Jeju-do Vacation, Day Two

Today I hiked up Hallasan. I woke up early, around 5 AM, and took a bus to the beginning of the Seongpanak course. Because the mountain is so big, and the only mode of transportation is by foot, the park rangers won’t allow hikers on the trail after 9:30 AM. It wasn’t quite 7 AM when I got there, so I had plenty of time. It was just starting to get light outside. Before starting on the trail, hikers have to check in at the ranger station. The ranger asked me a couple questions—was I hiking alone, did I have food and an adequate amount of water, did I have an eye exam?

Eye exam? Um no, but my vision is better than 20/20 with my glasses.

He went on to tell me that the trail is very dangerous and that I must have an eye exam, or I can’t go. He pointed to the building next to the ranger station and told me I could get an eye exam there. The building had bathrooms, a small restaurant, and a little store selling water, snacks, and a few hiking supplies. Quite confident in my ability to get at least an acceptable score on an eye exam, with or without my glasses, I walked inside and told the man behind the counter of the little shop that I need an eye exam.

“Eye exam, okay, 7,000 won,” he said and fiddled behind the counter.

I handed him the money (about $7), and he handed me back a small, heavy black bag. Huh? Strangest eye exam I’ve ever had, I thought. I opened the bag, and inside was a pair of ice picks that you strap to your boots so that you don’t slip on snowy and icy trails. (Dad says they’re called “crampons” which makes me giggle. Who came up with that name?)

I realized that what I heard as “eye ex-” was really “ice” but I can’t figure out what the rest of the word is. Oh well. I walked back to the ranger station, showed the ranger my little black bag, and said “Eye exam issoyo.” (“I have eye exam.”) He waved me through, and I began my hike up the trail.

It was shortly after sunrise, not quite 7 AM, and there was a gentle light on the trees and trail. There were several other hikers, mostly in small groups—all headed up because it was far too early for anyone to be going down. The path was made of big lava rocks, reinforced with timber, and it was uneven, so while the incline was gradual, it was still difficult to walk up it. Walking on the lava rocks reminded me of childhood days in Hawaii, and I wished that my family had been there with me.

The path became snowy and ice covered at about the ⅔ point, and I was glad to have my “eye exam” with me. I wished I had my hiking stick, but I didn’t think they’d let me carry it on the airplane, so I had left it at home. Fortunately, there were ropes along the side of the trail. I am not the person in the foreground of this photo, but I was wearing similar clothes that day--navy blue shirt, brown hiking pants, boots--funny. I wasn't carrying so much stuff, though.I made it to the ¾ point in about 3 hours. The trail was pretty gradual at that point. (All the dry bushes along the trail are magenta azaleas. It must be brilliant in spring.)If you don't leave the ¾ point by 12:30 PM, they don’t let you continue to the summit.I took a brief break for some food and water and continued on my way. The sign said it was another hour and a half walk to the top.I made it in an hour exactly, but it was a difficult and steep climb in some places. The trail was covered with ice and snow most the way and would have been near impossible without my “eye exam.” The parts of the trail that weren’t covered in white had perilous, unavoidable, and sometimes invisible patches of black ice or large lava rocks.Near the top, the snow on the trail decreased, and rather than a trail, there was a much more manageable, though steep wooden staircase to the summit.I made it to the summit and the end of the 9.6 km trail a little after 11 AM.There was an almost 360° view of the island, though clouds obscured part of the view. The most striking scene was looking down into the snow-filled bowl and ice-covered lake inside the crater.There were several people up there when I arrived, but I was ahead of the majority of the crowds, and it was quite peaceful at the top. Looking back on it now, it’s amazing to think that at that moment, no one in the entire country was higher than I was—except for maybe someone else at the summit who was taller than I am. I didn’t pay attention.

I stayed at the top for about 45 minutes, looking out over the crater, the rest of the island, and looking down on the clouds obscuring some of the island from my view. More people started showing up. I was surprised that there were very few women at the summit—maybe only one out of every four or five people.

