The Mountain Challenge Part 2

I've written before about the effects summer has on me. I've written how this summer in Korea has meant a lot of weekends staying in the blessed cage of air conditioned places. Thankfully, summer is finally dying out and fall it's slowly but surely coming out to reassure me that everything is going to be ok and that life is good.

I really don't like summer.

September went by quickly and although it was still a little bit too hot for my taste, I was starting to get a little too restless with doing nothing outside. From the inside of school and apartments, I could see the mountains on clear days and they were calling (love that quote). So, whatever the weather report said, it was decided to get back to those mountains and keep adding a name to the list of mountains hiked in Korea.

Mountain 3: Cheonggyesan
Date: September 25th, 2016
Elevation: 582m

The week before this hike we had some beautiful, clear days in Seoul and I was crossing my fingers that they would stick around until the weekend. There really is nothing worse than 10 hour days in the confines of a block building as you watch the beauty of the day go by, only to get out when it's dark out. I was going to hike this mountain no matter what, but I really hoped for a nice, clear day, since we haven't really had beautifully crisp days on our earlier hikes.

Well, nope. Come Friday and the smog and dust covered all of Seoul and lingered throughout the weekend and then some.

Regardless, we made our short way to Cheonggyesan on that late afternoon, for even though the day didn't promise any fabulous views, I was still going to get out and hike a mountain, and at that time, the highest mountain I had hiked.

We joined a good number of Korean hikers at the beginning of the trail, but the numbers lessened once the trail broke into two directions to two different peaks of this mountain. We opted for the higher one, and were greeted with stairs. I remember asking myself why Korea makes all of its mountains accessible by adding stairs to them. I personally feel like it makes the hike up harder, and I tire myself a lot easier with the stairs as opposed to the mountain itself. Please remember this, it's important. 
We had to take a lot of stairs since we weren't able to find any other trails (I'm sure they're there), and my calves were hurting before we even got the halfway point. When we were able to leave the stairs for a less molded trail, we were able to get our first view of the city, specially Jamsil and Gangnam, and I got a bit disappointed by the visibility of our day. God, that view was certainly something.

There are many reasons as to why I love hiking, but one of them is certainly the view. That feeling of being so high up while your feet are still on the ground is beyond superb, and there is nothing that reassures you  more of that than a view from the mountain. I don't think anything other than a mountain can allow me to feel like that.
Once you finally get on top of that mountain, there is a sense of accomplishment and pride that is also quite addicting. That ability to say "I did it!" is not for gloating purposes really, it truly is a challenge for myself to be able to do these things.
And gosh, I really don't want to stop ever.

When we reached the peak, we were once again surrounded by Korean hikers. I really don't understand how the mountain itself can feel so deserted on the way up, and then boom! Hoards, and hoards at the top. There was a line to take a picture with the rock with the height marker and there were several groups of people having picnics by the mountain edge. I really wanted to have some food there to be doing the exact same thing. But then, I realized that I had lost the cash I had carried with me in case of emergencies, and decided to head back down the same way we came up in hopes to find it lying around somewhere. It wasn't a windy day, and Koreans are known for not snatching things that aren't theirs. I wasn't able to find it, but on the way down we rushed a bit more than expected and I found my legs shaking with every step down.

It was during that climb down that I started worrying about my ability to do the next hike we had scheduled for the next weekend...

Mountain 4: Jirisan, Nogodan Peak
Date: October 2nd, 2016
Height: 1,507m

Jirisan National Park is the largest national park in Korea and it extends over three provinces. Because of this, it's a popular place to hike through the length of two or three days. They have shelters scattered along the trails that you can book online. But because we were short on time, we weren't able to do more than the one day hike. And that was enough. For the time being.
I did a lot of research in order to have a well rounded hike. Most blogs recommended the one day hike through Piagol Valley, and although that looked beautiful, it really didn't give the option to get to a peak and I really wanted that peak. So we gathered various bits of information and came up with a plan to start our hike at no later than 7am in the morning in order to get to the peak and hike down through the valley. It would mean a long day, the longest hike I had even done, but it seemed all too possible in theory and I was ecstatic for the challenge, but admittedly, I was intimidated. I didn't know if I was going to be able to do it.

