An unexpected hike

Last week, I went on a run toward a spot on Google Maps where a road disappeared into the foothills of Mudeung Mountain. My plan: go for a quick hike after the run, and if I was too tired to run back to take a taxi.



Here's the very edge of the paved road, disappearing into meadows with burial mounds in the valley.



Since I was planning on running for only about an hour, I didn't think I'd need any water, and I had my wallet just in case. But there were no convenience stores out here, only farms. I almost turned back when I stumbled upon this 약수 (literally medicine water, basically fresh stream water) at a tiny temple, which was just a shack on the side of the road.



Close-up picture of the shrine outside the temple, the red ladle is what you use to drink the water, I just scooped it with my hands right out of the stone bowl. The mat is for your knees as you do the traditional 108 bows.



After drinking I walked up the dirt path you can see in the above pictures to find a hidden lake in the meadow with a bold "NO SWIMMING" sign. I was hot enough that I almost disobeyed, but I ran into some fishermen there so I decided not to. I ended up chatting with them for a little while after asking them how the day's catch was going (not well). One of the fisherman's daughters is a student at Gwangju University where I teach. Drank some beer and ate some snacks with them, and then, properly refreshed, continued on the path up to higher ground.



I could see on my GPS that if I walked for about 30 min or so and cleared the next ridge, I'd be at a bigger lake with another temple and a road back to civilization, so I decided to follow the mountain paths in that direction. As I reached the top of the ridge, caught a glimpse of Mudeung Mountain with some wild flowers.



The white spots in this picture are wild cherry blossom trees in the hillside.



As I came down the other side of the ridge I could see a large lake, dammed on one side. On the bottom left of the picture you can see a cliff, this was a stunning vantage point and a great view of Mudeung Mountain, and the valley below. Wonder why more people don't hike this way? Probably because of the "산입금지" (don't enter the mountain) sign posted near the dam in this valley. In my defense there wasn't a sign on the valley where I came in! ^^



As I hiked back toward the road in the second valley, came across this female Buddha statue at a small temple. Hanna looked at this picture and said 무섭다 - scary!! By this time I really needed another drink of water, but had to walk another 30 minutes on a lonely village road until I found - huzzah! - a tiny convenience store, and a main road where I could flag down a taxi. An hour's run turned into a 3 hour adventure, totally worth it.