This trip was up in the air until the day of. The boys were undecided, as they wanted to do computer things and relax, while Mary and I were still up for going on a hike. Saturday morning, the boys had finally made a decision to stay home so Mary and I chose to jump at the opportunity to go on our first ever girls hike.
That afternoon we all met at the 김밥 ladies place for lunch, then at 2 o’clock Mary and I parted ways and went to catch our 2:30 train. By train we went to 재 천 (Jecheon), which took 2 hours and a bit. Trains in Korea are always an adventure themselves, and this one furthered my claim.
In short (or not so short knowing me), the man beside me was spread eagle and his arm hung over the arm rest, meaning he was blatantly encroaching on my seat. When he got off at his stop, an ajumma (typically a Korean grandmother), got on and sat not on her seat, or mine, but on the crack! So when I sat back down from having let the spread eagle dude out and her in, I literally had a sliver left for my ass cheeks to squeeze into. I smiled sweetly at her as she proceeded to stare directly at me from a very cozy distance and chat with me in Korean. To add to this pretty picture I’m painting, the little ajumma also had a smell about her that was neither pleasant or unpleasant, but unidentifiable and strange. I only understood some of what she said, and answered her where I could, and then it was just her talking to a waygook that was breathing very shallow breaths (because of the smell emanating from her body), leaning over the arm rest into the aisle (because of her cozy distance), and smiling and nodding (because I didn’t know what she was saying).
Finally we arrived at 재천 (Jecheon), where we waited for about 20 minutes to catch a 20 minute train to 단양 (Danyang). At Danyang we took a taxi to the base of 소산벡 (Sobaeksan-Sobaek Mountain), where we needed to find a place to sleep for the night. We ran into a nice man that had great English and asked us if we needed help, so we let him help us find a place to stay. 30,000 won (\30,000-$30ish) and 5 minutes later we had a room at 산사랑민박 (San Sarang Minbak-I love Mountain Minbak). We then went for a stroll to find a place to eat and buy food for breakfast and lunch the next day. After dinner we went back to our very cottage-esque minbak room. We chatted, read, wrote, drew, and chilled out before heading to bed early so we could get up early for a long day of hiking. We woke up at 7am and were at the start of the trail by 8am. Having had 4 cookies each for breakfast we were on our way!
Sobaeksan means “Little White Mountain”, and the park is one of the largest in Korea. The hiking trails go through dense vegetation, which at this time of year were shades of yellow, orange, and red. We chose to hike 비 로 봉 (Birobong), which at 1439m is the highest peak in the park. The hike was fairly easy given its height, and compared to the numerous other hikes we’ve done. The path was rocky and closed in by beautiful rocky cliffs covered with trees, ferns, and moss. The mountain was a mosaic of fall colours, and to add to it, it attracted a mosaic of Koreans to experience its beauty.
As with everywhere we go, we attract a lot of attention due to the fact that we’re white, but on mountains we attract even more because we’re white and we’re hiking. When hiking we are always met with plenty of greetings (in both Korean and English), stares of surprise and/or confusion, kindness (strangers offering food and beverage), and odd characters (wanting pictures with us, wanting to practice their English, or wanting to hike with us). On this hike we ran into the most odd ducks of all, perhaps because it was just Mary and I and no boys with us, but the whole way up the mountain (3 hours) and the whole way down (4 hours-I’ll explain soon), we were met with strange characters around every corner, and laughs for the whole 14 kilometers.
We experienced everything from groups of men trying very hard to get us to drink with them at the peak, to marriage proposals over soju and kimchi. The first group of men we encountered at a rest point, where they asked to have a group photo with us. This is both normal and accepted, however this time I thought I’d get a picture of it as well so I gave the ‘photographer’ my camera too. Little did I know that the man would put my camera on the ground to take a photo with someone else’s camera, and then take a step back and stand on it...directly on the lens! These men felt so bad they were all trying their hand at fixing it, then I took it back and said “It’s ok, don’t worry,” inside I was crying about my poor camera, but I wanted to continue on our hike so I sucked it up and carried on. We were promptly followed by these men, and were offered kimbab, maceoli, and money in repentance for breaking my camera. We refused both, but they persisted on giving us money at the very least and shoved it in my pocket.
The men from the "Camera Breaker Club"
The view from the peak was incredible. There was a sea of orange below us, and mountain peaks for ages. We found a sheltered spot from the wind and people, and had our picnic lunch of tuna, seaweed, crackers, peanut butter, and water. We talked, and took pictures while basking in the warm sun, all the while hoping that our “friends” were long gone so we could peacefully hike down the mountain. As luck would have it our wish was not fulfilled. We passed the group of men a short distance from the top, where they had settled for their own picnic. We politely said hello as we passed them and kept going.
We hiked about 2km down and then 3 of the men from the ‘Camera Breakers Club’ came running up behind us. They had run to catch up to us!!! 카치 (together) they said to us over and over, wanting to hike together, they were a laugh so we said okay. We chatted with them the best we could until we reached a rest stop with bathrooms, rameon, and maceoli. This is where we managed to lose them.
Apparently, when you lose 4 odd men on a mountain you gain 1 crazy drunk man on a mountain. This is where the marriage proposal and the descent of the mountain taking twice as long (4 hours) as the ascent comes in. A man came over to Mary while I was buying the Sobaeksan dongdongju (fermented rice wine), and asked the usual questions...and after all was said and done, he had exclaimed “I’m drink!”, we’re thinking he meant “I’m drunk”, he had given us each a HUGE cup of soju, some reaaaallly spicy kimchi, and some unidentifiable meat of sorts, and then asked for Mary’s hand in marriage. Mary said no thank you, gave him a fake email address, and we moved to the other side of the building to finish our bottle of dongdongju on a rock, in peace.
This is where the time was lost...drinking in a forest.
Our train was leaving at 4:27pm, our clocks read 3:30pm, and we knew the taxi ride would take at least 15 minutes...oh shit... so we set off to complete the last 4km’s...running, running, running, taking pictures, laughing, running, peeing, laughing, running, taking pictures, running.
We got to the bottom and I saw a taxi so I ran over to it quickly, and no one was inside. Oh shit! I knocked on the windows since they’re tinted and taxi drivers often nap in their cars...but nothing...then a man asked me in Korean if I needed a taxi and I said yes (while wanted to say “no I just like knocking on windows”, but I didn’t know how to say that in Korean), so the man hopped into the taxi and said 어 디 (where?), and off we went! We made it to the train station about 10 minutes early, giving us enough time to get changed out of our sweaty clothing for our long-ish journey.
Sobaeksan was the perfect mix of relaxation, humour, inspiration, exercise, colour, bliss, beauty, and pleasure. I thoroughly enjoyed our first (and hopefully not our last) girls hike. Spending time with a close friend/family member, getting outside in the fresh air and exercising, being surrounded by natural beauty, and having a lot of laughs is always a great way to spend a weekend. Memories were made that will never be forgotten.
Thanks Mary!
