It's one week later, and hiking Jirisan was amazing. Last week was Chuseok, i guess its the Korean equivalent to thanksgiving, so i had a 4 day weekend. Since everyone in Korea goes home for this holiday, we were expecting the worse, a 4 hour trip could take 10 hours. We made it from Seoul to Gurye (base of the mountain) in less than 4 hours because we took the bus, and the bus lane was wide open the whole way. Of all the traffic laws not enforced in Korea i was really surprised no one was driving in the bus lane. First step was to get through the Chuseok traffic, second step would be to hike the mountain range. We had to fit the hiking into 3 days, since one of the crew had to work Monday morning. This would mean a short hike on day one to the first shelter (this would allow for long traffic delay), the next day (Saturday) we had to get up early, and hike 20 km to get to the next shelter, and Sunday we had another long day, about 15 km to get to the highest point, then descend to the town where we could catch a bus back. The hike the first day was, i guess leisurely. The trail was wide, paved, and full of day-hikers of all ages. The shelter was nice, wooden bunks, the men's bunk probably slept 100 people. However there were plenty of loud snorers, and they kept the temperature kind of high, so we didn't sleep all to well. I was anxious for morning and glad to finally get up and out of the bunks, into the brisk morning air. We ate breakfast then hiked to the ridge in time to see the sun rise. It was the beginning of a long day.
The trails on this side of the ridge were entirely different. They hugged the mountain side, a path one person wide, littered with large rocks. It was steep, both up and down. We passed by many peaks before we reached the first shelter. This was the half way point, 9.9km down 10.1 to go. We had met a few other hikers, we joined with a Canadian, Mike at the first shelter, and were on the same route as a South African woman, Joy. She was hiking solo, and even though she was older, probably 50s, she was a much more experienced hiker than all of us together (she was slow and steady, and even though we always passed her, she would pass us when we were resting). We also talked with a few Koreans, one had photographed us climbing a rock from afar, when he caught up with us, he showed us the pictures. There was also an older couple who spoke english very well, and we talked with them at rest stops and shelters.
We reached the second shelter about 4 km down the trail. We stopped here for lunch. This was the shelter Mike had reservations at. One of our crew had tweeked his ankle, and was also having shoe problems, so he decided to stay there with Mike, and descend with him in the morning. Now there were five. The next 6 km was probably the most difficult anyway...
