Hiking On the Trails at Sorak Mountain

This weekend I decided to spend it at Soraksan National Park. I am an avid hiker so I was looking forward to hitting the trails. I really like hiking here in Korea not just because of the scenic mountains but also because I always seem to run into interesting people. This hike would be no different.

I started my day at 0430 in the morning and began hiking towards the summit of Sorak mountain, Daecheong Peak, from the Osaek Hot Springs trail head located in the south of the park and from Daecheong Peak I would head to the Sorak-dong Village to meet up with my wife there. She can’t hike big mountains like this because she has a bad knee. The owner of the hotel I stay at everytime I go to Soraksan, the Hyundai Hotel in Osaek drove me to the trailhead that morning. The owner is really nice guy who runs an older hotel but the rooms are clean and only 25,000 won. Plus every room has a tub which can be filled with Osaek’s famous hotspring water. The owner will drive you to the nearby trailheads and give you hiking recommendations and advice if you ask. So if in Osaek I recommend staying at his place.

The trail to Daecheong Peak had just recently reopened due to the fire danger and the damage to the environment by people leaving litter everywhere. The park authorities have put up banners, signs, and flags everywhere around the park warning people not to smoke, cook, or litter while in the park.

It was really good to see the park trying to do something about the littering and smoking problems in the park because it would be a shame to see this great park end up like the Naksan Park and temple located nearby that received heavy forest fire damage due to probably someone throwing a cigarette butt out of their car.

Soraksan Mountain in the background ringed with clouds.

However, once I proceeded up the trail I found out the awareness campaign has had little effect. About an hour and half into the hike I reached Sorak Falls. At the falls I found evidence that some hikers had camped at the falls the night before even though the trail was supposed to be closed until opening on Saturday morning. They left trash, two soju bottles, and cigarette butts everywhere. I saw one area where you can tell somebody’s batteries died so they threw the old batteries on the ground and then the packaging for the new batteries was tossed right next to it. What lazy pieces of crap would just throw stuff like this on the ground in Korea’s most beautiful park?

Unfortunately many people in Korea do just what these campers did every day in Korea’s parks. This is what frustrates me the most about Koreans. Pack up the trash you take into the park! Don’t leave it on the ground for someone else to pick up! I couldn’t tell you how much trash I have picked up in Korea’s parks but I was on a 15km hike and didn’t have enough room in my bag or time in the day to pick up all the trash laying around like I usually try and do.

The view from Daecheong Peak.

Anyway I proceeded up the trail and an hour and a half later I reached Daecheong Peak which stands at an elevation of 1708 meters and is the third highest mountain in Korea. The view was great, you can see all areas of the park, plus Sokcho, Yangyang, and other areas along the East Coast. There was still some fog covering some areas but all in all a great view.

Marker on top of Soraksan Mountain.

On the top of the mountain I ran into a group of about 15 hikers who were very friendly and offered me some kimbab and oranges to eat with them. They were surprised to see a foreigner especially a GI up here on the mountain. They were even further surprised that I could speak some very basic Korean. These hikers were on a company bonding trip to the park. These types of trips are common in Korea. They were all employees of some pharmaceutical company in Ansan. They ranged in age from the late 20’s to 50’s. What was surprising was that the top manager on this bonding trip was a guy that was only 29 years old and was younger than 2/3 of his employees. This is an odd thing in Korea.

Descending from the summit towards a cabin that hikers can pay to sleep in overnight.

View looking towards the summit with the cabin in the foreground.

The hikers huddled around me and led by the top manager they gave me the usual interogation one receives when first meeting Koreans. How old are you? Are you married? Do you have a baby? Where are you from? How much do you make? Etc. Etc. I then asked the manager what time they left to reach the summit since they beat me here and I saw nobody else hiking up the trail. He told me they camped at the Sorak Falls and headed up from there. Aha! I found my litter bugs! He then said that they were going to camp at another location at the park Saturday night no doubt to litter that area too before heading down the mountain Sunday to go home to Ansan. Then one of the guys in the group threw the orange peels on the ground. I picked them up and put them in a plastic bag I had in my pack. He asked why I was picking up the orange peels. I told them that it is not right to litter a national park. Then I brought up the fact about all the trash at Sorak Falls. They said it was there before they ever got there, but they were clearly embarrassed and soon left. I think it is safe to say I didn’t win in friends in Ansan on this trip but maybe they will think twice before leaving their trash lying around on the mountain that night.

I then proceeded down the peak, but before I left a group of ajummas came up the mountain wearing those huge visors that look like something you would see at a Donald Duck convention. Anyway the wind suddenly picked up and blew their visors off and they went flying off the side of the mountain. I think that is a sign that mother nature doesn’t like those visors either.

