[clouds surrounding Nogodan Peak, at Chiri National Park]
Chiri (sometimes written as Jiri) is the second tallest mountain range on the South Korean peninsula and is probably the most famous or second most famous national park in Korea (the other being Sorak). I decided a couple weeks ago that I would trek it and the pictures are below.
The plan was to do a three-day, two-night hike. I would start at the west part of the park and hit up Nogodan peak 1507m (4944ft). Then I would go east along the Chiri mountain range ridge to Banyang peak 1732m (5682ft), then to Myeongseon peak 1586m (5203ft), Deokpyeong peak 1521m (4990ft), Yeonha peak 1730m (5675ft), Jeaseuk peak 1808m (5931ft), and then finish at Cheonwang peak, which is the highest point at 1915m (6282ft). The trek from start to finish would be about 34 kilometers (21.1 miles). I would camp out in one of the many shelters that they have along the way. But plans change...
I left on Saturday morning at 5:00AM and got to the parking lot of the park entrance around 11:00AM or so.
A look down at the lands below from the Nogodan peak area as I start my trip.
A view up towards Nogodan peak around noon or so.
This is the view from the Nogodan peak area. That far mountain peak you see in the background is Cheonwang peak, about 30 kilometers away. I planned to camp out twice between there and where I took this picture.
More pictures of the region. The Chiri mountain range really does tower over everything else around it. I was also lucky to have great weather for this day.
More pictures of the scenery.
A picture of the path. The trails at the start were fairly tame: soft dirt path and well groomed and managed trails under the tree line. This made for very quick travel. This would change greatly by the end of the trip.
By the afternoon I had gotten to Banyang peak 1732m (5682ft), this is a picture of what the path looks like leading up and down from the peak.
More shots of the ascent to Banyang peak, which is above the tree line.
Almost near the top of Banyang peak. Notice how the path is basically just rocks instead of dirt, which challenges your ankles and knees a lot more as you have to stabilize your body weight with each step. Also, it's not shown in this picture, but the grade and approach to the peak was very steep--Yes, Christine and Kevin, it was worse than White Oak Canyon.
At the top Banyang peak, the pictures really don't portray how open it feels up there. By the time I made it up here it was about 1:30 or maybe 2 in the afternoon... not really sure. This picture is looking south, which is why there are only a few trees. The prevailing winds in Korea are north-bound which means that the south face of the mountains in Korea get the harshest weather in winter... which also explains why there are no trees here.
This is looking east from Banyang peak, which is why there are a few trees. Again, if look in the far background the top most peak is Cheonwang peak.
More pictures, blah, blah, blah... I don't remember which way I was facing, possibly east by southeast given the shadows cast by the sun.
This is looking westward from Banyang peak.
All in all, I spent about 20 minutes at the top of the Banyang peak, where I ate lunch. My lunch was pepperoni, sharp cheddar cheeze, and crackers. (And I always spell cheeze with a "z" because I don't think it looks right with an "s") And I believe that this meal is a really good backpacking meal because it has lots of fat and protein, doesn't require cooking, and the cheddar cheeze keeps fairly well... also, the pepperoni has lots of sodium, which helps keep you hydrated. This is just one more thing I learned on this trip. It seems like every time I go backpacking I learn a handful of good lessons through experiment.
Anyhow, I went down from the peak and continued eastward. I was making really good time and did not expect to be so far east by the time it was 4 or 5 in the afternoon. I was thinking that I would spend my first night at Baeksahgorl shelter but decided that since my pace was so good I would just continue to the next shelter.
While I was taking the picture above at Myeongseon peak 1586m (5203ft) another hiker showed up, Mr Kim (of course, everyone in Korea is named Kim). He stopped to wait for his friends to catch up and we chatted. I informed him that I would be going to stay the night at the next shelter, which was Yeonhachun. He said he was going to stay at Byuksoryung shelter, which was the one after Yeonhachun. I asked him if he had enough time to make it there before dark and he said sure. So I changed my mind and decided to try and make it to Byuksoryung shelter.
