Trail of the Lion King

I tried to get to Woraksan a couple of years ago, but instead spent all day in Chungju  waiting to see a football match that had been re-located at the last minute to somewhere out of town. Once I’d realised this it was too late to catch the last bus to the National Park. This time though, the football season had yet to start and so I wasn’t expecting any problems.

The plan was for Jen and I to take the bus to Chungju from the Central City terminal. There’s one every half hour, with the one on the hour being the de-luxe version with wide seats, extra leg room and minimal livestock. Chungju must be a popular destination on a weekend though as despite getting to Central City mid afternoon the first available seats were on the six o’clock bus.

There’s a big shopping mall at the bus station with restaurants and coffee shops so we just filled the time in by eating and drinking. We had that chicken thing that comes in a dish that is about the size of a bin lid. The one with the sweetish brown sauce, plenty of potatoes and with glass noodles sneakily hidden under the good stuff. We rarely get around to eating the noodles as there’s usually enough chicken and potato not to have to bother with them. Besides, I’d only brought the one pair of jeans and I didn’t want to be splattering them with sauce before I’d even left town.

The journey to Chungju took an hour and forty minutes. Oddly enough there didn’t seem to be any motels in the area around the bus station. The railway station is only about fifteen minutes walk away though so we headed for that. We soon spotted the neon lights and had a full row to choose from. Most of them looked new, although maybe they had just had the outside cladded so that sleek aluminium covered up the fake stonework that used to be so popular.

The one we picked seemed ok. I think it was fifty thousand won, although as I’m writing this ten days later I can’t actually remember. The room was pretty smart though, definitely a step up from some of the places we have stayed at.

Not a turret in sight.

I’d previously managed to get the times of the buses to the Deokjusa entrance to Woraksan from the Chungju Tourist Information Office, but we didn’t know the number or where the bus stop was. The easiest thing to do in those circumstances was just to take a taxi and so that was what we did. Forty thousand won and half an hour later we were pulling up outside Deokjusa temple having overtaken a few hikers on the last mile or so of the route.

The map showed that we’d have a further 4.9km to hike to reach the 1097m Yeongbong summit.

Seems straightforward enough.

I’d read somewhere that the trail started off fairly gently but then increased in gradient over the last two  kilometres and had a particularly evil twist in that there was a long descent before you reached the top that meant you had to gain the ground all over again. I hate doing that. I want a steady ascent on the way up and then when I’ve got to the top I expect to be just heading downwards. It’s great when you get some flat bits as well, particularly when you are at a decent altitude, but I’d prefer no downward stretches on the way up and no strenuous climbs on the way down.

It wasn’t really as I’d read though and the first couple of kilometres seemed just as steep as most places. About an hour in we passed a stone Buddha carved into a rock. I’m no historian, so we’ll just say it dates from the olden days, maybe mid to late period olden days. It looked newer than that though so I suspect that the monks had been busy with their chisels.

Easier to make than a proper statue.

As we got higher the snow got more tightly packed and we’d have struggled without spikes. Once we were in the last couple of kilometres I kept expecting the big descent but it never really came. Instead we had lots of short downward sections, some of which we needed to make use of the ropes and railings to avoid slipping and perhaps disappearing off the side of the mountain. Inevitably the downward sections were followed by even steeper upwards sections.

That’s it from about an hour and a half away.

It took us almost four hours to reach the top, the last hour or so involving some of the steepest staircases I’ve encountered here. The six inches or so of snow didn’t make it any easier and I felt sorry for the bunch of kids that were dragging themselves up with just trainers on their feet.

Jen is on the right, hidden by the tree. I don’t know who the others are.

There were good views in all directions from the top but we didn’t hang around for much more than ten minutes. With plenty of uphill bits to do on the way back I doubted that we’d knock much more than an hour off the time it had taken us to get there and we had to get back to Chungju.

Part of the way down there’s a junction with an alternative route back to the car park. It’s a kilometre or so shorter than the way we’d came up but I suppose the downside is that it’s a little steeper. We gambled on taking it anyway to avoid some of the slippery sections that we’d encountered on the way up.

