Soyosan hike, Sept. 23rd

Debbie suggested a hike and asked me if I wanted to go to "that little mountain" I raved about a while ago. She meant Soyosan, close to Dongdoochon and Camp Casey. I wrote about it on a couple of ocassions: when Clare, Chang-dae and I hiked there last winter and when I hiked it as part of my "pre-Jirisan training" back in April. I won't write in detail about it again, just a brief refresher course: beautiful and green, involves romantic stories of mountain fairies woodchoppers, high-ranking monks falling in and out of love with princesses, monks finding peace and faith in the solitude of humble temples, etc.

Debbie, Andrea and I met at Uijeongbu stn. at 8:00 a.m. after our chocolate fondue and wine night. Clare couldn't join us; she had to work on her essay and she felt a bit under the weather. The day gloriously clear, the train hopelessly packed with hikers, we set off on our adventure sitting on the train floor, awash in sunshine.

Soyosan was as beautiful as ever, Japanese maple trees still as green as in the midst of summer which led to an immediate decision to come back when they turn flaming red. There were not that many people around -thank heavens. Jajeam, the temple on Soyosan, was under construction, but beautiful waterfalls and the cave filled with a thousand Buddha statuettes and hundreds of lanters were there intact.

We climbed and climbed. I realized how out of shape I've grown. I was in pain, out of breath, sweaty, weak... The hike strengthened my resolve to do something about the unhealthy way I got to be immediately - as in tomorrow, Monday.

Andrea found a somewhat cramped spot for lunch with a bit of an easy access issue, but it was worth it as the view from there was amazing. It also had a rock shaped like the chair on which we all sat and had our photos taken. Food was good: chicken breast, tuna salad, party cheese cubes (Debbie's), Andrea's green-tea bread sandwiches, fruit, veggies, even a bottle of red wine that we decided not to open in the end.

The weather served us throughout the hike. The descent was quite painful as took some shortcut that was not really a trail. It was steep and slippery and rocky and quite a challenge, at least for me 'cause at these point my legs, especially knees were starting to fail me. Happy to report that I did reach the bottom in one piece, though. We had to rush for the train as Andra and I had a concert to catch. Right in front of the train station there were two 'carpets' of chilis drying in the sun (and polluted air). On a table in front of a shabby looking corner-store, an ajumma had arranged pumpkin slices that offered a wonderfully sweet and colourful playground to the swarm of black flies. Yuck! And this will end in my food, eventually. Anyhow, the train was packed again; all three of us sat on the floor and dozed off. Andrea and I also resorted to restoring our deplete energy stores with Croatian chocolate. All in all, a wonderful day was spent. Three mountain fairies hiked alone, without CD'd "gentle" guidance, survived and even enjoyed the process. Ain't that something?