Katie vs. Bukhansan

My co-teacher Faith has for weeks been excited for me to her friend Barbara who teaches at Indian Head International school just north of here. Apparently Barbara is a pretty avid hiker, so my opportunity to meet her came this last weekend when Faith invited me to hike 8 of the 12 fortress gates of Bukhansan. Richy decided that he preferred to spend his Saturday engaged in more leisurely pursuits.

I got up on Saturday at my usual weekday wake up time of 7:00am, dressed, ate breakfast, and took the 15 minute walk to Suyu station. There, I saw a group of older Korean men greeting each other, dressed in typical Korean hiking fashion. I stood there awkwardly as we stared at each other, wondering whether we were in the same hiking party, but too reserved to ask. When Faith showed up it turned out these were the other teachers we were hiking with, from a nearby high school. Here, I'll introduce them by their nicknames: Kenny Rogers (so called because he sings Kenny Rogers songs well at Norebang, and insisted on singing a few as we were hiking), a math teacher who seemed to speak the least English of the group, and made a point to brag about his son who lives and works in the US. When I asked him what his son did for work he replied, "Server. Do you know DQ? He serve ice cream there. And study English." The official leader of our group (although I am not sure why) was a social studies teacher by the nickname of Kisaro (again, a song-related name of some sort) who spoke good English and was very kind to everyone throughout the trip. Finally, the official photographer of our group was Andy who has apparently traveled and hiked extensively throughout the world, including Mt. Rainier and Glacier National Park, so he was very eager to talk to me about hiking in the Pacific Northwest.

I was also soon introduced to Barbara, a woman in her mid to late 60's who has taught all over the world, hikes like a teenager and who seems like an altogether cool person, originally from Colorado. I was also introduced to Annie, a 27-year-old teacher at a nearby private elementary school who lives with her husband (also a teacher) in the dorms at Indian Head school (that's how she knows Barbara).

We all caught a bus from Suyu to the trail head which took about 30 minutes. It also took us through one of the quaintest areas of Seoul that I have seen so far: ornate copper light posts, cute little shops in old traditional buildings, and bright fall colors all around. Right at the trail head was an expensive hotel boasting a "sky view" restaurant which looked like a miniature, boxy version of the space needle.

The first leg of our hike was long, rocky and steep, but as soon as we reached the first gate of the ancient fortress wall (originally built in 132 AD and modified, extended and rebuilt many times since) the hike leveled out a bit and turned into more of a long walk for a few hours. Kisaro soon led us away from the wall and we found ourselves taking "shortcuts" that took us up and over a series of steep granite peaks. At the fifth gate we sat down and ate a lunch of a various types of rice cakes, persimmon, and homemade wine. Then came the most strenuous part of the journey, where we went all the way up and all the way down three separate peaks, and at some points we were hoisting ourselves up cables and poles much like my first Korean hiking experience.

The last three gates passed anticlimactically and we ended our journey surrounded by tour buses near the grand South gate of the fortress, where tourist shops have set themselves up to specialize in food and hiking gear. Also Annie, Barbara and I ended the hike with new nicknames: Ms. Minnesota, Ms. Colorado, and Ms. Washington. I guess we seem like beauty queens in Korean eyes. We were invited to dinner, but since Barbara is a strict vegetarian who avoids eating in Korean restaurants whenever possible, and since I wanted to get home to have dinner with Richy, we ended up getting a ride home with a fourth male Korean teacher who had apparently decided not to come on the hike in order to help his wife make kimchi. He was introduced to me as Magpie and seemed to speak no English whatsoever, but had a good taste in music as evidenced by what was played on his car radio.

While I enjoyed the 7+ hour hike (we started at 9am and finished at 6pm, but took some breaks along the way), the fact that my thighs feel like they're screaming every time I move two days later makes me hesitant to want to go again anytime soon. Maybe climbing Korean mountains once every other month or so is enough...


By Katie