Distance: 23.5km (184.1km), time spent: 10:16 (93:02).
Altitude (start / end / highest): 1176m / 300m / 1176m.
Weather: Morning fog, sunny.
I have come to the conclusion that walking for more than twelve hours here is too much, yesterday's nearly thirteen hours was too taxing. Keep up the taxing work and I will not make it to the end of the trail. Looking out of the tent in the morning finds me on a summit bathing in clouds. Outside, the tent is glistening with dew. Groggily I force myself up and starts preparing breakfast. Some of the others are also waking up and are coming out and keeping me company while I eat, before we say goodbye.
Hwahaptap monument at Samdobong. Which is a harmony monument and is the grandest monument to any peak on the Baekdudaegan.
No sunset and no sunrise from Samdobong. I walk down into a world that is still waking up, the Baekdudaegan just throwing aside the duvet of clouds. A pleasant stroll through the woods leads to....the morning gym. At Sammagoljae, there are some training equipment that you usually finds in a gym, not on an overgrown pass in the mountains. This ranks as one of the weirdest things I have ever found on a walk. Walking on the ridge is gym / exercising enough for me.
Descent from Samdobong through a decidious forest in the morning fog.
Cow's head pass or Uduryeong is fittingly enough outfitted with a monument formed like a cow; however, it does not make as much noise as its alive brethren. Water has usually been abundant on the trail so far, but there is no water for the cow at Uduryeong. When I find water, in a stream some way down the road, it is mostly full of sediments and barely flowing. Back up again, a worker at the pass is handing me a bottle.
Sammagoljae gym, the most quirky found on the Baekdudaegan trail for my part so far.
View from Hwajubong, Samdobong to the left in the background.
Now the early days of the walk seems distant, and still most of the walk is ahead of me. The days now formed by the trail; to wake up, to eat, to put on your backpack and walk. Ever over an undulating ridge. Until you come to the end of the day, knees buckling, you walk. And then it repeats. Days goes into days. And you love it. This day now formed by the trail, I walk up on to the temple-ridden ridge above.
The cow stele at the pass of Uduryeong.
After Samseongsan (986m), the trail goes over mostly open terrain on a pleasant path. From one of the temples below the chanting of the monks is rising up through the air, pushing me onwards to the sacred mountain of Hwangaksan (1111m). On the summit I stand looking at the huge temple of Jikjisa located below, which is believed to be built in the year 418 by Master Ado, ornate buildings and old history silently calling. Even more dominant in the view is the city of Gimcheon beyond. Rest is taken while the mountain protects.
The Samseongam-temple, barely visible through the trees deep down from the ridge.
Walking on a pleasant path on an open ridge before Baramjae.
I really want to go down to the Jikjisa-temple, but I know it will prove costly. It will be a hard descent followed by a hard ascent afterwards. I have learned that I cannot do my usual curious cat excursions on this trail, using too much energy on other things could in a way jeopardize the whole walk. So I move on, when the time comes, instead of following the path down to the temple. I am not so sorry when I turn down another curiosity, the Maemol-donggul Cave; I do not think it would be very wise of me going down into that cave alone.
View from Hwangaksan. Gimcheon dominating the view, and the grounds of the Jikjisa-temple visible behind the trees.
I arrive at Gwaebangryeong tired and satisfied to be finished with the walking for today, a pleasant walk, but not in any way a magnificent one. Sunday and the Live Music Café is quiet. The Gwaebangryeong Sanjang is home to Mr. Baek Gi-su, who apparently plays a mean guitar, and his wife. Only the son is home at the rustic building, and I am unsure of how much he understood when I asked about accommodation at the place, but he said his parents would be home within an hour or so. I get a beer, so I am happy sitting outside in the nice weather waiting and relaxing.
Gwaebangryeong.
When Mr. Baek and his wife arrives, I am welcomed inside and they invite me to sleep on an elevated floor in the café. They cook me a good dinner, and as an added bonus I get my clothes washed in a washing machine. A warm welcome, even though there is no live music today. The walls of the café are decorated with greetings from past guests, and a lot of hiking ribbons adorns the door. I get a place to write down my own greeting. There is also a picture on the wall of the authors of the guidebook, Roger Shepherd and Andrew Douch, from their stay at the place.
Inside the Gwaebangryeong Sanjang.
<- SamdobongJakjeomjae ->
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