Done much hiking?

Actually not that much, given that I live in one of the best hiking spots in South Korea. I did achieve one of my walking goals today though.

There are two hills on the opposite side of my town. One has a trail which is well marked, cared for and has convenient steps most of the way up. It makes for a pleasant, if sterilised climb to the top. The other hill is a lot more rugged. A sheer rocky outline against the sky, with pines marching up to the peak, which is another hundred metres or so higher than the other hill. All in all it's higher, more difficult and therefore more fun. Especially as the teacher I replaced told me that there was no trail up to the top. It seemed like the kind of thing I had to try, and having seen a set of steps at the bottom, I assumed that it must be possible.

"A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step," as many people here are fond of quoting. Well, most of my journeys of any distance start with a step onto the Jinbu footbridge. I really like this bridge. The coloured supports lend it an air of fun, and it has a tartan surface just like an athletics track. I'm always tempted to sprint across here. From here you could see the hill I'm targeting reasonably well, if it wasn't for the large apartment block in the way.

I had been driven past the steps above many times, which led me to believe that there was a trail of some kind up to the top. One of the things I really like about Korea is the care that is taken of hiking trails. The one on the other mountain has really been taken looked after, with steps, ropes, lights and even exercise equipment all of the way up. This one not so much, but at least there is a set of (disconcertingly wobbly) steps to get you up to where the trail starts. After this it gets progressively more difficult, the trail just a thin dusty hint of the way, zig-zagging up through the denser woodland on the lower slopes. At times I thought I'd lost the trail completely, but managed to spot a hint of it again. I figured that as long as I was climbing I was OK, though there were parts where I was scrambling on all fours in the pine needles and dirt. Still, I was enjoying myself.

Finally I made it up to the spine of the ridge, where the trail suddenly became a lot easier to follow. I'm not sure if there was a way up from the other side, but it didn't look like it. It seemed a little strange that the path became so much more clearly defined once you'd scrambled up the side of the hill, but it did. There was also a small rocky outcrop where I sat, had a drink and a couple of pieces of kimbap (like a korean sushi roll). I took some photos of the town but ditched them from this blog post as there are far more spectacular ones to come. From here I could see clearly to the peak though, and there was still a lot of climbing to do on a stinking hot day. I cursed leaving my hat at home, as the sweat on my brow was probably mitigating the effect of the SPF35 sun cream I had put on before I left home.

It was nice to get a look at my town from another angle. The building complex bottom centre here, next to the sandy oval is my high school and the middle school (where Shannon works). Truth be told the school buildings are a bit communist Russia, but I love it nonetheless. I'll do a full school photoshoot one day soon.

The path from the top was very easy to follow in the end. There are only a few rocky parts to clamber over, but it's well marked and easy walking. There's the odd bit where you are walking across a rock only a couple of feet wide with sheer drops on either side, but that's all part of the fun, especially when it's windy. The views from the top (above) are pretty spectacular. Hopefully they give you an idea of how beautiful Gangwon-do is. There really are hills stretching as far as the eye can see in every direction. One day I'm going to get on my new bike (which should arrive Monday or Tuesday) and follow the river as far as I can.

I stopped for a while at the summit and ate the rest of my kimbap and drank some Gatorade. I also took the photos above to prove that I'd made it. I debated whether to carry on and walk the entire ridge, but my lack of a hat meant I decided to turn back and descend the way I came. The way down was easy until the last part, where I had to cling on to some trees to halt progress occasionally, but I made it down OK.

On the way back down I realised I hadn't taken a self portrait, so did one quickly just before the last stage (check out the new Korean haircut). Then before I knew it I was back at the dodgy steps and ready to tramp home. Once got back to the apartment I emptied my bag and found that I'd had the hat with me all long. Given that I went to sleep straight away on my return probably means that walking along the top of the ridge wasn't a good idea anyway. I'll save that for another weekend.

Hopefully by the end of next week I will have a new camera and new bike, and so will be able to document lots of new adventures. I'm off to an elementary school sports day on Tuesday and a cave on Wednesday, so I'll post pictures of those soon enough.

Until then...

A