I decided to take the Gwaneumsa course, a different route down the mountain. Here I am, a la the scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz, where my two trails meet. Seongpanak on the right side of the picture is the way I came up--up the east side of Hallasan. Gwaneumsa on the left side of the picture is the way I went down--down the north side of Hallasan.I headed down at the same time as two other solo hikers. The top of the trail was really steep and slick, so we were going very slowly and got talking as we went. Both men were about in their 40s. One was also climbing Hallasan for the first time. The other had apparently climbed it several times and knew a lot about it. Mr. Lee, who was climbing it for the first time, spoke a reasonable amount of English. The other man didn’t seem to, so Mr. Lee translated what he was saying about the mountain for me. The three of us walked about ⅓ of the way down the mountain together. Then the other man decided he wanted to walk a little faster and left when Mr. Lee and I stopped at a shelter for a water break.

The Gwaneumsa Course was much steeper and slicker than the Seongpanak Course I had taken up the mountain, and as is often the case, the walk downhill was much more difficult and demanding than the walk uphill. I slipped a couple times but was able to regain my balance before falling. Mr. Lee took a couple spills, though. Ouch.My favorite hat, a present from Aunt Mary Ellen, almost met its death on this trail. I would have cried!Let's try this again . . .
Another pretty shot of the opposite side of the valley we were walking down. Apparently this valley has an important legend or something to it. I wish I could tell you more.
I ended up walking the whole way down with Mr. Lee. Like Mi-jin and In-shil yesterday, he was eager to practice English, and I really enjoyed the conversation and company. His wife and two sons live in the city of Pusan in the southeastern part of the Korean peninsula, but he’s a chemist in a paint company in Seoul in the northwestern part of the peninsula, so he’s a long-distance commuter, living in Seoul during the week and Pusan on the weekends. He enjoyed telling me about Korean history, culture, politics, language, and even some folktales about Hallasan.

It took us about 4 hours to walk the 8.7 km to the bottom of the trail.From there it was another 4 km to the bus stop. We stopped briefly at a small temple at the base of the trail. The entrance had rows of lava rock Buddha statues lining the walkway.We also stopped at one of Jeju-do’s “mysterious roads,” on which a car in neutral appears to roll uphill. As we walked along the mysterious road, several cars were there trying it out. I have to admit, it was an awfully convincing illusion. Even when I got down to eye-level with the road, the cars looked for all the world like they were rolling uphill on their own. That's Mr. Lee on the right side of the photo. Unfortunately, it's the only picture I have of him, but it's kind of funny because that's pretty much the view I had of him the whole way down the mountain. He walked ahead of me and set the pace, so I only occasionally caught glimpses of the side of his head!The rock says Shinbiui-doro--Mysterious Road.Mr. Lee had to take the bus back to Jeju City in the north to catch a plane back home, and I had to take the bus back to Seogwipo City in the south, where I had left my things in my motel room. He helped me read the bus schedule to make sure I was in the right place, which made me laugh because we were at the only bus stop in the middle of nowhere, and only one bus stops there, but it was still very thoughtful of him to make sure I knew where I was going. Then he crossed the street. Five minutes later, his bus came, and in a minute or two, mine came, and after spending the day walking together, we were headed in opposite directions across this little island.

When I got on the bus, I began to feel each muscle in my body—my calves, thighs, abdomen, lower back, shoulders, neck, even my butt! I took a long, hot shower when I got back to my motel room. It was 7 PM, and I really just wanted to go to sleep, but I was very hungry after my long hike, so I walked to a nearby restaurant for dinner and to record these thoughts about today. I’m going straight to bed when I get back to the motel and hope to be sound asleep by 8:30. Tomorrow I will sleep in, do a little sightseeing around Seogwipo City, and then catch a bus to the tiny village of Seongsan-ri in the northeast corner of Jeju-do.The scale on the map is a little off. The roads for the bus routes should be a little farther east. In total, I hiked about 22 km today.