Hiking BukHan San

Mo, Angela, Brian and I during our March 1st hiking trip at BukHanSan-- see the spikes on our shoes?
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Spring came late, but that didn’t mean that I tried to will Spring to happen. March was my deadline for spring to make its presence in Korea. Mother Nature responded to my birthday request with a March 1^st snow. March 1^st happened to be a holiday in Korea--- so I celebrated by kicking off the “unofficial beginning of spring” with a hiking trip with Angela, Mo and Brian.

We decided to check out the very famed BukHanSan mountain range that towers over downtown Seoul. The snow didn’t keep the hard core hikers inside--- instead it was more of an excuse to check out the mountain. My first impression hiking in Korea was a party like atmosphere. What to expect hiking in Korea:

The “start early/end early” part never really seemed to happen--- we are more of the “crack of nooners” ...

Man in the uniform looking out at Mt. BukHan.
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1. You must wear the uniform….that’s right when hiking everyone is seemingly wearing the same thing--- black or dark colored nylon hiking pants--- lined for the winter or vented for the warmer months, some sort of layered solid colored shirt and vest and of course the mental hiking stick.
2. Start early, end early and go home drunk. The “start early/end early” part never really seemed to happen for me and my hikers in crime--- we are more of the “crack of nooners” instead of dawn. So, usually we would find ourselves hiking up against the tide of hiking stick toting Koreans heading down for the party. All hikes seem to end with some sort of alcohol--- soju is the most common—Korea’s hard liquor, mohk-oh-lee--- a tasty white rice wine that is carbonated like beer--- is the heartier drink but you can also find some of the cousins of soju that all claim to have “wellbeing” benefits. On any given weekend you are guaranteed to find some drunken hiker slouched over completely intoxicated. The party like atmosphere on the mountain makes hiking always enjoyable since everyone is there to have a good time!
3. You can show up naked and be A-OK. Since hiking is so ingrained into the Korean culture, all hiking trailheads are well outfitted with everything you could ever want. Small stands are set up along the base of the trails and have everything from cheap/good quality hiking gear to compasses, baked sweet potatoes, roasted chestnuts, and my favorite--- bandanas with the map of the park trails on it--- pure genius! It is perfect for the hikers that say come from a night of clubbing in Seoul and don’t happen to have anything on them for hiking, and can be outfitted for the equivalent of $20. I love it!

Me with downtown Seoul in the background. Over my left shoulder you can see Mt. NamSan and Seoul Tower and over my right you can see the Han River.
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Our first hike of BukHanSan was slow and icy. It was so icy in fact that we had to buy “clamp ons” which are basically tie on spikes for your shoes. It was fun to be heading up the mountain feeling all hardcore in spiked shoes. That first hike on March 1^st pretty much changed my experience in Korea. I felt much more at home within the hiking community and enjoyed being outside, but not too far away from home. In addition to all the instant friends that I felt like I met I was also able to get above the grim of Seoul--- all the while still being immersed in it. The peaks on BukHanSan are nothing to write home about in terms of great heights, but these mountains spike out of the ground--- with Seoul sitting at sea level the balded mountains look pretty impressive. Also once on top the views are stunning. On that first day we were faced with some clouds on the peak, but you could still feel the intense expanse of the city of Seoul around you. With 14 million people the city might be compact in comparison, but is still huge!

Angela and I picking up the sweet monk that took us in when it rained at SongSeumSa Buddhist temple.
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Angela and I vowed to make it up to BukHanSan as many times as possible. So far we have faired pretty well. Some highlights of some recent hikes:

1. One of our first hikes up we found an impressive Buddhist temple called Seung-Ga-Sa. The temple is an active hermitage, so there are many monks that live there. At the base of the temple is huge stone pagoda where people are constantly stopping to come and pray. Further up is the actual temple. There you can pray inside a number of alters. There is a fresh spring where one of the Buddha statues can be prayed to for lasting health. Above the temple is a long stone staircase that leads to the main Buddha carvings, which is about 30ft tall is carved from a massive boulder and seems to overlook the downtown Seoul valley. Besides being utterly blown away by this temple another highlight was learning that every Sunday the monks serve a “not delicious” lunch---as one father/son hiker group informed us. Ever since we have scheduled our hikes to partake in this free lunch.
2. During one of our hikes we met a nice gentleman who happened to be hiking late with us. He didn’t speak much English and at the time our Korean was pretty broken. I ended up taking some pretty stunning pictures of him as we were catching the last glimpses of the sun. I offered to email them to him and before we knew it we were eating and drinking together. He took us to a place where we thought we were eating one of my favorite tofu soup dishes, but instead he ordered us this soup that we questionably ate--- come to find out later it was cow stomach and goat liver soup. YUM! Through our broken communication we learned that he was recovering from throat cancer. He had an operation not too long ago and was using hiking as a way to recover his soul as he said. He was very sweet.
3. On Julia’s maiden voyage up the mountain we were still in the midst of the questionable spring weather. The temperatures had certainly warmed up, but we had a series of strange weeks where Korea was inundated with “Yellow Sand,” which is when the Gobi Desert sands shift and blow sand and pollution in from China all the way to Korea. The days are yellow, gritty, and sometimes accompanied with storms. This happened to be one such day. Unknowingly we were about halfway up a practically deserted mountain (you would think that we would be smart enough to figure it all out). Mid hike we got stuck in a torrential downpour. Instead of heading down we kept going up and sough refuge at the temple. There we were fed by the monks and must have been quite a site---- one very motherly monk that was working in the kitchen took us back to her room where she let us dry off, warm up and actually sleep for a few hours. We woke to her informing us that the rain had stopped. She then led us on a tour of the temple and fed us again before sending us on our way. She was happy when we called her our Korean grandmother. We were lucky to snap a few pictures with her. Angela and I even picked her up in one--- we must have been the highlight of her year!

Stone grotto at SongGeumSa temple.
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Similar to the beauty of Rock Creek Park in DC--- BukHanSan offers a playground to getaway from the hustle and bustle of the city. I am so grateful to have found this amazing sanctuary in my very own backyard.