Seoraksan

This past weekend Mike and I decided to do something we've meant to do for years and that's to go hiking on Seoraksan. We managed to catch some of the fall colours before they finished changing and it was beautiful. We had intended to take a cable car up, but after realizing there was a few hour wait decided to hike to Ulsanbawi.

The first leg of the trip was pretty easy. And pretty. We got to another Bawi which is a large rock that apparently you can shake, but can't roll over. We didn't try. It's probably a good thing because with my luck it would roll down the hill destroying everything in it's path. Anyways, we decided to continue on, and it got considerably harder. This is where the stairs began. I remember reading about a trail on Seoraksan that had a lot of stairs. I guess this was it. All told there were 888 almost completely vertical steps. That's not too bad, except that at points the stairs would end and you'd have to climb ladders, or up a rope, or just on your hands and knees over rock. This is all ok, except that you're trying to go up when others are trying to go down, and the whole way you're dealing with really strong winds. Eventually, when I did reach the top (and yes, it was beautiful) I stayed for about five minutes before just wanting to get down. I don't have a fear of heights exactly, but I don't like being on a very small area, really high up with nothing stopping the wind from knocking me over. I don't like that at all.

I'm proud of myself for making the climb, though. Yesterday was spent much more relaxingly. We plan to go back to Seoraksan, but next time to check out a waterfall. Yay for fall!