Baekdu Daegan // prologue // Jungsanri

Stepping out of the bus at Jungsanri, the starting point of my hike in the mountains of South-Korea, I am met with the view of a mountain landscape being torn apart by dark clouds. The Baekdudaegan trail does not start from here, but at the summit of Cheonwangbong, the highest peak on South-Korea's mainland. To get up to the summit you have to climb up from one of three places, Chuseongri, Daewonsa or Jungsanri. I choose Jungsanri as it was said to be the most practical way to get to the starting point of the trail. All three routes offer a tough and hard, but also a great climb up to the heavenly king peak.

My first meeting with a minbak, here situated in the second floor above the restaraunt by the busstation in Jungsanri. A sparse room with a tv and a pile of blankets.

To get to Jungsanri I took a train from Seoul to Jinju and a bus from there. On the train ride I could look up towards some of the mountains I probably would be hiking in later, later could I look up from the bus at the rain-covered mountains of Jirisan while I was wondering where to go off the bus. The answer gave itself more or less.

The busstation in Jungsanri, the mountain surrounded by dark clouds.

I have always been going around with a somewhat strange feeling or tension in my body when I am at a place that is the starting point for a long distance trail that I am about to embark upon. Jungsanri is no exception; it is always exciting to see what kind of place you are starting from. The Baekdudaegan is however not starting from here, as already said, but this is sort of the starting point of my walk. Jungsanri can in other words be added to the list that already includes St. Jean Pied de Port, Calenzana and Hendaye. This place is smaller and has a more remote feeling to it though. The first that greets you when going off the bus are a large square, a bus shelter and a building that seems to contain a restaurant and two shops. There are some other houses above the square alongside a road that seem to go further up into the greyness.

Jungsanri.

I don't do much the first evening here. I meet two boys (Korean of course) for a beer that just have come down from a hike in Jirisan, doing a part of the trail that I will do at the beginning of my hike, they are warning me against walking tomorrow since it is going to be raining a lot. They also tell me that I have to book ahead on the cabins here to be allowed to sleep in the cabins, as opposed to what my guidebook says. Therefore, I go for a walk up towards the Jirisan visitor center to see if I can book me a place to sleep, but the driver of a car coming down is telling me that it is closed there for the day. I end the day eating dinner at the restaurant and then relaxes at my minbak room. The evening is not making it any darker outside than it already was.

The road up to Jirisan visitor center.

I wake up early to what is supposed to be my first day on the trail, excited, but ready. It is raining outside, and a lot, the sky has turned into a water orgy. I quickly decide to postpone the departure a little bit, and sleep some more in the hope that the weather will abate. Only do a short leg and just go to the Rotary shelter instead of the planned walk to the Seseok cabin. After breakfast I put on my backpack and venture out into the rainy confines of the Korean mountains, the backpack increasing in weight quite fast. At the Jirisan visitor center I am met with the first obstacle on the trail, you cannot book a place for the current day after 10 o'clock (and I am there at about 10:20). So, I am not allowed to walk any further, at least not without going back down again. Instead, I book a place at the Seseok cabin for tomorrow and at the Nogodan cabin the day after, in accordance with my original plan.

The river that runs down through the Jungsanri valley.

Just below the Jirisan visitor center is a large and grey building that houses a restaurant and a minbak, the building resembling a little something that could be a remnant of an old Soviet state. I get a room there so I do not have to carry the backpack down and up again. Then I go to see what more Jungsanri has to offer. Not so far away from the small village is an equally small temple that I go to visit, the rain diminishing a bit while I am there. It is a small, but quite atmospheric little spot located near the Jungsan recreational forests.

Temple building from the little temple in Jungsanri.

I pay a small visit to the river that runs down through the valley, a staircase bringing me down to the now slippery rocks. There is also an interesting and 'nice', but not so big, museum about North-Korean guerillas that survived in the Jirisan mountain for up to ten years after the Korean war. I walk around inside the museum and in the garden outside while the rain is increasing in intensity again.

The temple garden with a little pond.

I spend the evening at the restaurant up by the visitor center, eating dinner and relaxing outside under the roof while the rain is hammering down upon it. A couple from Busan invites me over; curious of what a foreigner is doing here. They offer me some more food and makgeolli, which is some kind of fermented rice wine. Makgeolli has an alcohol percentage of about 6-8%, that has a milky-like color and tastes quite sweet, but not so bad. When the couple is driving back home to Busan, I am left alone looking out into the night wondering what the mountains is keeping in store for me. Tomorrow is (at last) my first day on the trail, bad weather or not.

From the little museum in Jungsanri about North-Korean guerrillas in the Jirisan mountain.

Cheonwangbong ->