Bukansan

I would like to start off by saying...pictures are to come from this hike...As you may or may not know we are coming to the end of monsoon season in Korea...this means it rains...a lot...We have tried to not let the rain keep us indoors too much. But it does keep my new camera indoors. I spent a lot of money on this beautiful camera and I feel like I haven't been able to use it yet because it rains all the time and I don't want it to get wet! So I have been taking my other camera along...but realizing that the pictures it takes are extremely depressing has kept me from using it too much. Luckily John and Laura have been taking pictures of our adventures...I just haven't got them yet.

Well the last weekend in August we decided to hike Bukansan. This is a lovely mountain located in Seoul. We could easily take the train there and then a bus. There are a lot of different peaks, hikes, and trails and we decided to go big and tackle the highest one. We started when the weather was cool and sunny. About a third of the way up it started to rain, but we were well protected under the canopy of the trees. The views were stunning. There were a lot of waterfalls, bug, plants, and flowers to catch my eye. It had been a while since I hiked and my knee could feel it...but it didn't keep me from reaching the top...it just slowed me down a bit.

At about 3/4 of the way up we reached a wall and quickly realized we were above the tree line because the trees could no longer grow on the granite dome that is the peak. This is where things got interesting. The rain had stopped and the wind had blown some of the clouds away leaving us with spectacular views of Seoul. The views were the best I have ever seen them on any of the hikes I have done. I was struck once again by the immensity of Seoul. That is one huge city! Because the peak is pretty much all rock it makes for an interesting climb. There are steel poles drilled into the rock and there are pieces of steel cable running from each pole. This is how you haul yourself up to the top of the mountain. It was fun, it was invigorating, it was really slippery when it started raining yet again...I even took a tumble but caught myself with my knee wrapped around one of said poles just in time to not slide off the side of the mountain. That should have been our first clue that things were going to get a bit hairy. But we weren't quite at the top yet and we wanted to see this hike through to the TOP so we pressed on. As we were pressing on the wind was picking up and the clouds were rolling in. Black clouds. The view that amazed me five minutes ago was now completely covered. Oh dear. We were too close to the top to turn around.

We got to the top and the skies opened up and dumped rain all over us. The pictures are really quite amusing and I promise I will post them as soon as I get them. We were soaked. Laura and I were FREEZING! We couldn't see anything, we couldn't do anything but laugh and wait it out. We thought there was a break in the clouds so we started our decent...only to go about 15 meters and realize there was no way that was happening. We saw a group of people huddled in the protection of some rocks and headed that way. We stood there shivering, laughing, and thinking what the heck have we gotten ourselves into for about 10 minutes. Then we all decided it was time...time to attempt to make it down. This was an adventure. Going down the mountain was like trying to walk down a water slide. There was a lot of maniacal laughing on my part because that is how I deal with stress...there was also a lot of slipping, sliding, shrieking, and even some swearing...There were a few times when I said to myself..."Holly just go down on your butt...you are already soaked and dirty it isn't going to matter." This was such an adventure and my favorite hike to date! We had so much fun and the situation we found ourselves in was so ridiculous how could we not embrace it?

Needless to say we made is safely off the mountain. About half way down we stopped for lunch of gimbop, apples, and Swedish fish...thank you Tracy! While we were stopped for lunch we all took a minute to look at each other and break out in hysterical laughter thinking 'what the heck did we just do?'

We had all brought clothes to change into but none of mine managed to stay dry...so I was still soaked...So soaked as a matter of fact that I had an embarrassing thing happen to me on the subway. We all managed to find seats next to each other...this is a miracle in and of itself...but I was on the edge so I was sitting next to a nice Korean man. Eventually the train started clearing out and the seat next to him became available so he moved over. This was somewhat shocking to me because not a lot of Koreans move over...Even if there six seats next to them they still remain right next to you. I didn't really think much of it until I looked at his leg...aka the only part of his body that was touching me. There on his leg was a perfectly oval wet spot...a wet spot from what you may ask...a wet spot from ME!!! I was so soaked through that I was making other people wet. oops...

After that small but oh so embarrassing incident we had to transfer trains. We were patiently waiting first in line but an Ajuma was pushing her way in. Well Laura was bound and determined not to let her by...so we elbowed our way on to the train and low and behold that little Ajuma secured herself a seat and we all stood...Oh well...We managed to make it to JungGong without further incident and decided that some delicious donkus was exactly what we needed. It was the perfect end to the perfect day.

I did wake up the next morning with some lovely bruises from my almost fall off the mountain...I mean if you don't have any war wounds who will believe you when you tell your amazing stories?

More to come soon about our bike rental/slumber party weekend.

Hols