On Sunday, early in the morning I awoke for the next hiking adventure. I was to meet Jasmine, Meredith and Cory at SaveZone, and from there, to meet some people from Jasmine's hiking club. We got the meeting point a few minutes early, but sadly some other people got there more then a few minutes late, so we ended up waiting around for a good 40 minutes or so. That was probably the coldest part of the day. Even though we were equipped with all of the essential warm clothing...most turned out to be useless while hiking, and only used while waiting around and eating lunch. It was a good day though. Cory had to deal with a fear of heights during a rope section, and Meredith some how over came her asthma, so small victories all around. A victory for myself was a little bit of vertical climbing...which was a first for me, and quite exciting, although near the top my hands were shaking a bit...perhaps next time I should incorporate a rope into my plans. The olive green shirt you can see me wearing has to be the least flattering piece of clothing I own from these pictures. I had imagined it would stay covered, and most of my other t-shirts were still wet. But I was hiking...and fashion really wasn't that important to me...damn pictures...if not for you, no one would know! And I guess I should mention that we were climb Togyusan, for those who know where that is.
Setting out. We took 3 vehicles from Daejeon to Togyu san. It was a 45 minutes drive or so. Along the way, we stopped at probably the most disgusting bathroom in Korea...and that's saying something! You can see the initial attire of us inexperienced hikers.
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If you compare this picture of Cory to what he was wearing in the pervious one...you'll notice the instant change. I think Cory looks smashing in that hat, personally. If I were him, I would wrestle it away from Meredith and keep it for my own, or just steal it when she's at school then pled ignorance. One of the two.
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This was my little stint, vertical climbing. Not too difficult, but the grips were actually quite far apart. On of the Korean hikers tried it too...but couldn't make it because of that. Plus there's the fact I've never done this before. After Meredith took the picture, she ran away. She said she couldn't watch.
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One of the many sharper rises in the trail. The first section was quite a sharp incline for the most part. Once he got the first peak, it was a nice path across the two others, and the path down was a slow, gentle zigzag to the bottom of the hill. Nothing like the descent of death of Gyeryong san.
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A little hollow spot along the path, just before the first peak. My biking gloves turned into hiking gloves for the day. They worked quite well.
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The view down from the first peak. It's neat to stand at the top of a mountain and say, "We started as tiny little specs somewhere down there."
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Me with the last picture behind me. That sign says, "Off limits". I'm such a rebel, mwahahaha! Feel my wrath Korea!
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We saw no one during our hiking up, but just beyond the second peak we stopped for lunch, where we found many other hiking groups eating as well. Where they came from...no idea. But lunch was organized down to an art. Single pots, propane stove appeared, things got boiling, and we were let feeling a little inferior bring only Kim-bop, sandwiches, fruit and nuts. The food was hot, but just sitting around got very cold.
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Here's everyone from our trip minus, the club's vice present who was taking the picture. When I say club, it's not like a North American club...apparently there are 2000 members or so. Methinks, that begets the title of organization or at least the township of Jasmine's hiking club. Club makes me think of 10 to 20 people...maybe 30 if you are stretching the word. Also missing is one of the girls who had shoved snow down the guy on the right's coat and was hiding down the path out of fear of retribution.
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This was at the top of the third and highest peak, 1,034m as you can see by the sign. I was just going to take a picture of the sign to remember the name of the mountain, but just as I was about to take the picture Jasmine pointed at something, so I told her to do it again and I snapped a shot off. Yeah, it's posed, but it posed based on reality...so it's really like it was posed at all.
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Crazy...this was one of the guys from our little group. You could get most of the way up to that peak by going up in between the cliff and the precipice, and then walk up a very uneven, and gap filled strip of narrow rocks. I would of gone, but I had already done my stupid thing for the day with the vertical climbing...by press my luck
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After many false hopes of thinking we had hit the end, we finally met up with everyone else. We feel behind after the last picture because of our constant delays for photo ops and other things. We were happy to find everyone sitting and waiting here, because that meant the end. The mountain was behind us, and the cars near by...or so we thought. (cue suspense music)
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And what should we find ahead of us...but a long road forever sloping downwards. That's Cory and Meredith way ahead of Jasmine and I. There were some people behind us, and some people ahead of Cory and Meredith. I just stopped to take the next picture, hence their distance.
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This houses were at the side of the road, and I thought they were far to picturesque to ignore. Damn you photography class, but I'm happy I took the picture. I think this is one I'm going to have to get printed when I get back and put on my wall.
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At the end of the road, we found yet another road, with but one car waiting for us. Someone, one of the guys who got down first had run to where we had left the cars and brought it back to this point. Once all of the drives were here, they left to get the rest of the vehicles, while everyone else rested on the side of the road. That's the last peak just above Cory...I think...it's one of the 3 we crossed at least.
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