It started off ok, with a clever little zig-zag route that took the sting out of the slope. As we got further down though there were sections with very little snow and good as the spikes were they don’t really do much on ice-covered rocks. Jen had a few trips, one involving a full head over heels manoeuvre.

On the way down.

The short cut paid off in the end though and we were at the bottom in two and a half hours. It’s probably the worst ratio of time to distance that we’ve ever done, averaging less than a mile an hour, but that was more due to the conditions underfoot and the undulating nature of the trail rather than a drop in fitness levels. If anything, we probably stopped for a rest less frequently than normal.

Once we were back on the road we looked in vain for a taxi. Outside of a restaurant there was a bus destined for Dong Seoul that would have been perfect had we not stashed all of our surplus gear in a locker at Chungju Bus Station that morning. Running out of options we decided to eat in the restaurant and then get them to call us a cab.

The restaurant had a pretty limited menu and the old biddy in charge seemed keen that we eat her special rice, which was described as a bowl of rice with other stuff mixed in that you could pick up and eat between those skinny sheets of seaweed. After a day’s hiking I was hoping for something a bit better than that and after turning down kimchi stew we ended up with another bin lid full of chicken and potatoes. The chicken wasn’t as good as we’d had the day before, there seemed to be more skin and bones than meat, but they were generous with the potatoes.

Good as the special purple rice was, the other stuff was better.

There were timetables on the wall and we were able to work out that there was a bus back to Chungju at 5.45pm, which gave us just enough time for us to eat the best bits of the meal. The family of the old biddy seemed to be eyeing up what was left of the chicken, which seemed fair enough. They were pretty much out of luck with the potatoes though.

Before snaffling what was left of the food they very kindly identified the bus outside as being the right one and hurried us onto it. We were the only passengers when it set off so it seems that most people who hike Woraksan either come as part of a tour or else have a car.

A bus. Our bus.

The bus took about half an hour to get us back to Chungju. It didn’t have any stops scheduled for anywhere that we knew so we just got out when the streets started getting busy and caught a cab to the bus station. That makes it fourteen of the fifteen mountain National Parks hiked in now, just Juwangsan to go.

Whenever Jen and I take a trip to Jeju we usually end up walking a section or two of the Olle Trail. It seems to get bigger every time we go though as each part of the island does it’s best to attract the hikers and their cash.

This time we thought we’d visit Udo Island and hike Section 1-1.  I’d looked Udo up on the internet and it’s over to the north-east of Jeju, a couple of miles out to sea. Apparently it’s two and a bit square miles in size and less than two thousand people live there. I also learned that it’s known as Cow Island due to it being the same shape as a cow. I’m not sure how correct the information on the size and population was but the only way that it could be said to resemble a cow would be if the animal had undergone some sort of steam-roller related mishap.

You get there via a ferry from Seongsan Port which is fifty minutes and a thirty-five thousand won taxi ride from Jeju City. We got lucky and arrived just a few moments before the ferry sailed.

That’s the ferry. It might be Udo Island in the background.

I’ve no idea if the schedule changes at different times of the year but even on a Sunday in January there were plenty of crossings scheduled. It takes around fifteen minutes to cover the couple of miles between the two islands.

Seongsan to Udo timetable.

When we got off at the other side, everyone else got into their car or on to a tour bus despite the island hardly seeming big enough for anyone to feel the need to be driven around. There’s a tourist information office near the jetty but there wasn’t much in the way of information. I got talking to a young copper who was able to point us in the direction of the Olle Trail. Thinking about it afterwards, it occurred to me that he might be the only copper. Maybe the youngest Chief of Police in Korea.

We had a look at the map and the Olle Trail pretty much just follows the coast with the odd minor excursion inland. By frequently doubling back on itself the distance had somehow been stretched to fourteen and a half kilometres. It’s possible that the route is still under development though as I’ve seen it described as over sixteen kilometres in other places.

See, nothing like a cow.

