The First Outdoor Experience

I celebrated Halloween with a first taste of the Korean outdoors as I started November’s first Saturday very early-- from a Korean colleague’s car hitch at seven in the morning on our way to Dobong San (san=mountain), found in Bukhan-san National Park in North Eastern Seoul.

It is a yearly company activity that we are participating in this year. A day before the hiking, I got myself a socks-towel-gloves sport set, though I personally have bought some personal gear to protect me from the already cold weather here.

The Dobong Mountain forms the North Eastern part of the Bukhan-san National Park in Seoul, and is a very popular mountain choice for hiking. It’s pretty amazing to know that a mountain can actually be found in a city like Seoul. I mean, you won’t see a mountain in Manila, as the same capital city, except I guess for the fake molds in Nayong Pilipino. Tee hee.

Hiking seems to be a very common sport in South Korea, which is not really surprising given their geographic profile and climate. At the foot of the mountain, there line up a lot of mountain gear shops, complete from gloves to dri-fit shirts to very thick jackets, and even those canes, which a colleague said are only for the older people, reason why he is not seen holding one. Haha. Koreans have a thing about age and insisting that they still are aged younger than what the numbers tell.

And speaking of the old, I am equally amazed to notice that most of the weekend mountain hiking participants apart from our own pack is the Korean elderly. Very active older generation they have here, I must say, that I suddenly thought of my own troop of elderly back in the Philippines, who usually just stay at home and sweep the floors or do a lot of cross stitching under the roof.

On our way following the trail, I remember being reminded to keep my pace because I was walking too fast, and being told not to run because I might slide and hurt myself. Haha. Signs of my giggly genes.

There were a number of temples on the way to the peak, which very much speaks of the culture and religion of the country. And well, the way to the top was indeed a very rocky one, with a couple of difficult rock obstacles where I needed both a rope and a colleague’s hands for support. The two-colored trees brought by the autumn season also did not go unnoticed, being my first time to experience a four-season climate. The mountain generally had a yellow-green hue cover from the leaves of the trees.

The whole hike took two hours of walking and hugging the big rocks (which a superior said should be called ‘PAWI’) on the way up, and another two hours going back down. Here are some pictures from the peak, weeeeeeh!



I sure have aching legs now. But it is the great outdoor experience that an actively gene-d individual like me clamor for. As what a lady colleague has also told me in a short chat during the hike, "It's a great place to do some deep thinking."
Hmmmmm.