Korea: my life, my story: 설악산 [Seoraksan] Trip Two

[ trying out a new pose ]

Yeah Yeah, I know that I'm doing repeat posts lately. I have just enjoyed so many of the things that I've done in Korea that I'm doing some of them again. Now that fall is in full swing, I figured it was time to defeat 서락산 once again. This was my first hike ever, and it was about time for me to return for take two. I will say that it was considerably less intimidating this time around, having hiked it once before. I was less discouraged by the great length of time it takes to hike this beast. The thirteen hours came and went, and I was just as sore as last time. I can't take so much time between big hikes in the future. I may have defeated it once again, but I left with an equal number pains. I think that if I go back again, I'll have to conquer the more difficult, Dinosaur Ridge hike.

Day 1
( 10/15/2011 - 설악산 )

Like last time, we departed from Seoul around midnight, but this time we began hiking around 3am. Being the foolish person that I am, I managed to drop my flashlight off a bridge about 15 minutes in. This made the first few hours of my hike considerably more interesting than last time. The ascent was pretty difficult; 45+ degree rock faces without a flashlight, but 은경 and I reached the peak about an hour or so behind JC and Katrina. Because of the ridiculous number of people on the hike up, we were considering taking the cable car down to chill out, eat & drink while everyone else finished the hike. This wasn't actually an option; when we asked people about this path down, we realized that we would have to hike 5 hours to another peak in order to catch a ride. It's alright. I'm glad it wasn't there; the valley portion of the hike is too beautiful to miss. We finished up hiking around 4pm and immediately order some 전 and beer. It was a well deserved treat.

[ an example of the lines we were waiting on ]

[ the foggy mountains ]

[은경 at the peak ]

[ me and my AWESOME hair at the peak ]

[ that was one hell of a decent from the peak down to the shelter ]

[ a beautiful view ]

[ the leaves are beautiful this time of year ]

[ a view from in the valley ]

[ look where I am!!! ]

[ Jinsoo & David ]

[ Jinsoo on his tiny chair ]

[ Giant Buddha at the base ]

Day 2
( 10/16/2011 - 낙산 [Naksan] )

The second day of the trip was much more relaxing. We woke up pretty early and headed down to the beach in 낙산. On the way, we stopped for some batting cage fun. After this, 은경 and I decided to pay 10,000원 to ride little electric motorcycles for 30 minutes. It was pretty fun; we also got to try out these silly three-wheeled vehicles. Then, we went down to the beach for a few drinks. Shortly after, 은경's sister, brother-in-law & nephew came for lunch and hanging. This was really pleasant. We departed for 서울 [Seoul] shortly after this for a very sleepy bus ride back home.