We walked the trail in a clockwise direction, starting off on narrow roads next to the sea and occasionally being directed through fields or along lanes leading to farms and houses. Some of the routing seemed unnecessarily complicated and there were times where after ten minutes of meandering through fields we would rejoin the coastal road no more than fifty yards from where we’d left it.

Just in case you were wondering what a field looks like.

We didn’t see many other people in the early part of the walk, despite passing by plenty of houses. Although I suppose it was a Sunday morning. There wasn’t much wildlife either, apart from the odd dog.

He was friendly enough.

As on the main Jeju Island the Olle Trail looks to have provided the Udo locals with opportunities to take their share of the tourist spending. We passed pensions, restaurants, cafes and scooter hire shops. None of them were particularly busy but I imagine that they would be in the summer.

Formerly a bus, now a cafe.

Halfway around we stopped for a fish stew lunch. I’m not sure what type of fish it was but we watched it being netted from the tank outside. A few slices turned up fried as part of the side dishes with the remainder being cooked at our table on one of those little gas canister stoves.

Better than taking a packed lunch.

We got lost when we started walking again. I’m not sure how, as the trail is well signposted with ribbons and arrows spray painted on walls and the road. It wasn’t such a bad thing though as we stumbled across a football ground. It looked as if it belonged to an adjacent school, but with a couple of small stands down one side it wouldn’t have looked out of place in the Challengers League.

For those of you who are missing the lower league football reports.

It wasn’t too difficult to find the trail again as you just really need to look for the coast, but the long lunch and the detour meant that we had to pick up the pace a bit if we were to catch the three o’clock ferry. As we neared the port the route took us up Udo’s big hill. Big in Udo terms anyway at 113m. The Olle Trail doesn’t actually go to the summit but took us to within about ten metres of the top. That was good enough for me though and we got decent views of the surrounding area.

Some graves near Udo’s big hill.

We made the boat. Just. It would have been another hour if we’d had to wait for the next one and once you’ve circled the island I think you’ve just about seen it all. I spent most of the crossing back to Seongsan throwing pieces of doughnut to the seagulls. I’m sure Cantona had a theory about that sort of thing.

I didn’t have any sardines.

Winter probably isn’t the best time to visit Udo. On one hand we had the benefit of having the Olle Trail to ourselves but later in the year there would be a lot more places open and the seafront walking would be better without the icy winds and hailstorms. Still, it was an enjoyable day and it’s one more place that we’ve seen.

I’m a little unsure why it’s taken me so long to get around to hiking up South Korea’s highest mountain. After all, I’ve been here nearly three years and have walked in most of the National and Provincial Parks.

I’ve even been to Jeju on three separate occasions, although I suppose they were primarily footballing trips. I was aware that I’m running out of time though and I’d have been disappointed to leave Korea without having made it to its highest point.

Jen and I had originally been booked up to travel to Jeju the weekend after this one but the possibility that I’d have to go to Oman then meant that it made sense to bring the trip forward a week. It’s taken me a long time to work out the system over here but I’ve finally twigged how air travel, and I suppose train travel, works in Korea. There are minimal penalties for changing or cancelling bookings, so whenever tickets go on sale they are snapped up immediately. The flight then remains fully booked until a few days before and at that point people make their minds up as to whether or not they want to travel. If you can book either very early or very late you should be able to get on even the most popular flights and trains.

It cost us a thousand won (sixty pence!) to change each sector of the flight. We could even have cancelled it after the flight had departed at no more cost than that. That’s AirBusan too, one of the budget airlines.

I knocked off from work mid-afternoon and we took the subway to Gimpo for our 6pm flight. There must be a bit of slack in the timetable as despite taking off fifteen minutes late we still managed to land at Jeju Airport fifteen minutes early. We took a taxi to the City Hall area as apparently that’s the part of town with plenty of bars and restaurants. There weren’t many motels though and it took a few minutes of wandering around before we found one with an available room.

Not quite The Ritz.

