backpacking adventure.

During Chuseok, the Korean Thanksgiving, I was thankful for having 6 days off of school in a row. The much needed break from the kids let me put my hiking abilities to the test with a last minute backpacking trip to Jirisan - one of the highest mountains in South Korea with the longest ridge.

Day One: 8.8 km

Monday night after work, Kaitlin and I took off to Daegu by bus where her friend Caitlin lives and teaches. It was a four hour bus ride full of sleeping, exchanging leg massages, and watching bad Korean talent shows. We did not arrive to Caitlins till about 3am. We had to get up at 6am to begin our bus ride to the mountain, awesome. Robbie, Keith, and Harry who were apart of our backpacking adventure met us at the bus station. The six of us rode the two hour bus to hop on another one hour bus which led us to another one hour bus ride. The last bus took us up the mountain where we would began our hike. We decided instead of hiking up the mountain we would hike the ridge in 2 and a half days. We had no idea what the mountain had in store for us...

After eating a peanut butter sandwich to give us fuel we began our hike at Seongsamjae at about 3pm. The first hill we went up I was already feeling the pain in my calves, breathing hard, and sweating. The trails were very pretty whether it was going up a rock staircase or hiking through the trees with orange and yellow leaves on the ground. We hiked for about four hours when we realized the Baemsagol shelter where we wanted to set up our tent did not exist so we had to hike to the next one we saw on our map. It became very dark and naturally it started to rain. With only 3 of us having lights we followed each other in single file line focusing on every rock and step for about an hour. We ended up finding Baemsagol but it ended up being an info station instead of a shelter. They let us set up our tent there anyway. After we set up our tents and put our dry clothes on we made our nutritious Ramen dinner and called it a night. The tents were set up next to each other with only one difference; the girls tent had a tarp covering it while the boys tent did not. I would like to complain and say I did not sleep well due to the extremely large rocks jabbing into my back and legs and freezing weather, however, that would not be fair considering the boys were getting wet during their sleep.

Day 2: 13.2 km

We woke up at about 9am, put on our hiking clothes and ate our breakfast. I ate an apple dipping it in peanut butter with some water. Of course on our longest day of hiking it started raining immediately. I threw on my rain jacket, put a poncho over my backpack, took a deep breath and started marching on the trail again. Sometimes it felt like we were in the middle of the rainforest with the wet green trees. The weather didn't bother me at all while hiking. It was actually kind of nice unless we stopped or when we reached peaks and couldn't see a view because of the clouds. Even though it was cloudy and wet, the trails were still beautiful surrounded by forest and there was always something to see.

Around 3pm we took a break at a shelter and had to decide where we were going to sleep that night.  While eating our peanut butter sandwich the vote was unanimous - hike 2 more hours to the next shelter and sleep inside. We did not want to chance more dark hiking, wet tents, and cold bodies. We made it to the Seseok Shelter and luckily there was room for us. There is a girls side and a boys side for sleeping in the shelter. Thankfully I had a sleeping bag  because they do not provide anything but a blanket and a hard wood floor to sleep on. After we changed into our warm, dry clothes we met the boys outside under the covered picnic area swarming with Koreans. A group of older folks offered us half of their table to cook on. When we pulled out all our Ramen we got stares and disgusted looks. Apparently Koreans know how to pack food while hiking. They were pulling out their kimchi, meats, and rice which were kindly offered to us poor little foreigners. People here are so friendly and giving. Always sharing and trying to get to know us better. After dinner we hit the hard floor full of Korean women snoring, and "shh-ing" each other. We fell asleep early so we could start our last day of hiking early.

Day 3: 5.1 km to the peak. 

Woke up, ate breakfast. An apple, bread, and peanut butter again for me. It was misty and pretty chilly but it was also still early in the morning. After about an hour into our hike the sun came out and it became a beautiful day! It was sunny, warm, and we were on our way to our destination of the highest peak, Cheonwangbong. The highest peak means higher climbs. Every time we had to hike uphill on rocks or stairs I just kept telling myself, "Keep moving your feet." If I stopped I just got more tired and had more time to think about it. Kaitlin and I had this attitude the whole trip to just keep going and push through no matter how tired we got. Playing soccer our whole lives might have something to do with that mentality.

Since it was clear we were able to see some amazing views. We were literally above the clouds. We could see all the other peaks and small towns 6,000 ft below us. A few hours later we made it to the crowded Cheonwangbong peak. Many people take a day hike up to this peak from the eastern side of the mountain. Getting to the top was well worth the hike and was a very rewarding feeling. We ate our last peanut butter sandwich and then started the trek down the mountain that took about 2-3 hours. The trail was a rocky downhill nightmare. Kaitlin and I were the most focused during this portion of the hike. We did not stop once and at some points were running down bouncing from rock to rock. With 1 km left other Koreans started running as well and it was almost like it was a race. When you know you are almost there, there is no stopping that adrenaline. At last we made it to the bottom. We immediately took off our shoes and sat down. We arrived at the bottom about one hour before everyone else so we enjoyed a nice Korean meal and a beer to celebrate.

This was one the harder things I have done in my life and I am very proud of the whole group for being such troopers and destroying the Jirisan ridge in just two days. I have always wanted to backpack but didn't know if I could handle it. I absolutely handled it and want to do more. What a rewarding feeling to do something so strenuous while viewing amazing sights and seeing an amazing country.