Now this was Hiking!!

I had the day off from work today so I went hiking with Migyeong and Changok. We wanted to climb Gwanak mountain and Changok said we should meet at Sadang station and then go from there.

She had no idea where she was going, but we eventually found it. Yes, it was difficult, but we did find the mountain!

After hiking up these two really steep hills we came upon a Buddhist temple where all of these mothers were praying and bowing. It was quite a sight. I had the day off today, and the women were bowing to Buddha today because it's the national testing day here. The day when all of the high school seniors take the college entrance test. It's a BIG deal! They delay flights and everything.

But, anyway, we went hiking. It was INTENSE! We had to use a rope... I almost died at one point and at another I had to become a "Russian spy" in order to scout out possible routes for our descent...

Yes. We got lost. I think at one point we followed a trail... it could have been an animal path...

I think I wasn't confident of where we were going because there weren't many people on the mountain. Changok said that on the weekends it's so crowded you can't even see the mountain. You just see people. But today, there was no one! It was great!

But, these women are such troopers! I couldn't believe they were so willing to just keep going up this incredibly difficult part of the mountain with me. And they did great! At one point, their legs were too short to make it up and I had to pull them, but other than that they kept right up with me! After a while, I realized that Changok is navigationally challenged so I took the lead and they kept laughing at me cause I kept slipping and almost falling.

I had SO MUCH FUN!!!

Ahh. Such a good day!

H.