It’s probably one of the scruffier places that we’ve stayed in and if we’d noticed the hairs on the pillows earlier than we did then we’d have looked for somewhere else. It was cheap though at thirty thousand won a night and the owner couldn’t have been friendlier. He enthused over our hiking plans, gave us free energy drinks and took the time to warn us not to leave anything of value in the room as his cleaning staff would probably steal it.

The next morning we were up at five-thirty and out by just after six. I like that time of day, even when it’s dark and cold. If it’s quiet then it often reminds me of the short-lived paper round that I had as a kid and how I’d be the first person that day to leave footprints in the snow as I caught up with the latest sports news and checked out that day’s Page Three girl.

We took a taxi to the Seongpanak entrance to Hallasan National Park, arriving soon after half past six. The car park was already full and there were dozens of hikers milling around and making their last-minute preparations. The gate had been open since six o’clock and so I imagine that plenty of others were already on their way up the trail.

Still another half an hour or so to sunrise.

It was still dark as we set off, although the snow on the ground made it easier than it would have been to follow the path. Most of the Koreans had head torches, which was a shame. I much prefer to let my eyes adjust to the darkness and then enjoy it gradually getting lighter.

Seongpanak entrance is at 750m and so we had another 1,200m of ascent ahead of us in the 9.6 kilometres to the 1,950m Baeknokdam peak. That’s not too bad an overall gradient and there was a very helpful sign detailing exactly where the steeper sections were.

Seongpanak route up Hallasan.

To make life easier for the park rangers, Hallasan has cut-off times for various points along the trail. You are not allowed to start after 9am and you must reach the checkpoint at the Jindallaebat shelter no later than noon.

It was relatively quiet on the way up. There were a few smallish groups of hikers and the odd lone bloke or couple. The temperature had dropped to around -7C and whilst there was a steady light snowfall, there wasn’t much wind. We couldn’t see very far, but the trees around the path looked spectacular in the wintery conditions.

Winter Wonderland.

We reached the Jindallaebat shelter at 1,500m just before nine thirty, well inside the cut-off time. There were about forty hikers inside and we joined them for a while as I warmed up with a bowl of ramyun. We gained height quickly after that and as we reached 1,800m got above the treeline. On a clear day I’m told there are spectacular views over fields of pampas grass. We couldn’t see more than twenty yards in any direction though.

The wind had increased to the level where it was difficult to stay on our feet and the snow was pebbledashing my face. I could feel the ice forming in my hair, eyebrows and beard. It was just like the death zone at Cleethorpes seafront.

Four hours after setting off we reached the top. On a different day we’d have been able to see the crater and the lake, as it was we couldn’t see much more than the marker stone that signified the top. We posed for the obligatory photo and headed off back down again. The initial stages of the descent were a little tricky as we battled the wind and those people still on their way up. There were ropes and railings to hang on to though that made it easier than it would otherwise have been.

On the way down.

Once below 1,800m we could relax and take it easy along the forest trail. Or at least we could until we met the hikers coming upwards. At first it was still the odd small group. Before long though we were faced with an unbroken line of people trudging upwards. As we got further down the numbers swelled to the extent that they were walking two abreast.

Still single-file at this point.

As we approached the Jindallaebat shelter any pretence at a line had gone and it was just a swarm of people filling the entire track. There were still around ten minutes to go to the noon cut-off for making the ascent to the top and the rangers were attempting to manage the crowd with loudhailers.

As we reached twelve o’clock there were still long queues for ramyun inside the shelter. Surely people wouldn’t risk being sent back for the sake of a pot noodle?

Hikers fighting their way through the final checkpoint.

We headed back down the hill and for the next hour or so we were still passing people on the way up. Either they were oblivious to the restriction or else they felt confident that it wouldn’t apply to them. It struck me as so Korean. There’s a deadline so lets push it to the absolute limit.

We made it to the Seongpanak entrance in two and a half hours and were able to get a taxi back into town. It wasn’t a particularly strenuous hike at all. The slog up Chiaksan a couple of weeks earlier had been a lot harder on my legs.

