(by Brian)
As you already know from the video of our experiences on Jeju Island, we hiked up Mt. Halla (known in Korea as 한라산 and pronounced Hallasan; each ‘a’ is pronounced ‘ah,’ and ‘san’ means ‘mountain,’ so ‘Mt. Hallasan’ is redundant). Halla Mountain is the highest mountain in the Republic of Korea (South Korea), and we hiked it. It is only too bad, as you also know from the video, that we did not go all the way to the top. We cannot therefore say that we hiked to the highest point in South Korea.
But it was definitely the highest I’ve ever climbed in my life. We went on a backpacking trip for Wilderness Living class in college, and that lasted a weekend. However, we hiked mostly horizontal distance (with some inclines), not vertical. On Mount Halla, we continuously traveled upward. It was a bit of a work-out.
We had planned a few things earlier in the week. On Tuesday, we decided that on Wednesday we would head to Jeju-si to see a few sites there. On Thursday, then, we would hike Hallasan. We should have consulted the weather report, of course, but that unfortunately did not cross our minds. Things would have been much different.
We woke up around seven in the morning, so that we could perhaps be on the mountain by nine or ten. According to our booklet, the trail we wanted to take (the other nearby trail did not go to the top, and the other trails started on the other side of the mountain) would take seven or eight hours. We wanted to be done before eight at night for obvious reasons (especially given our terrible experience finding a cab in the evening earlier in the week). However, when woke up, we saw fog and mist and clouds. Not a good sign. Of course, this was the earliest we had been up that week, and maybe things would have still been different if we had thought about that.
We checked the weather. Rain. What a bummer, yet hey, we can go back to sleep. So we did. A few hours later the sun was in the sky and Ashley woke up, expressing her wish that we had gone hiking, now that the weather was fair. I wanted to go, too, so I said, ‘Well, we’d have to leave right now.’ So we did. We got ready, headed to the convenience store to put some trail snacks in my bag and to get some water, and hailed a cab to take us to the trailhead. The cab driver was friendly, although he kept asking if we wanted to go to 영실 trail (yeongshil). No. That trailhead was quite far away. The cab fare would have been probably more than twenty-five dollars (equivalent). I think he simply didn’t know about 돈내코 trail (Donnaeko) because, as the booklet told us, it was only recently opened.
He dropped us off at what appeared to be a cemetery. There was a sign that pointed the way to the trailhead, and we arrived just after eleven. We walked up, about ten minutes, to where the park office was located. So we started perhaps 11:15. The sign showed us the breakdown of the trail distances, and I saw something that appeared to say that the trail takes about six and a half or seven hours to complete, round-trip. I don’t know for sure, since one number and its accompanying text was bigger than the other number and its accompanying text.
Well, I thought, we’ll be done around six o’clock, maybe, or a bit after. I had assumed we would take quite a while.
We started walking. First, it was a paved road that led to an orchard. That orchard led to a wooden staircase that was mostly horizontal. Three or four steps and then twenty feet or so of leveled walking before encountering more stairs. Ashley and I remarked that the booklet said this was one of the easier courses, but we didn’t know it’d be this easy! Not a problem with us, though, we just wanted to get to the top.
But of course, after a few minutes, we left that wooden walkway. We came into a forested area, and the real hike began. The slope was gentle for a while, but eventually we had to climb quite a bit. The scenery was great and the forest was quiet. Once in a while we saw one or two people coming back down the mountain. We smiled to them and said hello (in Korean, although some of them greeted us in English). We moved at a quick pace. We wanted to get up and down the mountain before it was too late and cabs became scarce. Once in a while, we saw a sign telling us how many of the seven kilometers we had hiked and how many were remaining (seven kilometers is approximately 4.35 miles, so the round-trip was just under nine miles).
After an hour and a half or two, when we reached the four-kilometer point, I noted the time and thought that we were going pretty good, and we’d make the top before two as long as we didn’t hit a wall. But, of course, just minutes later was when I hit the wall. I slowed tremendously. Ashley frequently had to slow down or wait for me, even though she is usually the one to take a hike leisurely to enjoy the sights more than the actual traveling. That lasted more than half an hour. I constantly would think, ‘Hey, I’m getting my second wind,’ followed by an attempted increase in energy only to resume crawling two minutes later. Finally, we came out above the trees, where everything was pure gorgeousness. The mountain also reduced its slope a bit, and then we really did have our second wind. We also saw more people. Lots of people, all headed back down the mountain. We remarked on how much this mountain reminded us of Lost. After all, that show was filmed in Hawai’i, which is volcanic just like Jeju. It makes sense that the mountains would seem similar.
