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Published: March 13th 2006
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At the start
Notice the young lady trying to catch her hat, very windy Well I’m finally taking my first really serious hiking trip on Sunday March 11; this will be a multi part entry due to the length of the hike.
This trail starts about 2 hours south east of Kunsan and travels north along the mountain ridge until it meets the East Sea, not too far from the DMZ.
I will hike a section of the trail once a month until the journey is completed.
The Day Before
Well as most of you should know, I’m kind of the procrastinating type, and I have known about this trip all week. So you think I would have had one of my buddies who can shop on base (of all the NICET guys we have brought over I’M the only one that can’t shop on base) get all my hiking food, but noooooooo. So Saturday morning I head over to the local E-Mart (Korea’s version of a Super Wal-Mart) and get all my snack/lunch food. I start by getting some fruit, that wasn’t so tough. Let’s see if they have trail mix? Well it took awhile, fortunately for me the bags were see through, after sorting through several bags of puffed rice
The first summit
In the far background you can see MuJu Ski Resort and soybeans I found what I was looking for, and a $7 bag of M&Ms to add to the trail mix. So I’m thinking this may not be that hard. Now to look for the sausage and cheese, so far all I have found is the dried Cuttle Fish, tiny dried fish with big black eyes and tons of dried sheets of seaweed, not quite what I was looking for. I see this lady slicing huge ham hocks, I’m thinking that would be nice, looked good, until I see the price $18. So I settle for some Kimbop, which is meat and veggies with rice on the outside wrapped in dried seaweed, the finished product is rolled into a log about the size of a half dollar and sliced about a ½” thick. Well I head over to the wine section hoping they might have something to eat there, and low and behold they do. I grab some “Yummy Sticks” (actual name just dried sausage, I hope) and some cheese that claims to be “Strong & Bitey”, I can’t make this stuff up.
Well my pack is packed and my hiking outfit is laid out; I have to meet
Lunch time
The group in the back ground had a huge spread my friend at 5:50 am to catch a bus. The weather is supposed to be nice, cloudy to partly cloudy highs in the 40’s.
Day of the hike
Had to meet my friend at the bus stop by my apartment at 5:50am for the 3 hour bus ride to the start of our adventure, when we arrived at our starting point, I’m glad I packed my mittens for skiing and my beanie. At the start of the trail it was sunny, cold and very very windy. The cold proved to be a major problem with my water since about 45 minutes into the hike I was basically caring a bag of slush with a frozen solid water tube.
I would like to throw out my major beef with the Korean hiking; I need to help them plan better trail layouts. The Koreans use the theory, and it is a proven theory, that the shortest distance between to points is a straight line. But when you are hiking up and down mountains that are very steep, here’s an idea, lets throw in some switch backs to make the climbs and descents more enjoyable. Ok I got that off my
The next challange
I had a very bad feeling this would be our next climb, I was right, the mountain on the left is Deadeoksan 1290 meters chest, but I’m sure I will bring it again.
The layout of the days hike consisted of hiking for a distance of 14.3 kilometers (8.8 miles), along the route we will hike over three mountains 1255 meters (4117 feet), 1250 meters (4101 feet), and to finish the hike a 1290 meter (4232 feet). I know this doesn’t sound like much to my friends in Colorado, but it is.
Since we were hiking south west to north east, the entire south west facing trails were hard dirt, mud and mostly granite, and the north east trails were frozen mud at lower elevations and ice higher up mixed in was a whole bunch more granite.
We make it to the first summit, which was not that bad, but descending was the worst part, the first portion of the descent went over patches of ice than leveled off to mud and reeds, this is were I fell the first time, I have not a clue why I fell I was just standing still, I guess the wind just kinda pushed me that way (to borrow a line from Robbie Robertson). I hopped right back up and continued to the more
drastic of the descent, all granular snow the first 100-150’ than ice the rest of the way down (remember earlier about my major beef), here is were I showed the Koreans how we westerners can slide on ice, and as I slid on my arse (not planed mind you) for about 25’ watching as granite slid past me, somehow I ended up on my back sliding head first fortunately for me a group of trees have seen enough and put the slide show to a rest, I was very thankful of that as there was about a 5’ drop off and a bunch exposed granite. Once I gathered my stuff, looked like a yard sale as Warren Miller would put it, and my pride I was back on the express lane to the bottom. A very nice Korean man, who I’m sure got a very good laugh telling his buddies while drinking SoJu that night, lent me an extra set of crampons for my boots. They came in handy a couple of more times that day. We continued till about halfway up the next mountain and ate lunch. What the Koreans lack in trail design the make up for in
The second summit
Another veiw from the second summit, notice the colored ribons, these are the trail markers. Each color represents a differant hiking club lunches. They have a whole spread 10-15 courses, cookers, and of course SoJu and Wisky.
The rest of the hike was basically like the first climb except now I had crampons so I did not slip any more. But I was the very last person coming off the trail, with my new Korean friend who lent me his crampons. I don’t know if he stayed with me out pity or just wanted his crampons back….lol. He was a very nice and helpful.
On the way back home I asked my friend is this was the hardest portion, he thought for a moment and said no. I told him he should have lied.
I can only compare this hike to hiking up Mount Quandry three time, I know most of you will not understand that.
Well it was after 9:00 pm when I finally made it back to my apartment.
This was suppose to be the first part of many, I’m beginning to question this quest, will see how the "old" joints feel in a few days.
For all you Punchinello fans, I was going to bring him, but to heavy.
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Dottie or Mom
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"Climb that Mountain"JOHN
I've really enjoyed reading about your experience. SO sorry you couldn't stand up. but glad those trees were in the proper place. You are lucky not to have broken anything. I worry about you, as you will climb higher. Hang on to those rocks, son. Show those hikers how we come down those mountains. Tee Hee!!!I look forward to the next chapter of "Life on the Dark Side"......