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Saturday afternoon Lea came to my room and proposed a hiking trip. Of course I agreed. Sunday morning at the butt-crack of dawn we headed east to the coast to Seoraksan National Park. When we got there, we spend the first half an hour trying to find a place to stay. We ended up in a motel, which was cheaper than the hostels and nicer than the hotels. 30,000W a night for the two of us. What a rip off haha
We headed out to start climbing the mountains. When we got to the park office to get a map of the area, they said the trails were all closed because it was the dry season (until may 15) Because of the threat of forest fires no people were allowed to hike the trails. OF COURSE!! We went on a hiking trip to a place where we couldn't go hiking. A good example of why you should research a place before going there. There were only two places we could hike, so we picked the shorter one to do the first day along with the cable car. The hike took about 2 hours round trip to complete. It was pretty
I had to do it
They were using these to build the temple for people to pray in. I'm still not sure why I wrote Semper Fi...half way through writing it i was like nooo haha I SWEAR I'm not a motivator haha cool. We got to the waterfall and I climbed around on the rocks (the monkey bite gave me the urge to climb around ha ha) I wanted to rock climb to the top of the waterfall, and I could have done it, but im not sure I would have been able to get down so easily, and I definitely didn't wanna fall off the waterfall, so I decided on climbing a quarter of the way up and hanging out up there.
While I was at the waterfall I saw a guy in a Phillies shirt. "I'm sorry, but I have to say hello. I see you're wearing a phillies shirt and I live in philly." "Oh really?" he said, "What part" I told him I lived in Genside and he replied "Oh no way, i went to grad school there, to a little school that nobody's ever heard of...Arcadia University" No way...so on the complete other side of the world, I meet a fellow Knight! The world really is getting smaller and smaller!
We went on our cable car ride to the top of another of Seoraksan's peaks. We were there just before sunset. It was such an
amazing view. Again, I can never get over the fact that you can walk to the edge where there's a couple hundred meter drop! It was so windy up there too, The closer to the edge I got the more I felt like the wind was going to pick me up and blow me away... population control I guess.
The second day, my hip was bothering me...a sign of old age. I bought those patches that dull the pain. They helped but I was in some serious pain. Eventually with a mix of the patches, me getting used to it, and stretching it, it didn't hurt as much to walk, and I didn't limp anymore. It took us about 4 hours to hike the second mountain. We moved SO slow on Monday. We were both so sore from the day before and everything was even steeper today. Why again did we choose to do the 'easy' hike first? We got to the 'top' where you took stairs to get to the actual top of the mountain. Lea was done, she had hurt her ankle before the trip so she needed to rest, so she waited with my bag as
I ventured to the very top. I was moving so slow. It was incredibly steep and there was one way to go, and it was share by those going up, and coming down. When I got to the top though, the accomplishment gave me so much energy nothing hurt anymore and I was no longer tired. I ran back down the mountain and met Lea and I was ready to continue on. I wish I would have had that energy going up!
Never in a million years would I have thought I would have come to Korea and hiked as much as I did! It's a good way to work off all the rice i've been eating! haha There's nothing like some fresh mountain air though to clear your lungs from a week in the polluted city!
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Laura Melber
non-member comment
mom
Pictures! Where are the pictures. Yes I'm certain the wind COULD have blown you away. I see how skinny you've gotten. EAT MEAT. I think you are an adrenaline junky now bex. What will you do with a normal 9-5?