Trail descending down the mountain towards the east.

Anyway I went past Dinosaur Ridge down into the beautiful Cheongbuldong Valley. In the valley you begin to see more of your day trippers dressed in their hiking finest. People wearing the funny socks, expensive hiking suits, rucksacks with every accessory imaginable attached to it. One guy I saw had an ice pick! Another guy had snow cleats. There is no snow left on that mountain.

Cheonbuldong Valley in Outer Soraksan National Park.

However, many of the day trippers were very nice and friendly when I stopped at the mountain huts to sit down and drink some water before moving on. Some of them were amazed that I was hiking from Osaek to Sorak-dong in one day with such a small backpack. If I was wearing as much crap as some of those people were I probably couldn’t make it in one day.

Anyway I did meet a really nice ajushi who was about 60 years old. He offered me some tomatoes and we talked for a little while. He gave me the usual interogation and then told me that he was from Pocheon which is a city here in the 2ID area I know well, he was also retired from a semiconductor company, and was taking his grandson who was the over weight teenager with him on a hike of Soraksan. This was the first time he had met a GI before even though he lives in the 2ID area. He always just saw us driving by in our tanks and trucks all the time.

He then asked me if I liked Bush or Clinton better. I told him I liked Bush and he said he liked Clinton. He told me Clinton didn’t want war with North Korea and Bush does. Ironically Clinton was actually prepared to go to war with North Korea in 1994 when Jimmy Carter without White House permission went to Pyongyang and negotiated a settlement that Pyongyang would never live up to but got plenty of free booty anyway.

I told him Bush doesn’t want war in Korea especially with so much of the military tied up in Iraq, but he doesn’t want to give free stuff to Kim Jong Il either. I told him I don’t want to see my tax money going to Kim Jong Il either. If South Korea wants to give him free money that is there choice. He then asked me about the Osan Security Squadron Scandal. I told him that 1LT involved will more than likely go to jail. He thought he should be tried in a Korean court. He was on duty during the offenses so under the SOFA he will be tried in a military court. He didn’t like that so we agreed to disagree.

However, it is embarrassing to have to defend the military here all the time when I get quized by Koreans I meet due to the yearly incident that seems to arise here. 3 years ago was the armored vehicle accident, 2 years ago we had the drunk driving staff sergeant that killed a Korean woman, then last year we had the Shinchon Chain Saw Massacre, and now this year we have the Osan Scandal. Maybe I should start quizing every Korean I see about what they think about the ROK Army’s scandals?

Chosen Era Calligraphy Carved in the Rock at Biseondae.

I hiked a while with him and he moved really fast for being an older ajushi. His grandson started to fall behind. I started to slow down but the ajushi kept going and said his grandson needed to lose weight. We then passed a group of hikers who were having a picnic on a rock in the creek. The ajushi stopped and yelled at them because they were not supposed to picnic because the picnickers leave trash plus they were smoking in the park. I was beginning to really like this guy even if he is a Clinton fan. Maybe there is hope to protect the environment here after all. We reached Biseondae mountain hut and parted from there because he told me his grandson wanted to watch the women there. I’m sure he probably wanted to check them out too.

Biseondae is only a 2km walk from the park entrance so here you have all the Seoul weekenders. The place was packed with Kangnam beauties in high heels and designer dresses with their equally dressed up boyfriends. I couldn’t tell who wore more makeup the girls or the guys. Was I in the wilderness or at the club? We just needed some techno tunes and a dance floor.

I quickly made my way out of there and had a heck of a scare when I nearly stepped on a snake. Yes that is right a snake! Korea does in fact have snakes. It was sitting in the path warming itself in the sun. It was about 10 inches long and a greenish color. I remember hearing before that the small snakes in Korea are poisonous but I don’t know. So I quickly jumped back and skirted that area since I didn’t want to mess with him. I he slithered off before I could unpack my camera. I can’t stand snakes.

Wore out I finally made it to Sorak-dong at about 1PM and linked up with my wife. I covered approximately 15km of mountain trails in 8.5 hours, met lots of people along the way, saw some ugly visors get blown of the mountain, got to see everyone dressed in their expensive hiking outfits, saw my first snake in Korea, plus got to laugh at all the dressed of metrosexuals. If that isn’t a fun day I don’t know what is.

However, I didn’t see any other fellow foreigners the whole day until I got to the Sorak-dong area where there was many foreigners. If you are going to the park the Sorak-dong area provides some nice scenery but it is overly crowded and you should really hike into the back country to get a real appreciation of Soraksan. If you are planning a trip to Soraksan and need some advice let me know. I know the mountain really well and should be able to make you an itinerary to fit your time and fitness level. More foreigners should try to get into the back country it really is worth it.