Songnisan National Park

My friend Jackie organized a hiking trip at Songnisan National Park in the central part of Korea this weekend. I took the train about an hour south of where I live to Cheonan and met up with everyone. From there we took two buses to the national park. We visited the big buddha at Beopjusa and then hiked halfway up the mountain to the hut where we'd stay the night. Half of our group of 10 stayed at the hut Saturday afternoon and the other half of us hiked up to a small hermitage near the ridge. From there, Scott, Jackie, and I continued to the highest peak in the park--Cheonhwangbong--at 1058 meters. Jackie and Scott are pretty serious hikers and left me in the dust when I stopped to take a couple pictures, but I eventually caught up with them.

Then we headed back to the hut for some excellent Korean food for dinner--and a lot of it. We sat there around the table next to the wood-burning stove and talked and laughed for a few hours. Then we called it a night. Most of us got up early Sunday morning, due to some extreme snoring in one of the rooms were were sharing. We gathered around the table and ate and talked some more. Jackie, Scott, and I had talked about hiking to another peak on Sunday, but a combination of laziness, tiredness, and sore muscles kept us sitting until it was time to hike back down the mountain to catch the bus home again.

All in all, it was an excellent weekend. Mega kudos to Jackie for pulling it all together. While she was the only person there whom I knew before this weekend, I feel like I left with several new friends. The weather was beautiful, and the views from the ridge were amazing.

On our walk through the town to the national park, we passed this man and his performing monkey. I felt sorry for the monkey.The 33-meter bronze buddha at Beopjusa:At the mountain hut--EMH talking and everyone looking annoyed. Oh no!From the hermitage, almost at the ridgeline:The hike to Cheonhwangbong at 1058 meters:Dinner:Representing 5 countries, here is the whole crowd, minus 1 who got an early start down the mountain:On our way back down:While we were waiting for the bus, there was this old man blowing on a single-note pipe whistle like a little kid. He just kept blowing and blowing on it, making a lot of annoying noise but nothing even close to a tune. I was amused.