Spring has finally sprung in the country of Korea and Casey and I couldn’t be happier. It’s finally short sleeve weather and the puffy-long coats can go deep into our small closet. Spring also means longer days and more time to travel on the weekends. YEAH! We made our way over to an island called Ganghwa. It’s an island that is in the northern section of Korea and it’s about 1.8 KM from North Korea. We had read about some good hiking on this island and after some research we found out that it was relatively easy to get to, so of course we had to give it a shot! We took the KTX into Seoul and took the local subway line over to the Hongik University stop. From there we made our way over to the bus stop area where we loaded onto bus 3000, which took us all the way out to Ganghwa Island. The bus ride from Seoul was just about two hours. There was a little traffic on the bridge going onto the island, but all in all it was a relatively painless ride (especially since we ended up getting seats on the bus!). When we arrived at the Ganghwa bus terminal we were supposed to take a local bus to our starting point for our hike. We waited awhile for the bus but seriously couldn’t find it or it never came to the terminal. We decided to just walk to our starting point since it was about 2 kilometers away. But sometimes in order to get to the start of the hike, you walk through the oddest areas. In order to get to the start of this hike, we walked along a small strip of land between two properties and when we popped out, we were at the trail head. Plus, it’s always interesting to walk through an area you have never been. Luckily for us, Korea marks its hiking areas really well, and we can tell we’ve made it to a hiking area because of the wooden signs taunting you about how far the next point of interest is. The thing with the signage is the more remote we get on our hikes the more likely it is the signs aren’t in English. A few months ago I (Brittany) learned the Korean alphabet, so as long as we know our next destination’s name and with Casey’s awesome navigation skills, we almost always can easily figure out what direction our next leg of the hike is. As with most island hiking in Korea, Ganghwa Island has a large circular hiking network, which is segmented into smaller sections for day hikes. We did one of the routes that left from the center of the island and headed northwest. It was absolutely gorgeous. It was our first real spring hike and the trees and royal azaleas were in blossom. Ganghwa Island has a large royal azalea field and we decided if we were close to it on our hike we would deviate from our intended route to see it. At one point in our hike we were literally around a quarter of a mile from the field but had no idea! We completely missed it, but after a long deliberation we decided not to make the hike back up the mountain since we had one more destination we wanted to make it to on the island. We saw other azaleas in bloom and we felt like that was sufficient enough for us. At the bottom of one of the mountains, we actually ended walking through a royal azalea festival where we found the most amazing fruit juice drinks ever. We first bought the blueberry slush drink, but went back and got the kiwi drink as well because it was so refreshing. About halfway up our final peak we stumbled upon a temple, which was decorated for Buddha’s birthday. We decided it was the perfect place for lunch. Some locals were eating lunch at the temple and ended up giving us some oranges to eat. All we had to give them was some bread from a bread shop in our area. At first they refused to take it, but after some persuasion, they finally agreed to accept it. We ended our 13 mile hike near Dolmen Park. We had looked up this park before hand and it had some old rocks, which really didn’t interest us. We were actually more interested in visiting the Ganghwa Peace Observatory. So we hailed a cab, (the buses were limited in the area and we were getting short on time) and after swapping some horrible Korean with the poor cab driver, he gladly accepted us into his cab and drove us to the observatory. The pictures below are actually some photos from the peak of one of the mountains looking over into North Korea. The Ganghwa Peace Observatory is on the river and just 1.8 km away from North Korea soil. We were just expecting to see land and propaganda villages like we did at the DMZ, but NO! This was way cooler than the DMZ in Paju! We actually saw people farming, riding their bikes, using farm equipment, and building fires. It was crazy! We heard all the propaganda that echoed over the river (I think it was from the North’s side but I know both sides do have the propaganda speakers). We ended up staying at the observatory for about an hour and a half (we stayed till closing) and just observed the people in their everyday life in North Korea. To us, it was just so surreal to see people living a normal life on another side of a boarder that is just so shut off from the rest of the world. The pictures we have posted are taken though the lens of the binoculars (and some were taken with a more powerful zoom lens), but you can see there is movement within the photos. Of course, with the recent meeting between Kim Jong un and Moon Jae-in both Korea’s have had their fair amount of time in the spotlight. We recently read the propaganda speakers have been turned off, and I would be interested to see how different it would feel up at the observatory in silence instead of the music we heard along the boarder. After the observatory closed, we made our way to the local bus stop so we could get to the Ganghwa bus terminal. During our time at the observatory we had been taking some pictures and we asked a man if he could take our picture for us (so we didn’t have to get out our tripod). He spoke a little English and was more than happy to provide us with the favor. We saw him and his family throughout the observatory (he had a wife and 2 elementary school age girls) and it was the first time he and his family