Chuseok Hike Day 3

Our last day started about 3:30am. I slept great compared to the previous night. Nobody stole my shit, the shelter was much larger and taller so it wasn't as steamy and smelly and crowded, and neither Eric nor the old dude next to me elbowed me or anything like that. I also slept head-end to their feet-end, so maybe that helped with the roominess. At one point during the night when I did wake up, when some people were milling about, I managed to clearly and successfully ask the old dude next to me what time it was, without even having to repeat myself, and I even understood his answer. Successful comprehension of questions and answers involving Koreans and myself are rare. It was 2:30am.

I ate a breakfast nearly identical to the previous night's dinner and got packed up and ready to go. There were plenty of others up, making breakfasts that seemed to be much more elaborate than any meal at 3:30am should be, but when it comes to hiking, among other things, Koreans tend to do things full on. This includes spending all day hiking, dressing head to toe in hiking specific gear and equipment even for casual hikes, hanging banners all around trails, and preparing the above-mentioned unnecessarily large meal even if it means hauling around pounds of cooking gear and side dishes.

Cheonwangbong, South Korea's highest mainland peak, and second highest peak after Hallabong on Jeju Island, is at 1,915 meters (6,284 feet). That's about thiiiiis much shorter than Mount Washington. The peak was a 1.7 kilometer hike from the shelter, up and over one peak, and then up again. Eric and I were one of the first hikers to start up the trail, as we needed to give ourselves as much time to get there as possible. We didn't want to wake up very much on the wrong side of dawn to get to the show late. Nevertheless, we were soon being passed by other hikers, Dan and Dave included, on our way up the first peak. It didn't make it easier that the wind was absolutely tearing at us on the exposed ridge. I really thought for a second that the wind could hold me up if I started to lean into it. It wasn't quite that strong though. I didn't think Eric was gonna get over the first peak a couple times, but he made it, and as the trail went down the east side of the mountain, we got shelter from the wind which was still howling like an angry banshee. A particular group of Korean hikers would pass us, and then we would pass them as they rested, and then they would pass us again, and the process would continue. Even though Eric and I were hiking slowly, at least we were maintaining a consistent pace.

On the way down the first peak, we could see the headlamps of the hikers ahead of us, those farther down the peak we were on, and beyond, those farther up Cheonwangbong. This was actually one of my favorite sights on the hike. I could see the lights bobbing as each hiker took each step, and I could see their lights follow their eyes as they looked from side to side, and up and down. Apart from their lamps, it was still pitch black, but all the hikers were spaced out like a scatter plot so that I could see the line of the trail. It turns out that the two lights in the very front, nearly to the peak as I was watching them, were Dan and Dave. After making our way slowly down, and then once more up, where, from just below the peak, I could see the scatter plot of even more numerous lights behind and below me, we finally met up with Dan and Dave on the top. I could see that the dawn had begun to break on the far side of the peak, but the sun was still yet to be seen due to all the clouds. Dave was in his down sleeping bag, shivering and trying to take shelter from the wind, which was brutal. They had been the first ones on the peak, and had been there a half-hour prior to Eric and mine's arrival.



The peak was rock and jagged and exposed. It began to fill up with hikers like bleachers as the light grew. Still no sign of the sun, but this was common. The day before, Eric and I were talking with a Korean hiker who said he had tried to see a clear sunrise three or four times unsuccessfully before he gave up on it. We could see our breath when we managed to find a protected nook where the wind wouldn't rush it away. I scrambled here and there trying to take a good photo and keep myself warm, but only partly succeeded at both. As the sky continued to lighten, with still no sign of the sun, we decided to pack up and hit the trail. After we managed to get around the crowd, just before we left the peak, the sun showed itself and was welcomed by everyone clapping and cheering, probably because now they knew it actually was coming up and would eventually get the chill out of their bones.



We all started the hike down together. Today we had all day. We passed the time by naming actors and trying to think of ten movies they had been in. Eric and I did this the previous two days, and Moise had come up with this time-killer the previous weekend in Seoul, and it was surprisingly fun. At one bend in the trail there was a piece of paper with an arrow taped to a rock, pointing down a little side trail. A Korean guy said god-knows-what and guided me and Dan down the little trail, but Dave and Eric opted to keep walking. Their loss. It turned out that we were led to an outcrop of smooth rock over a small river valley. The leaves looked to be in prime color, and there was a long, sloping rock that a little waterfall slid down. The colors were much more pronounced and vibrant today than they were just two days ago, on our fist day when Dan pointed out one solitary tree of bright red across a short valley. I don't know if the foliage was different on this eastern side of the park, or if two days is really enough time for a remarkable change in colors, but Dan noticed the difference too. It was a very nice time to be on a mountain.



