Monday, October 6, 2008
I said I would update when we got back, I lied.... its been a couple days or so, but at least I am updating.... right???
Well... our morning started at 4:30am. The alarm went off and I swear my head had just hit the pillow I was that tired. Kyle was showing some severe signs of sleepiness as well, but we had to get up. We wandered around aimlessly trying to make our eyes adjust to the lights, but luckily we set our clothes out the night before and they were easy to find. We got dressed, Kyle packed the remaining articles into our backpack (food, toothbrushes, toothpaste, deodorant, etc) and I scrounged some fruit, juices and yogurt together to make a smoothie. I am not sure the neighbours appreciated me having the blender going at 4:45am. We had to eat something though. We grabbed the camera bag, a couple croissants each and ran out the door. Not expecting to catch a taxi so quickly we went outside about 45 minutes or so before we had to be at the bus terminal. We found a taxi driver right away who was busy playing with arcade games outside our 24 Daily Mart and he pointed us to another cab. We didn't see a driver in there, but the occupied driver came and knocked on the cabbie's window and woke him up. He rubbed his eyes, mumbled and then we were off running every red light we hit to get to the bus terminal. Matt was there already and was having a conversation with a man, about 50 years old or so, who had just climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro and was going to hike Seoraksan. I was surprised how much English he actually knew. Not many older people speak English here, so when one is able to hold up a conversation (for the most part) one is usually suprised.
We got on the bus, endured the 2 1/2 hours of skinny roads, bright lights and uncomfortable seating to reach our entrance to the park, Yongdaeri (I think I spelled it right). A couple who was going to hike the mountain was nice enough to tell us to follow them to the trail head/bus catching point. This couple seemed not so nice when the male looked at me and said "Daechongbong??", which is the highest peak, and I replied "Yes". He quickly replied with a "Ohh... hmmm....." and a shake of the head while looking me up and down. He was very unsupportive of the task that lay ahead. He just added to my motivation to make it up there. I had a lot of motivation and a lot of pepole to prove wrong about this, including myself, so he was added to the list.
We did get a little bit worried though when we saw people will full 80L backpacks and sleeping bags, tents, pot sets, portable burners, emergency equipment, etc, etc, etc. We had our backpack, a change of clothes, two neck pillows, some food, and our camera and emergency first aid kit. A few other small survival things, but nothing like them!! We came to figure out that they really were overdoing the whole packing bit and we were about right.
We caught the bus taking us to the trail head and started our journey. I was expecting there to be a lot of people, since this is Korea, but was not expecting to basically be in a lineup the entire way up the mountain. I was encouraged by the fact that many older women, aged 50-65, we doing this hike as well, so I figured, if they can do it, I can do it too. I would normally not have doubted myself so much, but everyone was saying "I am worried about you" "Are you sure you can do it?" "It's really hard, I don't think you can do it", blah, blah, blah and it made me really worried and doubt myself.
The plan was to hike to the top, about 6-7hrs of hiking and then sleep in one of the shelters, which we were told we did not need a reservation for, descend the next day and spend the following night in a condo that my boss' husband booked for us with his membership. This did not work out.... more on that in a few.
The mountain was beautiful. The maple trees were changing colour and looked magnificent and I was tempted to pin one on myself so that when people asked where I was from, I could point at the leaf, but I didn't. We did not have many chances to stop for photos, even though the mountain was ridiculously photogenic, because of the massive hordes of people going up the mountain and in fear of being trampled and losing our place in the shelter, we just kept on going. It was hard. Thousands of stairs, parts where there were ropes to pull yourself up on, a beautiful river/stream to watch the whole way up and the water was so clean and clear you could actually drink it. It took us 6-6 1/2 hours (from 9am-3:00/3:30pm) to get to the top where were going to sleep. We asked about room in the shelter and there was.... NONE!!! All the shelters on the entire mountain were full since 10am that morning. Unbelievable. They said it was the busiest even they had ever seen it.
SIDE NOTE: If you can't tell already, I MADE IT!!! I did it and I was so proud of myself. Thanks to Kyle's constant encouragement and allowing me to take it at my own pace, I did it. And at a very good speed too I must add. I couldn't have done it without Kyle, but I did it!!! I proved all those doubters wrong.
After Matt had a few phone calls with my boss' husband and very few choices that really made any sense and that I would even consider doing, we decided to head down the mountain. Yes, it was another 7 hours ahead of us to head down the mountain, but we really had no other choice. So, down we went. As fast as possible to try and beat the fading light. Matt ran ahead of us to the very top of the mountain while Kyle and I headed down. We waited for him at the shelter called Yongpok, he was about 30-45minutes behind us. We left there, only to walk the last 3 hours in the pitch black. Luckily we had head lamps and we came across others who were not expecting the mountain shelters to be full and were heading back down as well. The way down was very steep and was so hard on our knees. We are still paying for it a couple days later. Brutal.
We reached the bottom around 9pm and hitchhiked a ride for the last 2.5km because right as we got out of the trail, there was an SUV dropping off some hikers to start, we took advantage of this. Felt bad for a few minutes when we passed tired old folks on the side of the road who wanted a ride, but I was so sore and tired myself. I pushed it out of my head, need to be selfish once in a while... right?? No, I am not trying to justify it.
Alright.... so I will post a few pictures tomorrow and then continue the story of our weekend with yet another experience with a sketchy motel in Korea (at least this time it was not a love motel as you probably remember our story from back in May) and our time in Sokcho.
I might add more that I forgot, but it is late and I am tired... thus the reason I may have forgotten some things. Well.... good night and I will write more for you in the morning....
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