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.

Tiger Leaping Gorge

I know this might seem a little out of order, but I'm doing a little retrospective of my Chinese trip, since I didn't have the bandwidth to blog about it in China.

Tiger Leaping Gorge! The place is as cool as the name sounds. The Yangtze River flows at the base of the gorge, which is the third longest in the world and spills out eventually into the Pacific at Shanghai. According to local legend, there's a rock in the gorge which sticks out over the river, and long long ago a tiger once jumped from one side of the river to the other, from that rock. Didn't see the rock, but I see a whole lot of other breathtaking sights.



Right after I started the hike I was closely followed by a man on a ... is that a mule? I think so. He didn't say much, and my little attempts at Chinese conversation were just met with a smile. It was creepy how close he stayed behind me, stopping when I stopped, but talking with other travelers I discovered that these locals are eager to step in and offer assistance to weary / injured travelers on the trail (for a price of course). They're not highway robbers.



Huzzah! Note to self - leave the heavy bag at the hostel at the trail head next time, and take a day pack.



I met up with a couple of Koreans on the trail who were great company (and I got to practice my Korean!) They told me w/ some guilt about how they lied to their children and left them w/ grandparents before coming on this trip to China. Hey, you gotta get out of the house somehow! Here they are looking out on the gorge.



This was the place I stayed at, close to the half-way point on the trek - 茶馬 "cha-ma" meaning "tea horse". It was amazing, I've never stayed at a guest house on a mountain before. We all ate together - the trekkers who crashed there that night - and I felt bad that I was feeling so sick, it was hard to leave the good conversation.



Sunrise at the guesthouse was glorious but late (maybe 9:00?), since the sun was behind the mountains.



Found a Tibetan temple close to the end of the hike (Tiger Leaping Gorge is fairly close to the Tibetan border and there are a lot of ethnic Tibetans in the area).





Definitely one of the highlights of my trip, maybe someday I can go back when I'm in better health!

Halla-san!

Last Monday was a beautiful sunny day, so we thought we'd take the time I had between classes (9-4, split shifts like whoa!) to go up Mount Halla, the volcanic center of Jeju Island. We took the Yeongsil course, which is the shortest and perhaps the most beautiful. Here's the Yeongsil rocks between trees:



The path up the mountain (and you can almost see the ocean in the distance...):



There were ice crystals on the vegetation as we climbed to higher altitudes:



Me at the top! This course doesn't lead up to the very top of the mountain (it's closed off), so this is as far as you can get. And there's the peak, just taunting you:



Oh - and here's one from last week, frog's eggs and tiny tadpoles in a local stream. I've never seen anything like this before!



Even though these past couple of weeks have been great, I've been missing home a lot lately. Thinking of you guys!

I'm on vacation! Well, sort of. I'm teaching only one class per day (kids' class at 4) for the next two weeks. Any recommendations on how I should fill my time? I've been doing a lot of hiking lately, and I plan to do more in the mornings this week. Below is from a hike I took last Friday to the oreum (volcanic hill / mountain) right behind the University. It was really hard to find the path up the mountain, I had to go through an army target shooting field. You can actually see my dormitory, its one of the buildings with a reddish roof in the middle to the far right. In the distance you can see Jeju City, on the sea.



The view of Mount Halla from the same oreum.



Butterflies were everywhere.



Easily the winner of this year's "slug on a mushroom" picture award:



Hillside gravesites.



On another oreum, tall grass and Mount Halla: