Mountain Mama

Today was THE BEST DAY I'VE HAD SINCE I GOT HERE! It was also probably the scariest day of my life, but I'll get to that later. I went hiking at Tobaksan Mountain in Bukhansan National Park. It was wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. And the best thing about it was that it was only 45 minutes away by subway! I got myself in the mood by reading my Outside Magazine 2003 Adventure Guide on the way there.

This week, one of my coworkers (Korean) wrote down how to get to this place by subway. She knows I like to hike, and she said that this is one of the more popular spots in the area because there is such good hiking and because it is so easily accessible. So after church, I called all three people that I know here, and none of them were home, so off I went on my own. On the subway, I met a man who was going hiking, also, so we went together. We started off at a pretty good clip to get around all the people. Instead of thinking of a nice, quiet, peaceful trek, think of Safeco field when a game is letting out. I took a picture to prove it. Another interesting thing that I've seen at every park I've been to is that the road on the way there is lined with food vendors and kitchens. Eating is big here. But at this place, in addition to the food stalls, there must have been 20 stores selling hiking and camping gear! There was even a North Face store! The unfortunate thing is that it takes a while to get away from the kimchi smell. Then, since eating is so important, every family and group always picnics when they hike. In fact, a few weekends ago when we were at Odaesan National Park, I commented to Paul that it is unfortunate for the Koreans that they don't like sandwiches and dried fruit. Everyone we were passing going up or down was laden with tupperware for their meals. And there are ALWAYS leftovers that have to be packed down. But my point of bringing that up is that since people picnic along the way, you never truly get away from the kimchi smell until you are really far into your hike. You can smell a group eating well before you see them.

 

In this picture, you can see the food stalls and recreation equipment stores that line the walkway to the trailhead.  It is amazing.

 

I took a quick turn around on my way back to the subway, and these were all the people behind me coming down off the mountain.  I'd never seen anything like it.  And they say our national parks are overcrowded!

Back to my story. The man (Flavio) and I were heading up the mountain, and we were having the same problem that Katy and I sometimes have when we run--we were both trying to keep up with the other one. We were practically running up (and I mean straight up!) the trail, and I was a little afraid he might have a heart attack because he was sweating so profusely. And he said several times, "You're really fast." I tried to tell him I was only keeping up with him, and that I'd be perfectly happy if we went slower, but we didn't slow down. He did stop once for a rest. I told him again that we could go slower, but I'm not sure that he quite understood. He is fluent in Korean (of course), French, and Portuguese (has lived in Brazil for the past 20 years), but his English was about how my Spanish is now. So after about 45 minutes he was completely worn out, and said he was going to go back down and I should go on. I'm not sure if he continued a little ways after I left or not, but I was glad he hadn't complained of chest pain while I was there. It had been fun to have his company, though.

 

Flavio

So onward I went. The trail really started to climb. It was the kind of climb that is so steep that going up is actually faster than going down. I ended up hiking with a group of university students. It finally pays off to look like I'm 15. No one thinks I'm a high school student because I'm obviously a foreigner and alone. Everyone's first question is "Are you a student?" When I say no, the next thing people guess is an English teacher or missionary. No one ever guesses I might be in the Army.  I guess I don't look the part. I only tell people I'm a physical therapist, not that I'm in the Army. It works out well because I've yet to meet someone whose English is good enough to even know what a physical therapist is (plus they are different here), and by the time we get into that, no one has been brave enough to ask WHY I'm a physical therapist here. So anyhow, I finished climbing to the first peak with these students. Then they were going back down, and I was going to continue on. You don't have to worry. I was still among the throngs of crowds. There was no danger of getting lost--I just had to follow the person in front of me!

So I hiked down a bit and then back up onto a ridge trail. Basically it could be best described as scrambling. The terrain was much like Yosemite. (In fact, the first destination I got to was a rock monolith that looks very similar to El Capitan. Getting to the top of that was only accessible to rock climbers.) It was pretty nerve-wracking at times, and once I wouldn't have made it except that the man behind me literally pushed me up a boulder and then held onto my pack while I shimmied along the edge of another one. It still didn't make me very brave except that I knew I'd have company in Heaven if I fell--he'd go right down with me! So by now I've summitted another peak. I've got pictures--you'll be impressed. And as I'm almost to my destination, I stopped to take in the view, and this lady and her friend, who were resting on a rock, via hand gestures and Korean words that I couldn't understand, offer me their water! I showed them that I had two water bottles in my pack. I headed off for my destination, a high point along the ridge. The view was spectacular, but very hazy. That actually made it better because from there you looked down on the city. I didn't want to see that. It might have ruined the whole experience. Everywhere else I wished it were less hazy because you would have been able to see forever, even into North Korea!

 

Hard to believe this is just a subway ride out of one of the largest cities in the world.  This is Chaunbong, Tobongsan's highest peak.

After taking in the view... okay, I'll admit I was catching my breath from the climb... I started back the way I'd come along the ridge. When I got to where those two women were, they asked me to eat with them! (I know I've said before that people are really friendly!!) I begged off, rubbing my stomach like I was already full, and thanked them several times. Then I thanked God that one of the three words I know in Korean is thank you.

Now comes the part that was the scariest day of my life. You might want to close your eyes for this part. I wanted to summit the last peak in the area, so I took a slightly different route about halfway back. I started to climb, and then got to a point where there were steel ropes anchored like a rail to the mountain. They were VERY helpful for the climb. Then I got to a place where I had to go down. Straight down. Straight down a rock cliff. Kids, don't try this at home! I was literally hanging on these ropes to shimmy down. Yes, I had two feet OFF the ground several times. All it would take was one slip of my sweaty palms and it probably would have been 200 feet before I ever hit the ground! Let me tell you, I was already drenched with sweat because I had been working so hard, but I know my hands got even sweatier due to my fear. At this point, I probably would have turned around, except there was absolutely no way I could safely do that! I went for about 20-30 minutes like this, up and down rock walls with no handholds or footholds, clinging for dear life to the cable, using it like a rope ladder to go up, and like a fireman's pole to go down. I didn't feel like a wimp because everyone else was doing the same thing. Luckily, this was basically a one-way route (it had to be) because I was not going to let go to let someone by! I'm amazed that I had that much upper body strength--adrenaline is a good thing! The summit was kind of anticlimactic after that. It was actually really spectacular, but the journey was definitely more eventful than the destination. Luckily, not too eventful, though! :) But I have to say, I felt more of a sense of accomplishment than almost any other time in my life.

This is a rather tame part of the trail, at the end of the near-death experience.  (You can tell because I let go of the cables long enough to take a picture.) But at least you can see the cables, and the fact that even this far up, there are still a ton of people.

 

The imensity of the park was breathtaking.

Once I got down to the trailhead, I stopped at a big stream that was really pretty because it was cascading down the mountaiinside. I put my weary feet in and read an article in my magazine and decided I had done my own adventure travelling today. Yet again, more friendly Koreans. The place was packed with picnicers, and a group of three men nearby asked me where I was from, and one of them was trying to say something in English, and it came out in Spanish, but I understood and answered him anyway. I finished my conversation with them in Spanish because it was our best common language!