After our detour to the viewpoint, we met up with Eric and Dave across a bridge. I realized at this point that I wouldn't be able to wait to the end of the hike to take the shit I had been feeling I had to take over the last couple hours. You know you really have to shit when digging a hole behind a fallen tree in the middle of the woods feels like a luxury.

Dan and Dave once again took off at their own pace while Eric and I moseyed on down the trail, which seemed to be unnecessarily difficult, snaking up and down the top of the little stream valley rather than just following the stream down at an even grade. Oh well. I was eventually bored and fed up with seeing candy-bar wrappers and soju bottles here and there on the trail so I attached one of my trash bags to my waist and picked up trash as I went along. This had the dual benefit of making me feel good about myself and matching my pace more closely with Eric's.



We got to the bottom of the trail forty minutes after Dan and Dave. We still had some walking time ahead of us to get to Daewonsa, the official end of the trail, and then beyond, to my motorcycle and the bus stop. When I dropped my bike off at this side of the park three days ago, I considered leaving it right at the trail head so I could leave instantly at the end of the hike. Then I thought that might be kinda cold, to take off and let the others walk on to the bus stop, so the bus stop is where I left it. The topic of conversation between Dan and Dave and I was Gorilla Burger. Gorilla Burger is easily the best burger place in Daegu, and from all I can tell, in Korea. Our mouths were watering at the very thought of it, and I knew I had the sole privilege among us to be able to eat there today. If we got to the bus stop for them to make the 4:30 bus, which I figured we would, I could be home in Daegu within four hours, which meant I could be eating an Oasis Burger by 9:00pm.

It was close, but we got to the bus stop in time, with Dave scurrying ahead like he didn't give a shit if the rest of us made it or not. Eric was still lagging on the pavement, but he made it on time too. It was annoying that he was so physically unprepared for the hike, but in the end I was proud of him for sticking through it, even though on the top of a mountain you don't have much of a choice but to keep going. I'm sure that he won't be doing something like this again, but I'm also sure he'll remember the trip and the fact that he finished something that he had thought he couldn't. The trip home, as beautiful as on the way there, though I was much more tired, took even less time than I thought it would. I had devoured a plate of chili-cheese fries and an Oasis Burger well before 9:00, after I arrived at home, unloaded my stuff and took a much needed shower.

Chuseok Hike Day 2

I woke up, for the last time that morning, around 7:15. After packing up, and eating breakfast of granola bars, canned fruit, ramyen, and tepid pre-cooked rice, I thought it would be a good idea to have someone take a picture of the four of us on that sunny morning in front of the shelter. I approached the first Korean guy I came across and said something that, generously translated, was something like "Please take a picture." He answered, as occasionally happens, in excellent English, and I just felt like an idiot for using my stumbling Korean, but then again, I would be even more of an idiot to just start speaking English to every Korean I ran into. Here is one of the pictures he took, complete with his buddies photo-bombing us.



We all left around nine, and Dan and Dave took off immediately at their own pace so there would be no chance of us not getting our spots at the shelter that night. Eric and I set off like sloths out of hell, but there was reason enough to take frequent breaks apart from Eric's legs. The sun was shining bright and the skies were clear and, as we were still on the ridge, the views were fantastic. Korea's mountains may not be that tall, but there sure are a shitload of them. At pretty much every bend in the trail that morning, we were treated to views of green mountains marching out into the distance. Not long into the day's hike, we came across a fat monolith of stone just sticking straight up, forcing the trail to bend around it. For a minute I was tempted to free-climb it, but then my sense of reason reminded me that it was about forty feet tall and death would be quite guaranteed should I fall. Instead, I scrambled up the little rock slide between the big tower and a smaller one to the side, where I made faces for Eric to take pictures of, which reminds me, I should really get some of those photos from him.



We had "lunch" not long after, at a shelter we could see from previous lookouts. We sat in the sun and Eric slept and I ate chocopies and other inadequate lunch foods. We moved on at 12:15, and according to the chart at the shelter, it was going to take us five hours to get to Jangteomok Shelter, where we were staying that night. I find that times on charts like that, and times in non-hiking specific guidebooks are always quite generous, but I also knew that Eric was moving at a slow pace, so I thought five hours seemed like a reasonable estimate. Not far from the shelter, Eric started having gut problems on top of his leg problems. We stopped so he could take a shit in the woods, and he reported that he felt much better after that, which was good news. The hike was very pretty, but mostly uneventful for the rest of the day. It wound up taking us longer than the the five hours predicted on the chart at our lunch shelter. It took us about six hours, during which we passed another shelter, several lookouts on and off various peaks, and were treated to seeing the full moon - Chuseok always falls on a full moon - rising on one horizon while the sinking sun set on the other.



