Out of My League

Koreans take hiking to a whole other level. Seriously.

At home, if I wanted to go on a hike, I'd put on a pair of shorts, hiking shoes, sunglasses, and a t-shirt. I'd bring some water, an apple or orange and, if I'm feeling particularly saucy, a granola bar. Then I'd hike up to wherever, have my snack, enjoy the view, and hike back down. Easy-peasy.

The people we've encountered hiking in South Korea go all out. In everything. Take their trails. So many of the trails here go straight up, up, up. No switchbacks, I mean it. Parts of them are pretty steep. On our way to Manjangdae, in Songnisan National Park, the last 2km were not only steep (and up), but consisted almost entirely of stairs. STAIRS. How many of you want to climb up 2km of stairs?

The Korean hiker dresses the part. Almost everyone wears a well-put-together outfit of mesh cap, bandana, wicking pants, long-sleeved wicking shirt with a zip-up vest, hiking boots, and sunglasses. Half of them also use trekking poles, which means having a pair of wicking fingerless gloves. Hikers are mainly adults. We saw a lot of senior citizens, since we went out during the weekdays.

Lastly, Korean hikers do not mess around with their snacks. Once at their goal, they're either going to eat at one of the many small restaurants along the trail (like we saw on our hike around Sangdang Sanseong fortress) or munch on the wonderful foods they packed in. On top of Manjangdae peak, I saw one family settle down with sushi rolls and instant coffee (ie: carrying up a thermos of hot water) and another bring out bottles of soju for everyone. We chose to go back down the trail and eat at a restaurant when a couple of hikers, Miha and Kyam, invited us to share their lunch with them. They had brought an orange, cherry tomatoes, hard boiled eggs, greens cooked with sesame, watermelon, sushi rolls, a thermos of hot rice and beans sprouts, a smoked fish and red sauce dish, some sort of thick noodle in red sauce, squares of seaweed (for wrapping things in), kim chee, and, of course, soju.

It was a tasty meal and they really enjoyed sharing it with us. Her English was a little better than his, but there was a lot of charades, pointing, smiling and giggling on all sides. Miha would also use her cell phone for looking up English words. Once we learned that they lived in Cheongju and we were staying in Cheongju (we took a 1.5 hr bus ride to the park), they offered to give us a ride back in their car. We said yes and we all hiked down together. Before getting in the car, Miha bought us more snacks and drinks to try.

We were looking forward to a nice day in the outdoors, and found so much more. Thank you Miha and Kyam.