This path was so inspiring and peaceful.
Some volcanic rocks just chillin' (pun intended) among all that lush greenery.
Above the clouds! Yeah!
Anyway, we finally got to a shack, at the end of the seven kilometers, although there was a wooden staircase that lead to the very top of the mountain (so the seven kilometers was simple the main part of the trail, without the added portion). There, at the shack, a man was waiting. He seemed a bit concerned or confused and asked us a question. I thought he asked us where we came from, so we answered, 돈내코 코스 (Donnaeko Course). He told us ‘no more climbing’ while saying something about three o’clock. We were confused, because it was perhaps twenty minutes after two. Some other climbers were sitting on a wooden platform. It seemed that it would take more than forty minutes to go up (it was a pretty big staircase), and so we wouldn’t have the time to go to the top.
We were sorely depressed. We wanted to see the crater lake at the top. Even without that lake, we had gone probably 90 or 95% up the mountain. So we sat down for a few minutes just to enjoy the view and compose ourselves before heading back down the trail in defeat. After a few minutes, Ashley heard the man speak to some elderly Koreans, who were enjoying what appeared to be a post-hike picnic. She gathered that he asked them to ‘go with’ us when we went back down the mountain. Yes, because we’re foreigners, which means we’re incapable of being safe while hiking.
We didn’t want to be chaperoned, so we left immediately, perhaps ten minutes after reaching the end of the trail. Sure enough, at one point we looked back up the mountain and saw those elderly Koreans going up the wooden staircase. Ashley quickly deduced that the man asked them to ‘go with’ us up to the top. We had been walking for ten minutes at a quick pace already, so going back up wasn’t an option at this point. So now our mood was twice as bad.
I’ll spare you, though, and tell you quickly that just an hour later we were glad. Hiking uphill is tiring, but hiking downhill is painful, while you’re already tired. Each step downward on another rock was another jolt on our wearied bones. And there were a lot of steps. Also, going up is a thrill. We’re going somewhere. Going down is anticlimactic. There isn’t nearly as much excitement in it. You also have to be careful not to go too fast and thus lose your footing. In the end, we were very tired and our legs were sore. Going up to the very top to see the crater lake would have added easily another hour and a half, or two full hours, to our trip.
On the way down we also consoled ourselves, before realizing that we weren’t so depressed after all, by talking about returning to Jeju for a weekend, or even just one night, to hike to the top. Flights to Jeju are really cheap, so it wouldn’t cost that much to do anyway. But now I don’t know if we’ll actually do that. Why?
Here’s the answer. Before we went to Hallasan, I saw a picture of Baekdusan (백두산, the highest mountain on the Korean peninsula, on the border of North Korea and China) and its crater lake, called 천지 or Heaven Lake, shown here:
Isn’t that beautiful? So I imagined 백녹담 (baengnokdam, meaning ‘White Deer Lake’), the crater lake of Hallasan, to be similar. And according to a picture of it I later saw on some promotional flyer for Jeju’s inclusion in the New7Wonders of Nature, it is that pretty. However, that was clearly a promotional photo. Or perhaps an old photo that means to suggest the need to preserve that area. Because after returning to Busan, I saw this photo of the lake:
Just not quite as majestic.
It just wasn’t as pretty as we thought. Of course, in person it might look better. On the other hand, the promotional photo was probably altered to be better than the truth. Who knows for certain? So in the end, we really didn’t suffer that much loss. We had a good hike. It was beautiful regardless of our expectations and their disappointments. Not to mention, when we got to the end of the trail, to the end of the 14 kilometers, it was just before or right at five o’clock. Meaning we did the trail in less than six hours! We are excellent hikers.
[Note: While writing this blog, I found another picture of the lake. Perhaps it is beautiful. It certainly is from this view: link. But don’t worry. It doesn’t bring back my depression. I’m quite happy right now.]
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