Bukhansan (Mount Bukhan) Adventure

I climbed a mountain yesterday.

The website for the event said the hike was suitable for beginners. I imagined trails with inclines and declines, an arduous walk at best.

Oh, boy. Was I mistaken.

We met the group we were to hike with at 9:15 at Gupabal station. We then took a short bus ride to Jinkwan Temple, the trail head. We stretched as a group (about 30 of us in total). There were a few Canadians, a Mexican, a couple Koreans and a Russian. The group was led by Mr. Kim, Alex, Michael (who we referred to as "mountain goat" because of his Spiderman scaling abilities), and Herb. There might have been a few more but I didn't meet them. These men were all Koreans and probably aged between 30 and 50. All of my fellow teachers joined, except Dustin, and even our boss, James, came along!

We began our hike at around 10 am and returned to the base of the mountain at around 5pm. We started our descent at around 2:30 pm if that lets you know how long we were climbing upward. Around an hour into the hike we split into two groups, one would take the shorter route, but climb large rocks to do it, and the other would continue to hike the longer route.

We met at the first peak for a quick lunch and then proceeded to cross to the second peak, where we had an impromptu short yoga session. Then, we slowly crossed to the third peak, which was the scariest part for me because we were climbing over rocks and not going through trails and trees. The third peak was the highest.

Your heart really races when you are climbing at an incline, and really races on a decline when you're terrified of heights (like me). I had a head collision with a rock, a couple dizzy spells, and some bouts of dry heaving on the climb up; however, I witnessed some of the most spectacular views I've seen in a while, probably since Wyoming, and challenged my body to do things I never would have put it up to.

When we returned to the bottom there was a makeshift restaurant that sat on a natural spring. Creedance Clearwater Revival was blaring on the radio and the food smelled delicious. And they had cold water. It's what heaven is like, I'm convinced. We all took our shoes off, jumped in the spring, and then sat around tables for some din din. First we got appetizers, pajeon, which are green onion, an assortment of other veggies, squid and shrimp congealed together with an egg and flour mixture and then fried like a pancake. It was as big as the plate and we shared about 7 amongst ourselves, diving in the chop sticks and dipping chunks in soy sauce. Then, our meal was dakjolim. "Dak" means chicken, I learned from James. The meal was cooking in front of us, as usual and was a spicy stew with a base made from bean paste. It had whole chicken legs and wings, potatoes, onions, cabbage, and peppers. It was brought to a boil in front of us and cook until the chicken was done. We chowed, then they brought us all rice to soak of the juice that was left in our bowls. Beer, Makgeolli (pronounced mahk o lee, the rice wine I told you about), and Soju ran a plenty. It was so nice to stay outside to eat, clothes all sweaty, and just be happy to be at sea level again.

The mountain at its heighest peak is 853 meters above sea level. So, only about half a mile up. There wasn't really any altitude sickness to worry about because the mountains weren't that tall. It was an awesome experience though ... nothing I've ever come close to doing. Needless to say, I crossed "climb a mountain" off my list and I'm not so sure that "climb a mountain, again" will ever make the list. Maybe.

I'll show you some pictures now and just explain what's going on in them. A picture's worth a thousand words, you know.

Jinkhal Temple, at the base of the mountain.

Liz and I at the first place we stopped to take a break ... beautiful.

A quick snapshot on the way up.

Middle aged + Koreans at the top of first peak, enjoying lunch.

One of the guides, Michael (Mountain Goat - because there are no lions in the mountains in Korea), whose climbing abilities are ridiculous. The view from the first peak is behind him - gorgeous.














The whole group after an impromptu yoga session, between the first and second peaks.









The view of the first peak from the second peak.

Kid's College Dongbaek's foreign teachers minus Dustin plus James and the mountain goat (John, Zach, James, goat, Liz, Molly).

Mike from Milwaukee and I on the third peak after the scary crawl over rocks to get there. Awesome view.

View that Mike and I were facing in the picture above on the third peak. I put the people in there so you could have a perspective of the buildings (30 floors) in the background.

Some of us on the third peak ... LOOK AT THAT VIEW IN THE BACKGROUND!

New friends playing in the spring at the bottom - the clearest water I've ever seen.

What was left of our scrumptious dinner.

It was an awesome day. I've taken today kinda easy, nursing my sore body. I think I might have overworked my hip flexor so I've been icing and ibuprofen-ing. Hopefully it's better by the time to run in the morning!

Happy Labor Day!