Adventure Korea Trip, part 1: 강천산

The view from 강천산 (Gangcheon Mountain).

Erin and I on the easy part of the hike.

As previously foreshadowed, Erin and I took an Adventure Korea trip to Jeolanam province, which is the southernmost province of Korea with the exception of Jeju Island. This was a two-day, two-part trip, and I have so much to say that I will take up two blog posts. This post is about the Saturday, in which we hiked up Gangcheon Mountain. The next post will be about the Butterfly festival on Sunday. Both were awesome.

On Saturday, we arose early to embark on the five-hour bus ride. We had devised the clever plan of depriving ourselves of a proper night's sleep on Friday night, in order to make sleeping on the bus easier, so for both Erin and I the bus ride seemed like a matter of minutes. Shortly after lunch, we were off the highway and heading for the provincial park to conquer the mountain.

We were initially dubious. The first hour or two of the hike was more a stroll through well-kept park grounds: wide paths that meandered between idyllic streams and peaceful Buddhist shrines.

Lanterns showed us the way, but only on the flat strolling portion.

The path was even bordered with colourful lanterns. Although it was gorgeous, this was not the hike I expected.

There were a few surprises. At the park entrance was a waterfall, surrounded by gazing Korean tourists. This was slightly perplexing, since there was another stream, at ground level, that fed into the waterfall's pool. Looking more closely we discovered that the waterfall was actually fed by a man-made apparatus, which presumably elevated water to the top of the cliff and distributed it so that it would fall in pleasing patterns.

This discovery seemed to be confirmed by our tour guide as we passed a later waterfall. "This is a new fall," said Seokjin, indicating that it had been created in the last few years.

Looking rugged near a (real?) waterfall.

There were also a few waterfalls that I believe were real, but even the Potemkin waterfalls were fairly stunning, so nobody seemed to mind their origin.

After taking a slight detour to a suspension bridge spanning the path we were strolling on, we reached a dam and climbed the stairs on its side. It was on top of the dam that we were notified the real hike would begin. Forty minutes of difficult upwards hiking, Seokjin claimed.

He was not exaggerating. Korean hiking, due to the nation's mountainous geography, mainly consists of clambering up hills with slopes similar to your average staircase. Koreans see no need for switchback trails, instead placing actual stairs for the extremely steep ascents. This mountain was no exception to the rule. We climbed up steep paths, stairs that seemed like stairs, and stairs that seemed like ladders. Our group started to stretch out as the athletically-inclined (myself and Erin included) gained ground on the rest of the hikers.

The hike was exactly what I wanted. It wasn't quite as long as the hike up Garibaldi Mountain (just north of Squamish), but had a similar disposition: a tough slog up, then a relaxing jaunt from one viewpoint to another.

Hiking along the fortress wall after the climb.

The only part I didn't like was the Stairway to Heaven at the end - seemingly endless stairs leading to the summit.

But boy, was the climb worth it. The mountain, located at the south tip of Korea, had been used to defend against Japanese invasions earlier in the last millennium, so the top ridge was built up as a wall to accommodate soldiers on lookout rounds. We trekked along the wall-paths from one view to another, from peaks to lookouts, each panorama more astounding than the last.

Heading down, we encountered several lookout posts. Though slightly lower on the mountain, these had views no less majestic,

What I assumed to be a watch-post along the mountain wall.

and were also beautiful buildings in their own right. To my untrained eye, they looked less like watchtowers than beautiful shrines.

We also had the opportunity to watch an excellent martial-arts demonstration, in the middle of our descent from the mountain. We passed a single home, which our guide explained housed a Korean family famous for their martial arts skill, which they passed down the family line for centuries, practicing their arts in this very place.

Though they had already given a demonstration that day, the appearance of forty-odd foreigners was enough to prompt another performance.

This kid could beat me up without breaking a sweat.

The display of martial prowess, agility and discipline was incredible, and difficult to capture in a picture.

One nice thing about the hike was that we did not return on the same route. Instead, we hiked down to a spa, where Erin and I enjoyed a few beer, before bussing into town for kalbi (Korean bbq). The kalbi there was very different from our usual fare, but very enjoyable. We bussed back to our motel (모텔붐, pronounced "Motel Boom"), hung out with a few new friends, and called it a night.

All in all, the hike was incredible. Not only did it offer the expected -- stunning views, great exercise, and neat company -- but also the unexpected -- martial arts, architecture and waterfall suspense, for example. Stay tuned for my post (hopefully tomorrow) on the butterfly festival, which was just as neat and deserves its own full-length post.

I have to thank Erin for the pictures - except for the one of both of us, they were all taken by her and stolen from her camera. If you're interested, you can see her take on the trip at her blog. Worth seeing, even if just to see different pictures of the hike! The photo of Erin and I was taken by our new friend Tasha.

"I'm the king of the world!"