More pictures at Myeongseon peak as the sun begins to set. It's a bit deceptive, it looks like it's about to get dark but I still had about two hours of sunlight and a half hour more of ambient light.
Myeongseon peak again, blah, blah, blah. Just more pictures from the peak before I set off again.
On the way to Byuksoryung shelter I took this picture. The peak in the distance is Cheonwang peak. It was interesting to see how it got noticeably closer as the day went on. In the morning when I first saw it I was certain it would take me forever to reach it.
Taking a quick break to picture the sun setting.
More pictures of the Chiri-mountain range as the sun sets. About half a kilometer before I got to Byuksoryung shelter the sun set and it got dark, but it was okay because I had my headlamp and made it into the shelter by nightfall. By the end of the day, it turns out I had put in about 16.1 kilometers (10 miles).
I had dinner with Mr Kim and the rest of his party from Busan. They cooked up some Korean food while I made hot chocolate and some lipton's creamy garlic pasta shells. We chatted for a bit while they drank soju. I eventually left to do the dishes, clean up, and get ready for bed.
Now the shelters in Chiri National Park are more like hostels. It's basically a large building with several large rooms. You sleep on raised floors and sleep right next to other people. Think: large can of sardines. But the shelter is clean, there is a spring, and it's warm inside. In fact, it was too warm for me so I told the manager that I was going to sleep outside. This was my intention the entire time, anyhow, because I wanted to test out my bivy sleeping bag. The shelters are also nice because they sell easy-to-cook food like pre-cooked vacuum sealed rice, ramen, and canned fish. Next time I may just take a few snacks and rely on buying food from the shelters--we'll see.
When it got dark the weather turned chilly, about 50 degrees with sustained winds of about 10 miles per hour. Everyone complained about how cold it was. Of course I was in short pants and a short sleeve shirt and I was comfortable but everyone still looked at me like I was crazy. I ended up putting on more layers and long pants but never thought it was really cold. In fact, I kept my sleeping bag (rated for 45 degrees) open most of the night because it was too warm.
So by 9 or so everyone's going to bed and I'm going to sleep outside on what is basically the lodge porch. It was actually fairly comfortable. But I didn't really get any sleep. The people who ran the shelter had their window open and they were watching TV so that kept me up for a while. I got sick of that and moved to another pat of the porch where I could better hear the wind, which would drown out the sound of the TV. By the time I got settled there I noticed that they TV was turned off and the wind had died down. Then, almost immediately, someone else sleeping around the corner of the building started to snore really loudly. So eventually I moved back. Then, someone came outside of the shelter and decided to have a conversation on his cell phone while constantly clearing his throat. Seriously, people, if you've got all that crap in your throat and lungs, don't come camping and don't come near me.
Anyhow, I remember checking my cellphone and realizing it was 11:30. I blinked my eyes and next thing I know it's 3 in the morning and people are all over the porch getting ready to go back onto the trail. I knew there was no way I would be able to sleep with all the traffic so I got up and said, "Screw all of you, I'm going to to beat you all to Cheonwang peak... And when I get there I'm going to cut down the top half of it and take it home with me so you can't get to the top, you sons of biscuits." Okay, so I didn't really say that.
Grumbling, but surprisingly awake, I left around 3:15 after shoving down a power bar, a chocolate bar, and some water. I only had about 10 kilometers to get to Cheonwang peak.
Here's a picture of hiking that morning around 3:30 AM. I made decent time in the morning. The trail during the morning was mostly short sections of up and down but the terrain was rocky with lots of rock scrambles. Most of the time it looked like you were just climbing up or down a dried creek bed.
The sun came up and revealed that the day would be mostly spent in the clouds. This is an easy part of the trail since the rocks are relatively stable and flat.
As the morning progressed the sun started to break through in some sections as we went from peak to peak. I move at an above average hiking pace and usually pass other hikers. I met up with a group of three other hikers who moved at a similar pace and spent most of the morning with them, even having breakfast with them. They got a kick out of Tyson's chicken jerky.
Just a picture of walking in the clouds.
It's hard to see, but the clouds broke for a few minutes near this pass and if you look closely you can see a sea of clouds just beyond the trees.