It was just getting dark as we got to our shelter. We made it without having to break out our headlamps, which was more than we could say about the previous night. Dan and Dave arrived about two hours earlier and secured our spots in the shelter, which was both larger and nicer than our first shelter. The room we were in had a sleeping platform around three sides of the room, and lofts above us to sleep even more people. Everything was built out of light-colored wood, and was quite attractive and fitting on a mountain. Dan and Dave had one end of the platform to themselves, and Eric and I were across the entrance from them on the other end, which was nice cause we only had one dude on our left who wound up not giving me any problems like stealing my shit or elbowing me. I made a quick dinner of ramyen, tepid rice, jjajang sauce, and more granola bars, before crawling into my sleeping bag and drifting into a much more satisfying sleep.

New Photos

I added a couple new photo albums to my Picasa account. Click the photos on the right, or the link below to check out photos from my bike/hike trip to Jirisan and the 2009 Daegu International Bodypainting Festival.

Chuseok Hike Day 1

I was actually going back and forth on whether or not I should invite Eric on the hike, knowing that it might be a struggle for him. I knew meeting Dan to hike Jirisan wouldn't be a problem as he does a lot of local hikes around Busan. Eric had mentioned he wanted to do something like this for Chuseok though, so I invited him, telling him it was going to be a difficult hike and he should spend the next few weeks training. Hiking around Seoul, buying and breaking in boots, working his legs at the gym, whatever.

The motorcycle drive from Daegu was incredible once I got past the urban fringes of the city. In fact, it reminded me of why I bought the motorcycle in the first place. The roads were empty, small, and scenic. I drove in the sun through through rice fields, and terraces that climbed up mountains, and along lakes and rivers. I went through a few small towns, but most of the places I went though weren't even at town status, they were simply marked as villages.



Within an hour of starting the three-day, 45 kilometer hike, Eric was dragging his feet, having leg cramps and needing rests, and we hadn't even gotten to the steep part yet. I was on the fence between getting angry and being supportive. In the end, being the fantastic guy I am, I was supportive, and slowed way down to shuffle up the mountain with him. The trail was a bit steep, and rugged, and though I was sweating in the heat, I didn't find it particularly difficult. Dan and Dave would hike up at a normal pace and then wait around while we caught up to them. We went though this routine all the way up to the ridge where there was a shelter accessible by bus, where Eric almost decided to give up and just quit. I talked him out of that though, counting on the fact that the hike should be easier along the ridge, at least until the final decent two days later.



From the shelter, we all hiked with each other for awhile, taking in the beautiful scenery. We had perfect weather the whole trip, and could see the mountains rolling off into each other in the distance from the many peaks and lookouts along the trail. We got to one peak called Samdobong, which I realized meant "Three-Province Peak" when I saw the triangular marker representing the point where the three provinces of Gyeongnam, Jeollabuk, and Jeollanam came together. That was pretty cool.



When the afternoon was beginning to get on, Dan and Dave took off to secure our spots at the shelter we had made reservations at. Eric and I kept pushing on, bit by bit, and it got dark and windy and cold. We were in our coats with our headlamps on, pushing through the chilly night over the last two peaks of the night. It had been a long day, and when we finally got to the shelter around 7:30, it felt like we had been walking for so much longer after all the ups and downs and stairs along the trail, which was anything but a nice rolling ridge. We had spots fortunately. Even though Dan had made reservations, we were supposed to have been there by 6 to claim them. Dan and Dave got there at 7 and they were at first told that the spots were gone, but then later told we had them. I don't know if they changed their minds or if other spots became available, but we had a place to sleep indoors, which was good enough for me.

Korean hiking shelters are basically a wooden platform that you sleep on next to other people. This one had two levels, just like the shelter I stayed at the previous Chuseok in Seoraksan, actually. I set up my sleeping pad and bag and pillow, and went out to cook some hot dinner. Dan and Dave packed in veggies and potatoes and all the fixings for curry, so they made enough to share with me and Eric which was very nice of them, and very delicious.

I wondered if a pair of girls me and Eric had seen along the trail had made it to the shelter. Just before it got dark, we were at a trail intersection when a girl hauled herself up, and then went down to carry her friends (small)pack up. When they were both up, I asked where they were going, and they said to the same shelter we were. Then Eric and I took off through the quickly falling night. I hope they had headlamps and made it, in fact, I actually thought about going back to find them, cause they seemed really exhausted and unprepared, but I was too tired and went to bed instead.



After dinner, I helped clean up and was going to briefly write in my little notebook about the day when the shelter caretaker came in and said lights out. I had to wake up some Korean dude who had managed to fit himself onto the platform with his two buddies that was only supposed to hold them two. He was on my sleeping pad, hugging my pillow. I couldn't believe it, but I sure as hell wasn't going to let him have those luxuries I had packed in for the whole night. I poked him awake, took them, and went to bed. It was hot as hell in there at night, and I slept poorly, being poked or kicked or jabbed by people trying to get comfy.