The Deception of Korean Geography

In a country so populous, with 70% of its land taken up by mountains, its hard to escape the presence of others even when you head to the hills. This past weekend, botched plans to leave Hongseong made me explore a nearby mountain that I'd been scouring since I got here for a trail-head into the slopes. With the help of my host-mother I finally found it and did a one hour trek up a windy-paved path past primitive badmitten courts and rows of muscadine grape vines. Those that want the view at the top but not the slightly higher pulse can drive their car up a path just a bit bigger than the car, dodging hikers while being able to admire gorgeous views of an ocean bay and mountains from the asphalt switchbacks. With streams of cars and hikers I tried to find what I always took for granted about hikes: remoteness from others, a challenging terrain, an absence of more imposing human-made structures, and a panoramic view of the peak. Trying to find these things in random breaks in the foilage got me lost in family tomb plots and also led me to a beer bottle mosaic near a "medicine water" spring. Still totally great finds and well worth the trip. I'm starting to realize though, that whereas many mountains in the United States still stand as signs of remoteness (or maybe this is some unrealistic assumption of mine???), they've been transformed here from places to escape tax collectors and take up hermitage to recreational equipment that you can enjoy your weekend in.
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It seems like everyone over the age of 30 here hikes. Korea's doing for mountain climbing what America did for yoga when power yoga took off. Courses are short and usually have refreshment stands along the way (during a hike in Songnisan National Park in July we passed 7+ restaurants on our assent). As a university student in Chuncheon told me, "Old men with business jobs are the ones who go hiking because they never get any other exercise. Young people don't go hiking." Hikers are keen on gear too: dry-fit clothes, expensive boots, and tiny backpacks. My town -- a rural town by Korean standards -- has at least 5 hiking gear shops.

Even with my expectations, the hike was great. The delivery boy from a gimbap restaurant next to my house beat me to the top on his dirtbike with his girlfriend on the back, brushing her cheek against his ponytail. The top had a shamanist shrine. That night my family drove to the top so that everyone could see the view that night and we almost walked in on people carrying out a ceremony of chants and dancing at the shrine. We freaked each other out by pretending their were ghosts on the hillsides and then scrambled back into the car.