As we got closer and closer to Cheonwang peak, the wind got stronger because we were mostly above of the tree line.
Clouds being blown over the mountain by the northbound wind.
Going down one of the peaks to a small pass where the clouds are funneled through by the wind. You can see the small white stones in the middle of the pass, which marks a helicopter landing site. There were probably about 20 scattered along the trail.
A sea of clouds below as I hike eastward.
More clouds being pushed over the mountain. The weather seemed to change from one peak to the next and from one minute to the next.
As the trail went east the weather got more and more foggy/cloudy. I was hoping the sun would break through or that the clouds would stay below the peaks but it didn't happen. This may be related to the typhoon that was coming towards China and Korea.... just maybe.
This is Jeaseuk peak, the last major peak before Cheonwang. I took a breather here before pressing on with the last couple kilometers to Cheonwang peak.
On the slopes of Cheonwang peak.
More pictures of the slopes of Cheonwang peak. The final two hundred and fifty meters of the Cheonwang approach were some of the hardest hiking I've ever done. I don't know what it would have been like if I were fresh. But by then I had logged about 25 kilometers in 20 hours with about 3 hours of sleep. I had to stop every 15 to 20 steps and let my body recover. To quote Chuck Palahniuk (author of Fight Club), I felt like my legs were filled with battery acid. According to my topographical map of the park, the final 750 meters has an elevation gain of 275 meters, which was not evenly spaced.
But I made it to the top, after what seemed like an hour on the final half kilometer. And I get to the top and all I get is a crappy view of the clouds, this lousy rock that doesn't even have Korean or English written on it, and a bunch of old ladies telling me to put on more clothing or I'm gonna get sick.
I stayed there at the top for about twenty minutes and finished up the rest of my food. It was about 9 in the morning, which meant that I had finished the final 10 kilometers in about 6 hours. Obviously, there was no need to stick around another night since I was way ahead of schedule so I started to head back down towards the village Jungsan-ri to try and work my way back to Nogodan via public transportation so I could get to my car and go home.
The descent from Cheonwang to Jungsan-ri took a couple of hours. about half way down I stopped here and took the above and below pictures. I also took a small nap, I think. I don't know if I slept or not.
I eventually made it down to Jungsan-ri, a small town that has one bus stop and one bus that goes to Jinju. So I took the 1:15 the bus to Jinju. At Jinju the lady at the bus station told me to go to Hadong so I hopped onto a bus to Hadong. When I got to Hadong I found a bus to Gurye. At Gurye I managed to catch the very last bus to the Nogodan parking lot. By the time I got to the Nogodan parking lot and my car it was about 6:30. So five hours and four bus rides. Sounds sort of inefficient to me.
I got into my car and started the 250 mile drive home. I got home around 12:30, showered, and went to bed. Having hiked 34 kilometers in 27 hours with three hours of sleep, plus getting back to my car, plus driving home, you could say I slept very well that night.
Here's the crap I took with me:
Two trekking poles, three water bottles, titanium mug and cooking mug, first aid kit, hygiene kit, multi-tool, headlamp, titanium spork, map, bandanna, and camping stove with fuel canister. Everything worked fine. I would say the trekking poles were the MVP of the trip. They aided me in my climbing. But more importantly, they really helped me when I was going down the mountain by preventing all the impact on my knees and keeping a lot of negative stress on my quads and hamstrings.
Here's my food. The trailmix (dried fruit) was a big letdown. The chicken jerkey became too dry. The powerbars were okay. The hot chocolate was a hit. The pepperoni, cheeze, and crackers were good and the chocolate bar was good, too. The lipton noodles were good but require a lot of clean-up so I don't want to do that again.
Gere's my sleeping pad. Self inflating, REI, 3/4 length sleeping pad. Works like a charm.
Here is my water-proof/breathable bivy sack to sleep in. For those who don't know, the sleeping bag does inside here and this outer shell will keep you dry even in pretty bad weather.
This is my latest sleeping bag. Lafuma with 600 down. Weighs 17 ounces. Worked great. Rated to 45 degrees but I think I can reasonably used it to about 30 since I'm so warm natured.
