By Prior Posting: Chiaksan National Park – Part 1
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After visiting Guryong Temple and completing my ascent to the 1,288 meter summit of Birobong Peak I continued my hike across Chiaksan National Park by hiking towards Sangwonsa Temple:
To reach Sangwonsa I had to cross a high ridge line trail from Birobong Peak to the temple:
As I continued across the high ridge line of this mountain, most of the time the trail was engulfed in thick foliage:
Occasionally the trail would cross a ROK Army helipad that would me to look around a bit:
From this helipad I could still see the summit of Birobong Peak way off in the distance:
I could also see the high peaks I had yet to climb still ahead of me:
With that I was back into the thick foliage again:
I had been hiking now for about a total of five hours it was around noon time when I stopped to take a break at another small clearing. The clearing actually appeared to be an area that people may have been using as a campground because it wasn’t big enough to be a helipad. Anyway the clearing did provide some nice views of Wonju:
A lot of people do not realize this, but Wonju is actually the largest city in all of Gangwon-do with a population of just over 300,000 people. It is actually a pretty nice town that I have spent some time in since one of my wife’s close friends lives there. It is also the location of two small American military bases, Camp Long and Camp Eagle. Camp Long continues to be a site for anti-US protests due to a sensationalized oil leak complaint. If anyone ever wants to check out these two camps, here are the directions.
Anyway besides having a great view of Wonju I once again had an awesome view of the various peaks of Chiaksan that just never seemed to end:
Behind me I could see how far I had come by how small Birobong Peak was becoming in the distance:
By zooming in with my camera I could just make out the three large stone cairns that top the mountain:
After resting for about 15 minutes and getting a quick bite to eat, I once again proceeded down the trail and now it was becoming harder and harder to follow apparently because so few people hike on this portion of the trail:
In this southern area of the ridge line it was also becoming more rockier with more rock outcroppings to walk around and climb over:
As I was walking down the portion of the trail that was thickly forested I began to hear the brush rumbling around me. I thought a group of people were coming out of the brush on to the trail when suddenly three large goats ran out on to the trail. They looked about as surprised to see me as I was them. They immediately turned away from me and quickly hopped down the mountain. However, not before I was able to pull out my camera and take this picture of one of the goats taking one last look at me before galloping down the side of the mountain:
A short while after my encounter with the goats I came to yet another clearing on the top of the ridge line. From this picture you can see just how far I had walked considering that is Birobong Peak way off in the distance:
Ahead of me I could only see one more peak that composed the Chiaksan ridge line:
However this peak I had just ascended would be my last one because the trail began to descend slightly towards where Sangwonsa Temple is located:
As I neared the temple I walked right by what is quite possibly the most unusual rock formation on the whole mountain. For some reason this piece of rock sticks out from the hill side like a hitchhikers thumb:
From this rock formation Sangwonsa Temple was less then a kilometer away, which I was quite happy with because I planned to take a well needed rest at the temple and refill my Camelbak, which was by now nearly empty:
Next Posting: Sangwonsa Temple
1:15 pm on June 25th, 2009 1
That's classic – and unusual in Korea.
The mountains around Wonju reminded me of the area where I grew up in North Georgia. The Korean mts were more rugged but it had a similar look overall.
Wonju was a good place in the mid-1990s to get to know Korea if that was what you came for. It had about 250,000 people but was considered "the country" by Koreans. There were probably a little more than a dozen ESL instructors at the time. Less when I first arrived. For about half my time there, you didn't run into other Western expats most days when walking the streets.
I didn't run into many soldiers either. Every once in awhile, I'd see some family at the downtown market shopping. My hakwon was right there. But the market wasn't really that good for deals or special items. I saw a soldier or two occasionally at one of the downtown bars, but in general, it seemed that the people from the two small US camps would do like the few ESLers when it came to night life or heavy duty shopping: they'd wait for the weekends and head to Seoul…
There were a few universities and colleges in the area as well and that brought in a fair amount of young Koreans.
The city itself is a historic one in Korea going back a very long way. It was also the capital of the province for a very long time until I think Park Chung Hee changed it.
I also seem to remember that the person who briefly became president after Park's assassination was from Wonju before he was shoved out by Chun.
I remember my adult students in Wonju didn't like the guy much – they said he might have been OK as a person but was very weak as a leader and disgraced the country.
I didn't know much about him, but I thought maybe he played his cards about as well as he could — basically choosing to stay alive when that was about the only option he had —- and I said I couldn't fault the man for that. I'd have likely chosen the same course as would most people, I figure…