our son. Tomorrow or the next day, if the weather permits, we’ll hike Hong Kong Trail Section 3 and Hong Hong Kong Trail Section 4, and put up a full review of that.
Hong Kong Trail Section 3 is 6.5 km’s which ordinarily should be no problem, but with our knee injury, and the fact we start from our apartment, means we couldn’t do the whole trail today. The start of Hong Kong Trail Section 3 is about a quarter the way up Peel Rise on the way to the Peak, we’ve hiked past here what must be a dozen times, but never noticed the entrance. Part of Peel Rise is actually Hong Kong Trail Section 3, but when you take the entrance that says Wan Chai Gap, this is really, by far, the best part of Hong Kong Trail Section 3. With all our injuries in our old age, we’ve been hanging out for some proper trails, and wanting to get off the numerous concrete trails that cover most of Hong Kong’s so called hiking trails. The Hong Kong Trail Section 3 delivered, we covered about 3/4 of it, and all of it, bar the first bit on Peel Rise, is actual trail, at least what we understand the meaning to be. It’s dirt, soft, some of it covered in leaves, and it’s just a completely different, and better experience than running on roads. There’s little up hill, a few very gentle bits that go and up down, but if you like to run fast on trails, this is the trail for you on Hong Kong Island.
hong kong trail section 3
Granted, there’s very little to see, but we’d take soft trails over the views anytime of the year. Yes, there are some rocky bits on Hong Kong trail section 3, but overall, I’d say it’s 95% dirt/leaves and the best trail running we’ve come across on Hong Kong Island. Okay, that’s not saying much, it’s not as if we’ve hiked every trail, but we’ve done a fair amount and there is nothing else like it, and even better was the fact there was nobody on it. It also must be mentioned that we just hiked/ran this after some reasonably heavy rain, so it’s probably softer than usual, but still, even when dry we imagine it’d be much better than running on concrete.
Look out for our post on Hong Kong Trail Section 3 and Hong Kong Trail Section 4, combined, as we’ll be doing this in a few days if the weather cooperates, speaking of which, it’s been shite weather now for a good 5 months, Hong Kong has some of the shittiest weather of any country we’ve been to. No that we’ve got that off our chest, stay tuned…
Update: We’ve now done all of Hong Kong Trail Section 3, which isn’t much of an achievement, but we find ourselves heading back here on a regular basis. We usually miss the starting bit as that requires a bit of a decent up Peel Rise (more concrete), and instead take the stairs from the beginning of where Peel Rise and Hong Kong Trail Section 1 meet). Since we start from Cyberport, it’s a couple of km’s to there. Today, on the way back, we decided instead of doing Hong Kong Trail section 2, to take the Tin Estate. Big Mistake, that takes you down to Tin Wan Estate, and you have to walk up Shek Pai Wan Road, which isn’t difficult, but there were hundreds of buses and cars going down, which made reminded us why we normally take the high route.
Again, Hong Kong Trail Section 3 is an excellent trail running track in Hong Kong, no people (weekdays) and you can really boot it on some sections. It’s especially soft after some rain, which we prefer.
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