Seoraksan National Park 18 Apr

Yesterday I made the journey from Seoul to a little town called Sokcho which I used as a jumping off point for Seoraksan National Park.  Seoraksan was one of the main reasons I decided to come to korea in the first place as I had never gotten to see it last time I was here and was told it was incredibly beautiful.  So after staying in a small motel the previous night, I packed my bag up to 30 pounds or so for extra weight and caught the inner city bus to Seorak-dong.  Thank goodness for a guidebook because although it's improving, my Korean is still abysmal and and  nothing here is in English nor does anyone speak it.  As you can imagine, this gets very frustrating and a bit embarrassing sometimes. This is what initally drove me to study languages in the first place.

So I dumped some change into the receiver on the bus (too much because I was nervous and didn't count) and headed off for the park.  On a sidenote, ever since I left Hongdae district, I've gotten a lot more stares and eye contact, but that's probably because I've been carrying a gigantic pack.  So naturally I caught a few stares on the bus.

We arrived at the park and the first thing I noticed was tourists-everywhere!  As is commmon is Asia, they were unloading by the busload, all loud, raucous, and mischievous.  Many of them were teenagers and the rest were adjumas.  They crowded the shop stalls and grouped together under single yelling leaders in large pockets of craziness.  Apparently, this was a MAJOR tourist attraction.

So I tried my hardest to ignore them, pushing my way through and walking quickly in and out of their ranks.  Finally after a kilo or so, when I hit the trails about 20 minutes later, the herd dwindled into small teams of a bit more matured Koreans all clad in the best Korean hiking gear with poles and sun visors and everything else they could pick up in the local market.  I don't blame them really though when you can purchase a decent pair of hiking pants for $10 and a breathable, moisture-wicking jacket for $15.  WIsh I had just waited until I arrived to do my own shopping instead of paying name brand prices in the U.S. which are outrageous.

The trail steadily gained in steepness and difficulty as I practically ran up it as fast as my fitness would allow.  Thank goodness for trekking poles as they were a major help with stabilization and enabled me to climb much faster.  Not a single person passed me on the way up this 850peak.  The stairs were mind-blowingly steep and the rocks slippery with mist as I gained elevation.  It was also drizzling the entire time which made conditions all the more difficult but I didn't mind.  After a 2 hour hike, I finally reached the peak of Ulsan Bawi which is large, beautiful limestone formation caused by eons of erosion.  All I could think was how badly I wanted to climb it.

Unfortunately, the peak didn't have much to offer in the way of scenery because that day, everything at elevation was cloaked in a dense fog with perhaps 70 feet of visibility.  I thought to myself "this was the main reason I flew across the world and I arrive at the peak and can see nothing. Shame really." But I wasn't down.  Life is just like that sometimes.  I was happy I had gotten to take on a tough hike and quickly made it to the top.

As I was looking over the edge and preparing to leave, I heard a barrage of gunshots that lasted approximately 5 minutes.  No machine guns, only single shot rounds.  Most likely this was simply the Korean and American military exercising (playing war games) as we often do at this time of year.  Of course my mind was racing with the recent elevated tension with North Korea.  I started going over a gameplan for how to shelter and survive if I needed to take refuge on the mountain.  When I returned to my motel that night however, I learned that a U.S. marine helicopter had crash landed 5-10 miles north of my position.  The reason given was "the crash is being investigated."  Honestly I hate that shit.  What harm would it do to cite the real reason the bird went down and save us all the B.S. unless they honestly don't know.  This used to drive me mad even when I was in the military.  Anyway though, this crash and where I was are only a few miles from the DMZ so it's possible foul play was involved.

So after the shots stopped, I made my way the 4 km back down the mountain.  At this point my legs were literally twitching and I knew my ankle was hating me.  Perhaps I pushed a bit too hard.  I'm only 25 and my body already won't take what it used to.  The rest of the night was another round of trying to find food, not wanting to pay for expensive food, and avoiding the risk of embarrassment at walking into a restaurant and not speaking the language.  I eventually gave in, buying microwave chicken which turned out to be way too spicy to finish anyway.  I don't understand why food like this even exists.

Well instead of going off on that tangent, I'll say it 19 Apr and I'm about to head out to Seonunsan Park where my rock climbing adventures all began..  The first place I ever sport climbed.  I'm going to meet a couple of old friends there for a weekend full of climbing, camping, and being merry.  Now if only my ankle would allow me to get off this bed...