Seoraksan National Park

Seoraksan National Park

Seoraksan is the highest mountain in the Taebaek mountain range and the 3rd highest mountain in South Korea...and by far the most difficult day hike I have ever done.  Seoraksan National Park is located in the Gangwon Province on the eastern side of South Korea just outside of Sokcho.  The park is absolutely beautiful and the prime time to go is in October because you really get to experience the fall colors.

This trip was difficult for a few reasons other than it taking 15 hrs.  We started this adventure Friday evening when we caught the 7:50 p.m. bus from Ochang to Seoul.  We met most of our group here and departed for the park at 11:00 p.m.  I may not have read the fine print...or there's a good chance I didn't read anything at all, but I assumed we were going to our hotel and then starting the hike the following day.  This was not the case, after a 4 hr bus ride with no sleep, we pulled up to the park entrance to begin the day!  I quickly changed into my hiking clothes and put on my game face...which at 3 a.m. is not a very good game face (actually, not a very good face in any sense).

First sunrise I've seen in awhile...sober

We started the hike at 3:30a.m. with headlamps and fresh legs, neither of these lasted very long for me.  The first 2.5 hrs were basically in the pitch black.  As soon as my headlamp started fading I could see the sun start to appear from behind the mountains.  The sunrise could not have happened at a better time, I had about 10 minutes of light left in my headlamp and I was starting to freeze in the dark.

It was nice when the sun came up and we could finally see our surroundings.  The name of our hike was dinosaur ridge, this is because the 6 ridges we climbed resemble the back of a dinosaur...a very very large dinosaur.  The massive mountains and majestic cliffs surrounding us created some of the best scenery I have seen in Korea.

Dinosaur Ridge (count em!  6)

Sara and I just after sunrise

In all honesty, we probably did this hike about 2 weeks too late as a lot of the leaves had already fallen, which made some of the trails a little slick.  It was a nice change of pace hiking in the sunlight, it really warmed things up and just looking around was motivation to keep on.  This is one of the more popular hikes in Korea and the trails were a bit packed at times.  Which brings me to my next observations...I'm pretty sure Koreans are half machines, and I mean that in the nicest way possible.  There were many instances where I would hear the click of hiking poles creeping up behind me, in which case I usually sped up only to hear them continue to get louder and louder.  Eventually I would step to the side and let the speedster pass...the speedster was usually a 60+ year old lady (Ajumma is what they are affectionately referred to as) decked out in more hiking gear than I will ever own (due to lack of money not lack of coolness of said gear).  This happened throughout the 15 hr duration of the hike, it got to a point where  I made a game of trying to catch Ajummas in front of me and not let them pass me!  I was terrible at this game and soon found other ways to entertain myself along the way.  Like this!

Bman and Makkoli

Makkoli is a traditional alcoholic beverage native to Korea.  It's produced by fermenting a mixture of rice grains and boiled water...otherwise known as rice wine!  We pulled over a few times to enjoy the views and have a few pulls of Makkoli.  I think the Korean hikers were very impressed with our choice in hydrating fluids as they would always smile and say oooohhhh Makkoli or ahhhhhhh Makkoli.  

We did eventually make it down from this beast of a hike around 5 p.m.  My legs have never been so sore, I did however make a point at the very end of this hike to pass as many Ajummas as possible.  I think Sara was a little confused as to why I was practically running at the end of this hike, the truth is I was still counting on "Ajummas passed."

Also, part of the motivation to finish was a party on the beach back at our hotel!  After waiting a bit to collect all the weary hikers on our trip, we headed to Naksan where our beach motel awaited.  

Not sure if it really constituted as a motel since there was no bed or any furniture in our room.  The rooms were "ondol" style, which means no beds or couches or .... or really anything, you sleep on the floor.  At this point I could have slept in front of the hotel I was so tired.  We all had a celebratory beer (and shot of Soju), grabbed some dinner and went to bed.  I hadn't slept since Thursday night and had just finished hiking for 15 hrs...part of me really wanted to hangout on the beach and have some more beers...most of me told that part to get bent...and I did in fact just go to bed.   

I managed to wake up at a decent hour so I could walk along the beach and check out the temple that was down the street.  This is one of the few temples that is on a beach...so I had to check it out. 

Next week is a Halloween beach party in Busan!  There is supposed to be over 2 million people enjoying the festivities!  I hope nobody is wearing the same costume as me...that will be awkward.