climbing the mountain

So this is how we began our hike - with thousands of other hikers. Crazy that when you go out into nature you are joined by such a crowd. Life in a big city I suppose.
Here is Netta and her tongue at the pond we passed on our way in. It was lovely with flowers and fish.
Here is John with Olive at the pond. John carried Olive the whole way and it wasn't an easy hike - at one point a Korean woman voiced her awe at John being strong enough to carry her the whole way.


Our cute hikers!
John and Netta next to the stream that we followed up the mountain. It was amazing - Netta said it reminded her of Silver Lake. There were lots of waterfalls and beautiful rocks.
Here is more of the stream!
This place is so close to our house - just a five minute bus ride from our house. The bus was packed with hikers in their Korean hiking gear. Required equipment Makgeolli (Korean rice wine), walking sticks, sitting pads, snacks, hats and special hiking clothes. There is a Family Mart ( like a 7-eleven) at the base of the trail and it was packed - there was barely room to move around.


John putting Olive down so we could have lunch in this lovely spot. We had kimbap (Korean style sushi) and eggs - lots of eggs. We were able to color eggs here thanks to Dahl and Pauline as they sent us a coloring kit. I was worried that the brown eggs we get here would not color well but with Netta at the helm the eggs came out beautiful.
More shots of the falls.
While we were having lunch these guys stopped on the falls took off their shoes and gave their feet a cool soak. Seemed like a good idea - the water was pretty cold though. We didn't indulge.
Flowers and stacked rocks.
Netta at the waterfall.
Checking out the stacked rocks.
Here is a lantern. At some point on the trail we began to see these lanterns. We learned last week that they are hung around the time of Buddha's birthday which is coming up in early May. Some people pay some money (about $30 at this temple - some temples are more expensive) and have their wishes hung from the lanterns during this season. They are really lovely with the flowers.
The girls on a rock.
Blossoms with some amazing stacks of rocks.
I like the shadows here.
So here we are at the temple at the top. We were pretty excited to get there as the last bit of the climb was pretty steep. Netta and John raced up the steps at the end to make the final stretch more fun - I just trudged up. We were all happy and headed straight for the bathrooms - there is not a lot of opportunity to pee in the woods when you are accompanied by such a large crowd.
Close-ups of the lanterns. Olive was happy as she was finally able to get down and walk -she needed to lightly tap each lantern she passed and make it swing.
Here is a shrine with strings of lanterns hung above it.
Looking up into the lanterns.
The temple.
Baby buddhas - some showing their tushes, some their belly buttons - cute huh?
More temple.
View - the photo just doesn't do it justice - it was so cool to see places we have been from so high up.
Netta and the view.

The lanterns with the temple painting - nice.

The trooper Netta. This is on the way home - the hike dragged on a bit when we took a different route home. She had a hard time for awhile but then we gave her this miraculous Korean energy bar. I think it may be made of honey and red beans. It worked like a charm.
I liked this tree root on this rock.
It got pretty windy up there, especially on the way home.
This picture is out of order but a nice shot of all of us near the amazing hermitage on the cliff. It was built in 677. Around the corner from this spot there was a guy with a big poster of this backdrop selling photos of people with it. Kind of strange as the actual shot was just a few feet away...

There was also a lot of venders up on the mountain. Netta got an ice cream when we were near the top and it was so cold it stuck to her tongue. Amazing that people can carry so much weight on their back. All that just to sell maybe $30 worth of ice cream in a day - I guess the work environment is beautiful. They jack the price up a little but not too much really.

So we made it home. We trudged into civilization on the Seoul National University campus with one daughter wet with pee, one with aching feet and two drained parents. We quickly hailed a cab to get home. Our friend Mac helped us order chinese food and had it delivered, that was a good meal.

We were all a bit sore the next day (except Olive) and we're still feeling it today. But it was worth it.....