Sinbulsan

About a month after hiking Gajisan, we went to Sinbulsan(신불산), or Sinbul Mountain. This one was very near to Gajisan, and slightly shorter at 1,209 meters. It took us a while to find the starting point because there wasn't a bus that went straight to it like there was for Gajisan. We had to meet at the KTX station and then take another bus from there. Problem was, when we finally got on the bus, we were the only ones besides 1 Korean and the bus driver decided he didn't want to take us there. So luckily, the Korean man spoke some English and offered to split a cab with us instead.

Although shorter than Gajisan, we somehow ended up picking a trail that was way more intense. Gaji took up about 2.5 hours to get to the top. For Sinbulsan, we were climbing for 3.5 hours and didn't even make it to the top (well get to that though). And when I say climbing, I mean CLIMBING, not hiking.

These are some pictures I took to try and capture the reality of how steep the climb was. And this was just from the first half hour or so of hiking. The closer we got to the top of the mountain there were less trees and more rocks. In the picture below you can we where we started way down in civilization.

Even though it was fairly chilly out due to the lack of sun, we had taken off our sweatshirts/jackets were sweating in our t-shirts from the exertion. Many of the Koreans that hiked past us made exclamations at us about how we were dressed because, no matter the weather, Koreans always wear long pants, jackets and hats when hiking. I couldn't understand all of what they said, but I did pick out "코트" (coat), and "추워요" (It's cold).

As I said, the closer we got to the top, the more rocks there were. Soon enough, it was too steep and too far from the base of the mountain for them to build stairs. Instead there were these giant, thick ropes tied around trees that we used to pull ourselves up. Whenever there weren't ropes to help us at steep points, the trail would often fork in two directions and then come back together again. You had to take a guess at which side would be easier to climb free hand, and most of the time we chose wrong.

The picture on the right is what lay ahead for us after we finally were at the "top" and out of the trees. This was a little past the 3 hour mark. In the far distance, you can see a little dot or bump on top of the mountain. We were pretty sure that was the peak (but we never made it there). At this point in the hike, the quickest and easiest way to continue (since there wasn't too much of a trail anymore) was to walk along the top edge of the rocks. Ashley didn't like it because, as she repeatedly pointed out, if you slipped and fell in any direction, it would likely be fatal. Honestly, I thought that made it exciting. Besides, we both had $200 pairs of hiking boots to keep us gripped on there!

At about 4:30 pm, the last group of Koreans passed us on their way down the mountain. They shook their heads and waved their arms at us, motioning for us to turn around. After a quick exchange of both English and Korean, we understood that they were telling us we had to head back now or we wouldn't make it back before it got dark. We were sad that we weren't able to make it to the top (where the famous silver grass fields are said to be), but we knew it would be a bad idea to go against the Koreans warnings. It would have taken us at least another 45 minutes to get to the top, if not an hour.

So after a quick break and a snack of gimbap, we began our decent, starting on the same trail, but then straying far to the right and into the woods instead because it provided cover from the light rain that had started to drizzle and because the dirt trails in the woods had switchbacks. This was lighter on our feet than the steep rocks we had climbed up and made it both quicker and easier to get down. We had, however, still climbed up for almost 4 hours and so it was only natural that it took us at least half as long to get down. We didn't take any breaks on the way down and once we were 100% out of the rocks, we actually jogged most of the way. It was going pretty well and we were making good time. Even though it was already dusk, we could still see enough. That is, until I tripped on a root and went superman-ing through the air until I landed on my face and stomach and skidded across the ground. (It was really the most cartoon-like fall.)

Eventually, the sun went completely down and we were forced to use the flashlights on our phones because we could barely see our hands in front of our faces otherwise. We only had to hike another half hour like this before we finally reached a road. This was not anywhere near our starting point, but I soon figured out where we were using the map on my phone and we started walking down the dark road in the middle of the mountains. We were exhausted. Our knees and feet ached from the pounding on them down the mountain and we wanted a ride back to the KTX station more than anything. We planned to hitchhike with car we could get to going in our direction, but we ended up getting insanely lucky and the first car to pass us was a taxi! It took a little haggling with the driver to get him to take us to the station (apparently he was on his way to dinner and didn't want to go out of his way), but I think he took pity on us because I was covered in dirt and we were all hungry and tired.

All in all, it was a fun adventure and we can't wait to go back another day when we can start earlier and actually make it to the top!