Lovely day for a walk into "nature."

After months of seeing Koreans wearing their weekend warrior outfits, it was finally our turn to strap on the camelpack and venture off the beaten path. It was time to leave behind the world of subways, city buses, and neon lights. Our school provided a couple of buses to take teachers and their families to Mt. Daedunsan Provincial Park. Most of us were expecting to hike upon a meandering dirt path with the occasional cutback to make the climb easier. But Nooooooooooo, that was so not the case. When we arrived, we were surrounded by thousands upon thousands of other hikers. These hikers were not your average hikers either. You see, here in Korea, hiking is almost a national sport. The people who were at the mountain with us were clad in professional hiking gear. Everywhere you looked, people were covered in waterproof pants and jackets. Not only were the jackets waterproof, but they were the same color as their hiking boots, gloves, and hat. On occasion, the stripes on their hiking poles were also the same color.




You would think since Koreans took hiking so seriously, their backpacks would be full of gatorade and power bars. This is another easily made preconception that would be entirely wrong. Based on what I saw and smelled, the backpacks were full of booze, kimchi, and kimbap (Korean rice and vegetable roll up in seaweed). With all of the people and pretty clothes, it was easy to overlook the mountain looming in front of us.


We approached the mountain with muscles eager to be used after three hours on a bus. Those muscles were soon put to work. The path did not meander. It went straight up. There were not casual waves to the occasional fellow hiker. Instead we had to watch our hands when we put them on a rock because they were likely to get stabbed by somebody's hiking pole. We were surrounded by thousands of people all with the same idea of climbing this mountain on a beautiful fall day. We hiked up the mountain with those thousands of people. You had to keep moving or the people behind you would would puch you forward against your will.


It was difficult to look at the beautiful scenery because you had to pay such close attention to your steps. It was also difficult to appreciate the trails because after every mile or so you would encounter a bottleneck as the crowd encountered a narrow set of stairs which slowed the flow of traffic. There was one time where the flow stopped becuase there was a woman and man facing each other and neither wanted to step out of the way and let the other pass. (Remind anyone of a Dr. Seuss story?) Many times the best way to approach those situations was to go off the trail and risk the loose rocks you would be climbing on. Sarah loved it when I did this because she had to follow me on a usually more difficult path.



As time went on, the crowds and the climb continued. It wasn't what many of us thought it was going to be, but the results were still the same. Once you arrived at the top the view was breathtaking. I looked down upon the backs of birds flying in circles. I looked down at the green, orange, red and yellow specks which I knew were trees. There was a fine haze masking the tops of other mountains in the distance. As you can probably guess, the peak was packed. Some of our fellow teachers found a rocky area off by itself and offering a fantastic view all its own. When I finally sat down to eat my dried mangoes and jelly bellys for lunch, I was tired, sweaty, and proud. I hope the pictures associated with this posting are your typical pictures which are worth a thousand words, but if I were to describe the hike in one sentence it would be: A day spent among thousands of locals so intent upon hiking in nature they make it almost impossible to notice the sights and sounds which brought them there in the first place.