Hiking Mt. Bukhan

As the weather's getting nicer (it's been hovering in the 40's and 50's the last two weeks!!), Jeff and I have decided to start hiking.  Can't think of a better way to take advantage of the spring, enjoy the outdoors, and get our muscles moving. 

Korea has many accessible small to mid-size mountains, and we found the perfect one just two hours from home!  Given that the snow is still melting, it was a bit muddy at times, but I'm proud to say that I fared much better this time around than when we tried to descend the ski resort path. 

We looked online to find which subway station to get off at, and then literally just followed the line of middle-aged hikers in their neon hiking gear to find the trail.  Hiking is an extremely popular pass-time for older Koreans, so you're pretty much guaranteed to find a mountain if you just follow behind a group with hiking poles and The Red Face (not to be confused with The North Face) hiking gear.  

We attempted to take a picture of a sign with the park map, as there were no paper maps to be found anywhere, but it was so crowded with Korean hands pointing this way and that, that it wasn't very helpful to us.  So... Plan B.

 
It was quite simple, really:

1. Walk in an uphill direction. 
2. Eat lunch at some point.
3. Make it back down before dark.

And it worked beautifully!

We managed to hit a couple peaks (like I said, they're not overly large mountains), traversed up a cool rock formation, and ended our hike at a Buddhist temple.  To be fair, we also encountered some chickens!  Not timid creatures.  They've clearly seen their fair share of hikers. 

Our 2nd time seeing mountain chickens!

A quick picture snuck at the temple.

A quick note about the rock formation:

The trail was narrow.  We were quite high up.  Jeff and I enjoyed a leisurely time resting atop the formation after clambering up to a safe spot.  When we decided to head back down, we had to wait patiently as a whole crew of people blocked the trail on their way up.  The line got a bit stopped-up when a young American military man fearfully (yet, still laughing) clung to the rocks and bellowed, "How am I gonna jump from a helicopter if I can't do this?!  I'm going to have a heart attack, hahaha."  As he crouched and regained confidence, buddies laughing at him all the way, a Korean ajoshee (a man about fifty or so years old) waltzed right past him, skirting the outside of the trail, and sporting a grin that clearly stated it was 'no big deal'.  After being passed up in such a breezy fashion, the military man took a minute to hang his head in a good-natured fashion, and then hastily scrambled up the rest of the rock.  The whole mountaintop had a good laugh.