Distance: 18.3km (58.1km), time spent: 8:45 (30:17).
Altitude (start / end / highest): 500m / 500m / 846m.
Weather: Sunny.
I awake to a beautiful morning and the usual confusing meeting with a menu. That is, I have no idea what is on the menu. The host of the minbak here is a friendly and nice man, smiling, but he does not speak English. So we stand for a while trying to understand each other, gesticulating and smiling, before we settle on something for breakfast. I think I have just ordered dinner.
Eating breakfast in Gogiri, or possibly dinner.
Being out of the national park, I have now encountered what is to be an important navigational tool on the trail, the hiking ribbons. These are the remnants of hikers having passed through on their walk. Fluttering in the wind, they will mark where the trail is going, often with a personal message on the ribbon. They do not only mark the Baekdudaegan trail, so I will have to keep a close watch on which ribbon I follow.
The Baekdudaegan goes on a leisurely pace through the rural Korea at the start, before venturing up into the hills. Sujeongbong in the background.
The trail from Gogiri is going on mostly flat ground on the first part today, following several roads to another small village. At Nochimaeul, there is a monument to the Baekdudaegan next to a nice jeongja (pavilion). From the village I follow the trail up through the woods towards Sujeongbong, being stopped on the way by a couple giving me a cup of coffee. The walking is on a wooded ridge enclosed in trees, providing only glimpses of the surrounding landscape, as the summit at 804m.
The Baekdudaegan monument next to a jeongja in Nochimaeul.
I thought that entering the rural parts of South-Korea would bring some relief after the quite hard walk through Jirisan, looking forward to a day of easy walking, I was so wrong. At the mountain road that leads down to the Jujisa temple, I spend some time arguing with my legs whether to go down or not. I win. The legs complain when the walking down feels longer than it is. The temple is a small one, with a tranquil atmosphere about it.
At Jujisa temple, where I met a family out for harvesting for chusok in the forest.
The trail coming down to the pass at Yeonwonjae.
At the temple, I meet a family of three generations, out harvesting mushrooms, berries and fruit. They live in a nearby village and offer me some food and makgeolli. Today it is chusok, the Korean harvest thanksgiving festival, I am being sent on my way with a big slice of traditional rice cake in my backpack. The hospitality of the people here never cease to surprise me.
Looking up at Gonamsan from the village of Jangdongri.
Even though it is only my fourth day on the trail, I feel that I have learned that there is no easy day on the Baekdudaegan. You can never be sure of what it is putting in your way. And if you are met with adversity, you should meet it with the belief that it will reward you afterwards. This really holds true for the grueling climb up Gonamsan. The summit stands only at 846m, but I was totally exhausted when I reached the summit (maybe I am getting old). The view just before the summit however, was just impressive and I just had to sit down and bask in the view of the ridges and hills disappearing into the horizon.
View from Gonamsan. The climb up was a lot harder than I thought it would be, but the reward was equally worth it.
The rest of the walk down to my planned endpoint of the day, Maeyori, is an uneventful trudge through an overgrown path. I arrive at the village of Maeyori quite tired. According to the guidebook, there should be a nice jeongja here, which I should be allowed to sleep in if I ask the elders in the village in a polite way. I find the pavilion, which looks great. It even has a chair inside of it that looks perfect to sit and relax in after a hard walk. The area outside of it has no place though where I can pitch my tent. Now, I have to find the small store that is supposed to be in the village.
The stele at the summit of Gonamsan at 846.4m.
Which I cannot find. Instead, I find a resident of the village that tells me that no one is allowed to sleep in the jeongja. So there goes my accommodation. He also tells me that there is not a shop there either. So there goes my provisions. Now, I am being tired and are wondering what to do. But persevere, and the Baekdudaegan will provide. He is however not unfriendly in any way, and is quite helpful. In the end, he takes me to a house, which I believe housed the aforementioned store. At the house is an elderly woman, could this be the old woman that was running the store and was affectionately known as the 'Baekdudaegan grandmother'? And before I know it, I sit in a car and is being driven to a minbak in the town of Unbongeup.
The jeongja in Maeyori. It would have been a great place to spend the night.
In Unbongeup the host of the minbak drives me to a bustling restaurant, where I eat bacon (pork belly meat) that I fry myself on a grill at the table. Walking back to the minbak, the Koreans are celebrating chusok and there are fireworks going off here and there.
Eating pork belly meat (bacon) in a restaurant in Unbongeup. I had to fry the meat myself on the grill in the table.
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