A few weekends ago I went on my first weekend trip in Korea. It was awesome. I went through Seoul Hiking Group, who I highly recommend. (I've already signed up for three more trips with them.) It was a jam packed weekend to Saryangdo Island, Goseong Dinosaur Footprint Park, and Maisan Tapsa Temple.
I started off the weekend with a delicious Korean barbeque dinner on Friday night. Most of the teachers at my school came out to celebrate our survival of the first week of the new semester. Afterwards most of them met up at the local expat bar, but I still had to pack for my trip so I called it a night.
Luckily, there was a Cheonan pick up for my trip, so caught a cab around 11:30pm to the Cheonan rest stop. After being dropped off in rape alley, being told to jump the fence, and wandering around the side of the highway (all with my fully packed pack on) for about half an hour, I finally found the pick up spot. One nearly sleepless midnight bus ride later, we arrived at the ferry just in time to see a beautiful sunrise over the Pacific.
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| Any sleep-deprived grumpiness that I had accumulated vanished once I saw this view |
After dropping our things at our beach pension -a room with mats on the floor for sleeping groups- we started our hike. It was definitely one of my favorite day hikes I've done. It's not too strenuous but it's challenging enough to make you feel accomplished. There were beautiful views for almost the whole way.
The most notable thing about the hike would have to be the semi life threatening part of it toward the end. The narrow trail gives way to an even narrower ridge with death falls on either side. To make it even more nerve wracking, the intense Korean hikers stop for no man (or woman) when it comes to mountain hiking -even when the "trail" is clearly hazardous for just one at a time. Not to worry, I was totally nonchalant about the whole possibility of being accidentially pushed to me death by some old Korean folks. (Only the tiniest bit of sarcasm there, y'all).
In the end, I'm happy I did it though (I've had 3 weeks to get over my PTSD, you guys). It was full of nice views, enjoyable challenges, and awesome people. Not a bad way to spend a Saturday!
After my near death experience I was pleased to take part in a time honored Korean tradition: drinking while hiking! The "Makgeolli Man" was very welcoming indeed. He sold homemade Korean rice wine (makgeolli) and treated us to free dried fish (yummy?) and a drum show.
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| Woman selling food on the side of the road |
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| View from the first peak |
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| So many stairs! |
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| The view got better throughout the day |
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| The stairs became increasingly more steep |
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| Made it! |
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| Just gonna rest by this pile of rocks, you guys! |
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| Tyring not to die |
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Still alive!
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