Hallasan is another one of those mountains that I’d like to do again sometime, if only to be able to take in the views from the top. The entrance opens at 5am in the summer and I reckon that an early start coupled with a midweek date would be the sensible way to avoid the crowds.

I’m keen to try to get out into the hills a bit more often and with the cold but dry weather conditions being so much more suited to hiking than those in the summer I decided to stay over in Wonju after a basketball game and hike the following day in the Chiaksan National Park. I’d been to Chiaksan before, in January 2011, and remembered it as being a decent day out.

Jen and I took a twenty minute taxi ride to the park entrance and by a quarter to nine we’d set off. You don’t have to walk for too long before you reach Guryongsa temple. We didn’t bother going for a nose around, but we did see the bloke in front bowing as he went past. He didn’t seem too fussy about what he bowed to though as a few moments later he seemed to be paying his respects to a bush.

Guryongsa Temple

The hike to the 1288m Birobong peak was fairly easy going for the first hour or so, although with snow on the ground there were a few slippery sections. Upon reaching the Seryeom waterfall we were given a choice of two trails.

Last time I took the Sadaribyeongchang route and so this time we went the other way along the Gyegokil trail. There was a very handy gradient guide which seemed to confirm that it didn’t really matter which way we went.

Equally steep.

Our route took us via a valley and for a lot of the way we could see and hear the people who had taken the ridge route. They had gained ground a lot quicker than we did, although all that meant really was that we would have it to do as we got closer to the top.

It seemed that far fewer people were taking the Gyegokil option and a lot of the snow was relatively undisturbed. Walking poles made it a lot easier to stay upright.

I was lagging behind at this point.

The temperature was a little below freezing. It wasn’t as cold as the last time I’d been to Chiaksan, but it was cold enough to have frozen most of the river that should have been flowing in the valley. We had to walk across ice a couple of times when the path briefly followed the water, but even though the water was still running below the surface it was solid enough to support us.

I was less sure that it would take my weight.

The highlight of the day for me was feeding some birds halfway up. We watched a bloke enticing them down from the trees to feed from his hand and by giving up half a cereal bar I was able to do the same.

I dare say there isn’t a great deal of food around when the snow is on the ground and five or six different birds took the opportunity to take food from me.

Just like Trafalgar Square used to be.

I’m no ornithologist, so haven’t the slightest idea of what birds they were. Tits probably. If I call them Korean tits I can almost certainly increase the blog traffic from the search engines. They were quite small Korean tits as opposed to big Korean tits. You might even call them perky Korean tits.

It was fun feeding them and I’d have quite happily given up the rest of my lunch if we’d had the time to stand around whilst they ate it.

A different one.

As we got higher the snow got thicker and there were sections where we had to haul ourselves up using ropes and railings. Four hours after setting off we reached the top. It was busy, with far more people appearing to have taken the Sadribyeongchang route. The views were good though, the various ridges that disappeared into the distance looking a lot more interesting without their usual covering of foliage.

Chiaksan is the place where that fella built three big cairns at the top fifty years ago. Pointless but impressive.

You can see two of them here, the third was behind me.

Getting back down afterwards was tricky, even with spikes and poles. The ropes helped a lot, but couldn’t prevent a few slips. It took us two hours to get back to the waterfall and then another hour to reach the car park. There weren’t any taxis waiting but we managed to get a bus within fifteen minutes or so. They look as if they run quite frequently until late in the evening and the one that we caught had us at Wonju railway station in about half an hour. Unfortunately all the trains were fully booked and so we had to take at taxi to the bus station where it was easy enough to get a seat on a bus back to Seoul.

Bus timetable at Guryongsa car park.

It wasn’t a long hike in terms of distance, maybe six kilometres each way car park to car park, but it gained enough height to make it hard work in the snow. There are other routes that go on from the Birobong peak to the other side of the park and I reckon that with an early start and good weather it would be possible to hike from one side to the other.

I doubt we’ll get around to it, but then again I hadn’t expected to return to Chiaksan at all, so you never know.