Today's hike to Bukhansan National Park!

I ventured out for a hike this morning with two other teachers from the school. We were advised to get an early start to beat the "rush" so we met at the local 7-11 at 7am, walked to the closest subway stop (15 minutes) and two stops later (7 min) we were at Bukhansan National Park - talk about convenient! We follow some other hikers to ensure were we headed in the right direction, but then we looked up and saw the mountain so we could have found it ourselves no doubt!



A view from the subway stop!







Making our way through street vendors and what can be best described as a "flea market" with more outdoor gear shops than you can imagine. Lots of water and snacks to purchase before you reach the entrance ... and for some reason cotton candy, but we decided to pass on that!

We kept walking and finally got to the entrance and having already consulted the Lonely Planet we selected the Dobongsan Hike to Jaunbong Peak! The hike was gorgeous as the pictures indicate, but don't do it justice.



The hike itself was a little more strenuous than my seemingly still infected lungs could take so two of us turned around and one kept going, meeting up a little later at the entrance. During our decent, we took plenty of opportunity to enjoy the view!





The hike was a rocky terrain and somewhat steep at points, certainly different than my limited experience at Gatineau Park and in Banff. I rolled my ankle during the decent - nothing too bad, but I really should have worn my hiking boots rather than running shoes -- I won't make that mistake again!



It was a great morning, about 2 hours in total. On the way down we were walking "against traffic" and boy was that a challenge. There were literally 100's to 1000's of people streaming in while we were making out way down the mountain. We had been told that there were going to be lots of hikers, but coming from Canada I really had no idea of what that truly entailed.

As we completed our hike for the day, many were just beginning! This is a photo of some filling up their water bottles, it does not do the "crowds" justice, but gives somewhat of an idea! I will take more photos next week and post them!

Next time we hope to be at the mountain for 7am. We'll see what the "traffic" is like then.


The North Face Man!! A fitting photo as I had was sporting my North Face backpack!




Until next time!
Cheers,
Jilly Bean