We climbed a mountain (chain)!

Greetings!

This post will be old news to us, but new news to most of you. The day after Hannah and I dug a hole halfway to Canada in Haeundae we went on a little jaunt in the park. You see, my friend Sarah was good enough to give me a contact she has in Busan: a friend of her boyfriend. When I contacted the fellow he was happy to help me out and even invited me on a hike with "a few of us". Thinking that this would be a merry hour-long jaunt in the park with a small handful of people, I accepted and packed a small bag carrying only a camera, sunglasses, and about 8,000 won (about 8$). I also took Hannah along since we are in need of some friends over here!

Short version of the story: we met WAY more than 3 or 4 people and unwittingly joined a hiking group hell bent on hiking no fewer than 5 hours up a series of mountains. We had NO idea what we were in for.

Something like this, but more sweaty and less energetic.

Initially, we met at Mandeok Station toward the north central area of Busan and hiked up toward a temple on the mountain. The name of the temple escaped me at the time, but I now know that it is called "Seokbulsa." Again, I'll refer you to Dale's Korean Temple Adventures for his well-written description of the temple. I will also be subscribing to his blog shortly after writing this post.

We arrived at the temple after trekking uphill for about an hour and a half. We were both quite beaten by the journey. However, this was just the first lag of the trip!

 Aren't we such an attractive couple?

The temple grounds were, more or less, carved out of the rocky precipice of a mountain peak. It was hard to tell how old it was, but it was clear that certain buildings were far older than others! Below are some of our findings:

A two-level place of worship. Thousands of tiny golden Bhuddas lined the walls inside! No pictures, naturally, because some families were ritualistically praying inside.

Some detailing of the roof of the bell tower

We are ONE! We are LEGION!

A woman praying as the god-kings of old look on. Look closely on the altar and you will see a few bags of rice as offerings.

Clearly the oldest part of the temple, a very steep and narrow stairway led up to a small shrine. Inside was a very well-preserved painting of a dragon-god, but a senior monk was inside in a deep trance. I did not dare to take any photos (or make any noise) as I'm sure he would be able to break my spine with a glare!

More ancient kings carved into the cliff. Amazing work!

Following our 30 minute-long tour of the temple, we were led away to an even HIGHER part of the mountain! And just think: we thought we were done! Silly us!

I won't go into excruciating details, but we were led up to the very peak of the temple-mountain. To the west was another mountain with a bare, rocky summit. "That's where we're going next!", our guide proclaimed.

Clearly not us, but another adorable couple. (They must be killed, there can be only ONE!)

What ensued was another 2 hour hike along the ridge connecting the two mountains, including various ups and downs. Along the way the trail became less of a "groomed pleasure hike" and more of a "rut in the ground from human traffic". As Hannah and I were sweating and panting along, little old ladies and their husbands smiled at us as they EASILY hovered along the paths: nordic walking sticks and all!

...only better dressed and more Korean...

Eventually, we made it! We made it and we're on top of the world and OHMYGODDON'TLOOKDOWNHOLYSHIT! One wrong step to either side would mean a helicopter trip to the morgue! We were practically climbing on all fours as we tried to keep up!

Hannah making a brave face in between panic sessions.

We eventually climbed off of the rocky peak, but were taken to ANOTHER mountain peak even further down! At this point, we began to notice rock walls and little rocky platforms about. Apparently, this part of our hike was an old mountain fortress that the locals used during the Japanese invasions of the 1600's! We would NOT have wanted to be the invading Japanese carrying up all of our supplies on the mountain!

We did not see all of the old ruins since A) they were very vast and B) everyone was pretty frigging tired! We had been out for something like 4 hours at this point and most of us were wanting to call it a day.

Well, alright: we could go. But which way? The staircase leading down to a calm trail or by clinging to a rope embedded in a cliff wall and then rappelling down without a safety line? Choices!

*Psh!* Only pussies use stairs! (Photo taken by Ping Ting Tsai)

The above photo was from one section, but does NOT capture the harder parts of the 'rope road'. In one section, we seriously had to rappel about 15 feet down. I am SO happy I brought my hiking shoes! In a couple of other sections, had there not been a rope to cling to, we would have dropped about 30 feet to a limestone floor. Hannah did it, but was HORRIFIED and vowed never to do that again!

But now we were on a trail and were safe. We half-stumbled-half-galloped down the rest of the mountain and into a strange little village about a 30 minute bus ride from the city. We don't have any photos because, frankly, we just wanted to sleep!

An upshot of the last mountain we descended. You see that rocky bit up there? That's where we clung for our lives to those ropes. Oh yeah, we did that!

We eventually got home, devoured the nearest source of protein and went back home again. I passed out at 7:30PM and stayed that way until about 6:30AM. 

I am totally going to hike with them again!

-Garrett

PS: as an aside, I think this photo is awesome. I told the guy in it that I was totally keeping it and that it's an awesome picture. You'll see what I mean.

Don't point at something in awe in front of my camera again, you jerk! My awe takes precedence over yours!