Bukhansan - Not just another mountain

Oh man....

our third day of spring has sprung (shortly to be replaced by rain and gloom), so I'm on the terrace of Gecko's listening to the marvelous cacophony of life in Seoul; horns blaring, semi-decent music from within the restaurant, scooters buzzing, and the breeze snapping a few flags.

Nice-uh!

An opportunity to post pictures of the first "non-Namsan" mountain Yvonne and I went up.

A few weeks ago our school closed for a day to climb Bukhansan. Yvonne and I headed off together in a cab for the meeting space, but once there we were efficiently separated as we are from different divisions.

We wallowed about a bit at the National Memorial, and then departments began to head out. EIT was the absolute last to leave. As we wandered towards the park, another Park (Bom-shik) noted that our department had been just as tardy last year.

our students dorking around, ensuring our tardiness

Our tardiness meant that we were at the back end of a massive traffic jam up the hill. I felt sorry for the Ajummah and Ajeoshi who had chosen this particular day for their hike up the hill. Little could they have known that they would be engulfed in perfect storm of Makgeoli drinking college students.

The long orange trail

Fortunately, Koreans are not much impressed by the requirement to stay on the trail, so the older folks, wherever possible, detoured around us on the hill.

on the way up

After a long slog at sluggish pace, we reached the first ridge and things opened up for a while. This was a decent hike and produced some really nice views of the mountains to the right. Eventually, we hit another bottleneck just below the fort, and we all milled like cows on the slaughter train. Eventually I snuck my way through. I was the first person from our department, so I sat down and waited for the rest of the party.

Again, because of our tardiness, all the good spaces were taken, and the first spot out intrepid student leader staked out for us was right next to the honey-pot style toilets!

Cooler heads (and ones with noses) prevailed, as some other keen-eyed student noted a large group already heading out (this is how late we were) and we slipped into that spot rather quickish.

our student leaders

Then it was lunch, drinking, and the traditional games including one something like "Duck, Duck, Goose," which was rendered quite dangerous by low branches, rocky terrain, and a coating of fallen leaves that obscured the real ground. Still, lots of fun.

our ferocious lunch


our drinking

Then, a walk down the other side which was painfully steep.

At the bottom our tardiness caught up with us again, as the last Dongguk shuttle bus, which Yvonne's more timely department had caught, was long gone. So we had to hike out an additional mile or two to a bus stop.

My students tried to get me to take a taxi, but there was no way I was wimping out at that point. Then it was bus and subway back to Chungmuro, for the traditional post traffic-jam/horrific descent beer and chicken extravaganza.

toasting the hike

A great day, and our first mountain down.