had visited the observatory together. So anyway, we are waiting at our bus stop, prepared to have to wait up to an hour for the bus to come, (or wait for the random taxi to maybe pass) and this man and his family come down from the observatory in their car. He stops at the bus stop and asks us where we need to go. We tell him we are waiting for the bus to go to the Ganghwa bus terminal. He would not have it (like seriously they will not leave, we have had this happen on numerous occasions) and insisted that he and his family would give us a ride to the terminal. After refusing numerous times, because we were sure this was out of their way, we finally agreed and his whole family piled into the back seat of his car and we loaded in. Just as a side note, it is so so so hard to refuse something in Korea. People genuinely want to help and it’s almost a put down to refuse something if somebody offers it. Also, in Korea, you don’t have to worry about abduction. The crime rate is low and for the most part it’s petty crime that happens. It was really hard the first few times to accept rides, food or a service from somebody because for our whole lives we have been taught to be on guard, but in Korea the random violent crimes are so rare. So back to the story, he turned on the radio to an English radio station and we had a limited English conversation with the man and his wife. I also played the Korean version of rock, paper, scissors with his daughters, who were more than excited to play with me. We made it to the bus terminal in about ten minutes, so we were able to get back to Seoul earlier than expected and got some dinner, which was an added bonus to our day. All in all, it was a great day that will always remind us of our first spring hike in Korea :). Uphill Both Ways – A hike in Yangpyeong Escaping into the quiet Korean countryside by riding a high-tech, high-speed KTX train seems a little counter-intuitive, but that’s just what we did. To plan this full day of hiking, I just opened the map of Korea on my phone app (Naver Maps), I found a large green blob (mountainous area) relatively close to a KTX train station. Then I zoomed into the green blob and found a trail network starting and ending within an hour’s walk of the train station. Planning done. After getting off the train in Yangpyeong, we walked about an hour through the quiet farm town up to the base of the mountains. The air quality was really poor in the morning, so we couldn’t really see the mountains in their full form. It was like hiking into a mysterious mountain mist (it is actually awful air pollution from Korean and Chinese factories that blankets vast portions of the country in a yellow-brown fog). The trail started off in the true Korea fashion… straight up the gully along side a full flowing stream. I am not sure why, but Korean hiking trails do not have switch-backs to help ease the journey of the hiker. Instead they build the shortest trail possible straight to the top. This often involves constructing large steel staircases that zig-zag through the trees and up steep cliff sections. Some of these staircases can be over 300 steps long. And yes, I do find myself counting them as I trek up with heavy breath and dripping sweat. The first peak we summited was named Baegunbong and stands 941 meters tall (3,100 feet). The trail covered this vertical gain in 2 miles. It was a steep a climb. Baegunbong peak is the large volcano looking peak in the pictures below. The trail continued straight down the other side and the decent was actually steeper than the accent. It felt like hiking uphill both ways! We were optimistic that once we reached the ridge-line below, the trail would flatten out a bit. The plan was to hike the 12-14 mile loop in about 7-8 hours, covering an average of about 2 miles an hour. After reaching the ridge line, we had achieved 4 miles in 3 hours and it was time for lunch. After eating our homemade refried bean burritos, we set-off to tackle the 4 mile ridge-line and make up some time. The ridge line turned out to be series of 11 shark-tooth peaks that were so steep, we were often scrambling up and down rocky areas using our hands and pull ropes anchored along the trial. At most difficult stretch, we covered only 1/2 mile in 1 hour. We finally reached the end of the ridge-line 3 hours later, covering less than 1 mile an hour. It was literally the steepest up and down trail we have every hiked. It was, however, so beautiful and in a weird way very enjoyable. There was a fresh breeze blowing the entire time that slowly cleared away all the pollution, pink, purple, and yellow flowers sprinkled in the dark and bright green forest trees. At the top of every shark-tooth peak, we got a wonderful view of the valley below and farmland in the distance. We were running out of time to catch our return train home and energy to finish the last 4 miles of our loop, so we took a different trail down the mountain. We figured we’d just take a bus back to down our original starting point. We found ourselves walking a quiet farm road that paralleled a small mountain river and was lined with strawberry greenhouses. We walked with road for about 1.5 hours before reaching our bus-stop. The scent of fresh mountain water and sun ripened strawberries will be very hard to forget. While waiting for our bus to arrive, a nice man stopped his car and offered to give us a ride back to the train station. Apparently giving rides to foreigners is common practice in Korea as this was second time this has happened to us in a month. The Korea culture is very generous and helpful, so it feels normal to accept their generosity. While in the car with a total stranger, we learn each other’s names and are proudly told the 10-20 English phrases they know and are enthusiastically taught several new words of Korean. It is sharing moments like these with people that make us so happy we decided to live abroad and inspire us to stay adventurous even if the journey is uphill both ways.
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