Hiking Seoraksan
My friend and I had been searching for a good hike to go on together, and we stumbled across WINK Travels on Facebook. They provide tours to certain places around Korea. For a fee, they will transport people to the locations and book the lodgings. Fall is here, so we wanted to admire the fall colors from the mountains. WINK Tours was offering a tour to Seoraksan, so we signed up!
Seoraksan is a mountain near Sokcho that is located in Gangwon-do; the province to the east of Seoul. It is famous for the autumn colors.
I returned from work on Friday, changed into my hiking clothes, and then took the bus up to the Seoul Express Bus Terminal. My friend and I ate dinner at Shake Shack while we were waiting. The WINK bus was coming to pick us up at midnight. We spend several hours just chilling at the rest area in the bus terminal stretching our legs, watching YouTube, and drinking soda.
The ride to Seoraksan was relatively peaceful. I didn’t sleep much, so I was a little tired. We arrived at our destination a little before 3 AM. We ate some snacks and waited around a bit. There were quite a lot of people there waiting, however we were told that this is not a lot compared to non-Covid times. Apparently, it is popular to hike in the dark and see the sunrise from the top of the mountain. At 3 AM, we started the hike. For quite a while it was just us filing in line up the mountain with only the light of our headlamps to guide us safely up the trail. As we ascended, there was more and more space to move and hike up at our own pace. We were able to see the amazing sunrise and got an amazing view of the mountains and ocean once we reached the top.
I’m not going to lie, this hike was really tough. It tested my limits. When we reached the top, I thought we only had a couple more hours before we reached the end… how wrong I was. By the end, my legs were in so much pain that it was almost better to not stop and rest, because my legs would start to go stiff. It was amazing to see all the older people leaping and almost running down the trails with their hiking sticks. It put us, younger people, to shame how fit and unbothered they seemed. My friend and I were not in shape for this hike… we half-joked that we needed to be air-lifted off the mountain. It was unbelievably challenging and I was so glad when we finally came to the end. It had taken us fourteen hours to complete. We arrived at the mountain in the dark, and left the mountain in the dark. Along with two other girls, we grabbed a hearty dinner at one of the restaurants at the bottom of the mountain. We took a cab to our lodgings and promptly passed out.
The next morning, I could barely move… it’s like that day after working out hard after not exercising for ages. We had a delicious breakfast that was complimentary with our stay. After breakfast, we walked over to Naksan Beach to soak in the sun and just relax in the sand. The water was so blue and it was nice to not have to move. Later that day, we packed our bags and headed back to Seoul.
The hike was more difficult than I anticipated, but I loved that I was able to see some stunning views. I will definitely try to get fit so I can go on some more hikes.