Climbing Kegyoksan

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The outskirts of Daejon are surrounded by mountains, giving us a great view from our balcony. We set out to climb one called Kegyoksan, which translated means “chicken foot”. We set out in taxis, which took us halfway up the mountain to where the trail started. Taxis are the mode of transportation of choice here - they are incredibly cheap and there are always a ton of them driving around. A little ways up there was a clearing with ancient exercise equipment and a stone path. The stones are all smooth but cemented in so they stand straight up. The idea is that walking on these stones massages the reflexology centers in your feet, thus relaxing and rejuvenating the rest of your body. For the first 30 seconds it actually felt kinda nice, but after that it really hurt! I watched these Korean women walk back and forth along the stones; I have to say I was pretty impressed. A little further on we started our vertical ascent (and when I say vertical, I mean stairs in the rock vertical). I was a bit concerned about my knee, so my friend Sarai from Mexico and I let the others go on ahead, and went at our own pace. The forest was really nice and the views through the trees every now and then were really great. It continued to get darker and darker, but we managed ok. There were many Koreans on their way down, I think they treat it like a workout - they moved at a great pace, I was impressed. I am sure they thought the sight of two foreigners moving at a slow pace up the mountain was pretty funny, but luckily I didn’t understand anything they were saying, so it didn’t really matter. When we got closer to the top, our friends had started to go back down, but Charlie who had lived here before offered to go back up and down with us. We crested the top at a burial mound. We couldn’t read the sign to know who it was, but Charlie said that the higher you are buried up a mountain, the more important you are, so he must have been a pretty important guy. A little further on we got to the lookout. A beautiful Pagoda had been built, and from it you can look down on all of Daejon. It is a lot bigger than I thought, partly I guess because I have only figured out a very small part of it. It was totally dark by then, so you could see the city lights on all three sides of the peak. It was a great view. The way down we talked a lot and swapped stories about our lives and things, taking it slow in the dark so we wouldn't fall down. It was great to get out of the urban living for awhile.

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Photos

The view from Kegyoksan
Definitely worth the climb!