We stayed in Gurye, a town that borders the southwest area of the park. We stayed at a guesthouse with a very friendly host with very limited English but very willing to help. We later learned that he used to be the president of a company that researched the Asian Bears living in the park and that his father spent 7 years building this park. He has been one of the nicest and most interesting individuals I have met while in Korea.

That Sunday we started our hike with high hopes. It seemed like it would rain, it had rained the day before, but we were reassured that there would be no rain that day, but neither would the views that this park is so famous for. But no matter, the start of the hike was very pleasant and quiet. We only passed an older Korean couple, who stopped us after the 3rd time we passed each other to share their rice cakes, coffee and cookies, and a small group of Korean men. We also noted several warning signs showing an angry bear. Yay!
About three hours into our hike, the trail became steeper and the water clearer. The waterfalls were so nice to walk alongside with, and we kept stopping for a splash here and there. Although the clouds still threatened with rain, we were getting closer to them, and I had never been that close to clouds before. I was so excited.
The hoards of Korean hikers appeared nearest to the top. A shuttle bus is available to take you up and then you get to do the remainder 300-400 meters by foot. We found one of the shelters at around this point and, although we had read that these shelters sell food, we found that there was no food to be sold, but there was a kitchen. This is where I first started to get worried. We hadn't been able to get any food before our hike (there were no stores open at the bottom that early in the morning, and we were really banking on the shelters having food). But the nice Korean couple had given us a bag of cookies, so we still hoped the next shelter would have food.
Getting to Nogodan peak was... surprisingly easy. We had read that the hike was strenuous, but maybe this was due to the fact that there were no stairs and only rocks on most of the way up. We were, at that point, very thankful for this. Again, don't forget about the stairs.
The air got a bit chilly at the peak. We couldn't see anything but precipitation, but we did it. We hiked up a 1,500m mountain, and we felt fine. Nothing hurt, I wasn't even too hungry, it all seemed wonderful and fantastic. And it was. It really was.

Until we started our way down.

We stopped to read the information regarding the trek down. We had the option to walk through part of the mountain ridge, stop at the next shelter, and then make our way down through the Piagol Valley and we estimated around 4 to 5 hours to do so. The information on the mountain claimed that this was an intermediate level hike with 'casual' patches throughout. It also claimed that for some of the trek we'd be walking down the mountain at a 36 degree angle, but that it would even out to 6 once we reached the shelter. It seemed like a challenge, but we were hyped up from reaching the peak that it seemed very possible. So a little after noon, we started our descent.
We walked through the ridge for about two hours before realizing that we were still very high up the mountain and that we were still far from the shelter.
The trail itself was very similar to the trail up - mostly rocks, wet and slippery, and although at first we were very grateful for the lack of stairs, after the fourth time I slipped I started wishing for those damned stairs. The steepness of the descent made it trickier, and we had to be very careful and we had to go at a much slower pace than what we originally thought. For a moment, I thought we were going to be pushing to make it out of the mountain by the time it got dark. It started as a small worry, something brushed aside with the thought of having time, but it increased into a subdued panic the longer we were on that mountain without really going down. This is when the lack of food and exhaustion also started to kick in.
It really didn't help that we kept getting passed by hoards of Korean hikers - mostly older men and women that rushed through those stones as if they were no big deal.
I almost lost it when my boyfriend slipped and landed with half of his body out of the edge of the mountain. But he was a trooper and kept going, and I refused to take some of that precious time to have a moment on that mountain.
The shelter, thankfully, had some food. We stocked up with some crackers and energy bars and the owner of the shelter rushed us out saying that rain was coming and that it was going to get dark soon.
We were still about 800m above sea level.
On that last push down the mountain I had several doubts about my planning abilities and I really reprimanded myself for it.
This was no joke. This was dangerous.
I guess it added to the experience. By the time we made it out of the mountain, just before dark, I had gained a new sense of respect for mountains.

I have no intentions of stopping. I look forward to the next mountain we get to. But this experience has definitely taken away some of that naivety I used to approach mountains with. Not necessarily a bad things. Just growth, isn't it?

Still, we did it. And would do it again.