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The night before, we'd had a poker night and a night out on the town (including a walk around trying to find a bar called Jrock). Stacey had gone to bed before we left to go out, but I had promised that if she called me at 9, I'd go climb the mountain with her.
We followed Jen's plan, to take a taxi to the bus stop downtown, then catch a bus from there. The weather was nippy, but not too bad. We were all pretty tired from the night before's festivities. We waited about 30 minutes for the bus, and rode it out to the national park, at which point it started raining really heavily. We were all pretty tired from the festivities the night before.
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Stacey ducked into a nearby shop and bought us groovey raincoats. Jen had an umbrella, so didn't need one.
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We quickly got out of the cold and into a restaurant just as the rain turned to snow. Marc ordered Bee Bim Bop, a rice dish. Jen, Stacey and I ordered Bulgogi; beef in sauce that cooked in front of us on a little stove. As with all food in Korea, it comes with a liberal assortment of side-dishes. It was some of the best food I'd had in Korea so far.
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On leaving the restaurant, the rain/snow had pretty much stopped, and we agreed to hike, but stay within 10 minutes of shelter, just in case. The mountains were looking beautiful, shrouded in cloud.
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We continued up to a temple and went inside to look, but were shoed out (in the nicest possible way). I snapped a pic of the gate on the way out. I believe this is a guardian, used to keep out evil spirits, but I'm really not certain.
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Up the mountain, through another temple (containing an basketball court - I guess monks need to keep fit somehow), and up onto the mountain trail proper. We decided to press on to try to reach the other side, as it didn't seem like it would rain again. The snow had stuck to the ground once we got above a certain altitude, and I took the opportunity to make and throw a few snowballs :)
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We reached a pass, with the option of going up to a peak, but we decided to just press on to Gapsa temple. The way down was pretty icy, and not having the right kind of shoes I nearly slipped and fell a number of times. The Gapsa valley was pretty beautiful, with the leaves in full turn, but it was too dark to take photos really.
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We arrived at the bottom just in time to catch the bus home, which was driven in a very exciting manner by the driver. Taking a taxi from the bus stop in Daejon, we were all pretty tired.
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Having failed to photograph the leaves of the Gapsa valley, I decided to return to Gyeryonsan, and Marc was up for another climb. I was aiming to get to the other side of the mountain for 3pm, so there would still be enough light to take pictures. It was a beautiful day, and the mountain was packed with people.
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We kept seeing people wearing hats with birds on, or carrying flags with them on. I'm guessing it was a boy scout kind of thing. On the first peak we traded food with the Koreans there. I gave them chocolate chip cookies, they gave me oranges. They also offered us soju, but we turned it down.
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Once we had made it over the two peaks (retracing the steps of the first Gyereyonsan hike), the way down to the other side of the mountain was all but deserted. It made for a wonderful contrast and an enjoyable walk down to Gapsa.
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Our arrival at Gapsa was about a week too late. The leaves had already fallen for the most part, only one or two trees giving me an idea of the beauty that I must have missed.
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The trip back on the bus was amusing. We chatted to these Koreans from the Korean Electric Power Corporation. I practiced my reading, and got a round of applause.
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There was an old guy stood next to me during the last part of the bus trip, who squatted and fell asleep against me. I stood up and offered him my seat, but he wouldn't take it. So we argued with gestures and friendly shouting until the Korea Power people tried to push me back into the seat. I wouldn't go, so they tried to push the old guy into the seat. He finally sat down, and stayed there for five minutes, then he got up and tried to push me into the seat again. I didn't actually want to sit down at that point - Korean seats are too small for me - so the seat remained unoccupied for the remainder of the journey, and the old man moved to the back of the bus out of sight.
Although I didn't take any pictures, the hike was a great one, showing me how much my fitness has improved since the last time I did it.