Seoraksan

The bus dropped me off, alone, in a middle-of-nowhere street corner in a place called Yongdae-ri. There was nothing aside from a couple of stores and a fish drying company. Little did I know at the moment, I'd been dropped off about 6 kilometers away from the park entrance by mistake. It was thursday afternoon, and my plan was to make the peak of the park's highest mountain, Daecheongbong, by Saturday morning, to watch the sunrise over the East Sea. I was starting on the east side of the park, and planned to exit on the west side, about 30km away, at the popular tourist destination Seorak-Dong.

I found my way to the park entrance, and it was very quiet. This being the off-season, there were many closed motels, closed restaurants, and a large empty parking lot. I saw but one other hiker. I got myself a map at the ranger station and set off on the path to my stop for the first of two nights in the park: Baekdam buddhist temple.

A family of korean travellers who were already at the temple ahead of me offered to let me bunk with them, so I wouldn't have to sleep alone and pay for a separate room. The temple was already deep into the park, and it was the quietest evening I'd had in a very long time. Sleep was restless, as the man next to me snored loudly. Breakfast was at 6am, and we set out on our way to the peak of the park by 7am. It was to be a 13 kilometer hike up through a central valley of the park, past two temples to the shelter near the peak. I tagged along with the korean group this day.

Half way! The first half was suspiciously easy, as we weren't going up in elevation all that much. That all changed quickly though.

After 8 hours of hiking, we reached the highest temple for a short break. The Korean group decided to stay there the night and head back the next morning, leaving me to finish my hike up alone. They originally had the same plan as I did, but they were too tired to continue.

The final leg was very difficult. The path got steeper and steeper, and as I rose out of the valley above most of the mountains, the temperature dropped and the wind howled.

The park's second-highest peak, very close to the highest, had some equipment on top. Weather sensors? I don't know... all I knew was that my shelter was over it on the other side. It had to be, because I could see over all the mountains in every other direction.

Relief! What a welcome sight this was. Beyond the shelter you can see Daecheongbong.

After about 11 hours of hiking I got to the shelter, where about 25 other people were also staying the night. I chose the longest of several possible routes to this shelter, and I was the only person who had come that way from Baekdam temple.

The shelter was cramped, but luckily only about 1/3 full, as this time of year is not popular for hiking due to the temperatures and wind. I ended up making friends with a small Christian youth group, and we all had dinner together. Almost every person in the shelter planned to rise very early the next morning to catch the sunrise.

And here I am, at 5:30am:

The weather was painfully cold and extremely windy. My thermometer read -12c, and I had couldn't say what kind of windchill there was. It was still a beautiful morning. About 20 of us were at the peak for sunrise, passing around cameras taking pictures of each other in a way that remind me of yearbook signings in high school. Since I was the only person there travelling alone, everyone wanted me to take pictures of them.

For Victoria readers to compare: Mt. Doug is about 250m, and Mt. Finlayson (at Goldstream) is about 450m:

Looking back, you can see to the right the valley I'd hiked through the previous day:

And the sunrise! What a sight! For barely two minutes, the ocean shined orange and the mountains were bathed in a pink glow. The photos just don't do justice to the sight.

Here's the Christian group. Right as the sun rose (before this picture), they all closed their eyes in prayer, while their gorup leader spoke aloud. I asked him later what they were praying about, and he told me they were thanking God for making nature so beautiful.

I chose the shorter, faster way back down so that I could get a bus to Sokcho (on the coast) and get home to Seoul the same day. I only stopped a couple of times on the 6 hour hike down to the parking lot/bus stop. During the first half of the hike down, the snow was deep enough that one could slide down on one's rear in some places. I met a new group of university students and we had a blast doing that. It also made the trip down much easier. Here's a waterfall I saw on the way.

At the bottom I found myself amid crowds of tourists and a beautiful sunny saturday. I had a late lunch and took this cable car up again to a different peak altogether. It was a very fun ride up, and I stuck out like a sore thumb among the hundreds of Korean tourists. My large hiking boots made me even more tall than usual in comparison to everybody else.

There was another temple as well. The Buddha statues here aren't fat, but this one sure was big. Notice the person to the right for scale:

It was mid-afternoon, and I soon took a bus to Sokcho (in the background, below), breathed in some of the ocean air, and found my way back to Seoul by saturday night. It was a great adventure all told.

And finally, a few black-and-whites I took along the way. The park was so beautiful and well-preserved, the photos practically took themselves.