Friday, October 10, 2014

Baekdu Daegan // day 37 // Sapdangryeong - Daegwanryeong

Baekdudaegan day 37.
Distance: 26.8km (629.2km), time spent: 10:25 (312:06).
Altitude (start / end / highest): 700m / 800m / 1238m.
Weather: Nice in the beginning, then fog, then rain and fog.


It is a cold morning that awaits a sleepy hiker, to a day where the weather gods are making a little bit of fun out of you regarding the water situation. If I shall make something positive out of it, it is that I do not need to spend so much time making breakfast in the morning, and may enjoy it without having to struggle out of my small shelter. The outside of the tent is soaking wet due to the humidity in the air. There are sounds coming from the tented restaurant on the other side of the road, music of a kind, but there are no one there. A hiker passes by in the dark, I only sees a small light looking up at the tent and then disappearing into the woods.

Around Deulmijae, the path is good to walk on, where the trail in addition went through an open landscape.

From Sapdangryeong the trail goes over to Dangmokryeong, but it is not the longest and hardest walk over to that pass, so it is in my mind to continue from there to Daegwanryeong. The weather is still presenting itself from its best side in the beginning of the day, though the sunrise disappeared behind the trees. On a small stretch before and after Deulmijae, I walk across a landscape with an open view to the area around. It is a scenery that has lowered itself a little in comparison with the scenery earlier on the trail; it is not so undulating valleys and ridges in the sight here. However, I should not let that fact fool me; there will be some steep parts today.

Another quirky find on the Baekdudaegan, two anatomic benches up in the mountains.

At a summit at 988m I meet yet another quirky find on the Baekdudaegan, there it is placed two anatomic formed benches. I have to be on the alert not to sit for too long in them, so I do not fall asleep. When I am standing at Seokdubong (995m) the period with a clear sky is over, after having climbed up the long staircase that leads to the summit the clouds are dancing a calm dance on the sky. The hiker that disappeared into the darkness early today is at the summit having a break.

Up to the summit of Seokdubong they has just as well built a long staircase.

Hwaranbong (1069m) is not residing on the trail itself and even though I will not be capable of seeing anything from the peak, I still feel the call to climb up. It is a 130-meter walk. The summit lies heavily weighed down by the clouds, a small stele is breathing heavily in the air and someone has erected a sort of flagpole on some rocks, where a yellow and worn flag are fluttering in the wind. Down towards Dangmokryeong it starts to rain and it is a grey world that awaits me at the chicken neck pass.

At the summit of Hwaranbong, no view in a grey world.

Pleasant is not what the stay here at the pass barely can be called, it is raining continuously, and it is dull and gusty. Even though the jangseung-poles are smiling to me, I do not entirely manage smiling back. Luckily, I find shelter in a structure resembling a bunker. My water plan has not succeeded completely, on the way here it broke down and I drank more water than I should. So I am forced to go hunting for water, not that it is a shortage of water outside now. Drinking water on the other hand, I have to find in one of the nearby farms. It was not rain that I had in mind when I thought that I needed water.

View down towards Dangmokryeong from some outcrops with gnarled trees growing around them.

So I have to make my way out into the rain again along the road, on the first farms and houses I come to there are no one around. After walking further for a little time, I finally get lucky at a small house, where I ask as nice as I can if I can get some mul (water). Outside the house, there is a faucet that I can tap water from. The woman living in the house is giving me a corncob and are asking me out in Korean. I can do nothing more than in a polite way say that I do not speak Korean. After a little while, it becomes apparent on her body language that my audience is over, I have my fill of water and are satisfied. I walk back up to the small and isolated pass where I sit down inside the bunker to eat lunch. Two other hikers has emerged out of the rain and are eating at the sanshingak.

A well-made staircase on the way down to Dangmokryeong, the chicken neck pass.

A small voice inside of me voiced the idea of ending the walk today here and get myself down to a place, but I let the voice disappear in the fog and rain. Cabbage is grown here as well; it is probably grown cabbage everywhere in Korea. Then I just walk, nothing much else to do, let yourself be lost in the grey world with just one goal. To continue moving. On this side of the pass, the benches of tree are changed with benches of metal, which chimes curiously in the rain. Gorupogisan (1238m) is as far up in elevation that I get today.

Grey and depressing weather at Dangmokryeong.

Around a huge cairn (doltap) below Neunggyeongbong (1123moh) it is built a wooded platform, the cairn is called the stone tower of fortune and is almost to be counted for as the Cruz de Ferro of the Baekdudaegan. You place a rock on the cairn when you pass for health and luck. Just before Daegwanryeong, I arrive at the first source of water for a long time, out of the mouth of a dragon it is running water out of an orange hose.

A walk through a forest in the fog, during a small respite from the rain.

Fog encloses the huge Cheon-Ji-In monument at Daegwanryeong; the massive turtle also does look a little bit dispirited in this weather. Anyway, this is maybe the coolest sight of the day. To walk across the large area below the monument is almost feeling like walking across a plain in the mountains in zero visibility, only with asphalt as ground. I have no idea of what my direction is leading me to; I try to walk in accordance to what I remember from the picture in the guidebook. The small wind turbine museum emerges out of the thick fog, and is much appreciated open. I sneak inside to change my clothes before I take a look in the museum. It is a nice little museum.

The stone tower of fortune below Neunggyeongbong. A large doltap with a platform of wood built around it.

The weather has if anything else made the day an eventful affair, but the most surreal experience first occurs when I am trying to arrange for a transport down to a place to stay the night. I try to get the receptionist at the museum and some other guests to help me get a taxi to the nearest place. A lot back and forth. The end of the story is that I am being driven down to a small town nearby with the name of Honggyeri in a police car. I sit back in the car where those who are being arrested usually are sitting. It does feel quite absurd, but it is definitely fun. The only negative thing is that the lens of my camera is condensing all the time, so I do not get a picture of the experience. They are letting me off next to a hotel in the main street, I thank them for the ride and then they drive on. I would like to say with full sirens, lights and all, but it was not so.

The huge Cheon-Ji-In monument at Daegwanryeong, enclosed in fog.

The simplest is often the best, so instead of sauntering around I just get a room at the hotel I am standing outside of. My first visit to a hotel so far on the trail. In Honggyeri I experience almost the opposite of what I usually experiences when it comes to ordering dinner, I am obliged to order bulkogi to my big pleasure. I do not have the energy to explore the town to a greater extent, so I just take a small walk and then I buy some snacks for the evening. While my clothes are drying on the hot floor, I just sit and relax after today's wet walk.

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