Bukhansan- 북한산

이모, Kevin, and I headed off into the great valleys of 북한산. 이모 escorted us to the first two peaks and headed back down.

Korean hiking trails differ from trails in America in that trails are riddled with granite boulders, steep inclines up rock slabs, and brightly outfitted groups of Koreans.

Messing around on peaks

A hike's not complete without a tad of surrealism. As our trail for today run along the ancient city walls of Seoul, we heard faint singing echoing the valleys. Our fast pace eventually brought us to overtake a group of nuns, who had stopped alone the ridge as a chorus to sing beautiful hymns. The hiking boot wearing singing nuns provided a perfectly peaceful moment and an infinitely special impression on our hike.

The grand overlook at the peak. Hikers dotting the trail. Building lining the horizon. 

On our final ascent to the highest peak, we passed these two 아저씨's, who enthusiastically and immediately started speaking in English to the both of us. When I spoke in Korean to the younger 아저씨, he defiantly responded in English to explain that they needed to practice . As we reached the top and rested, the men sat next to us and explained that the older 아저씨 had an international taxi license English Exam coming up and asked us to help him create a 5 minute speech of "tell me about yourself." After 40 minutes of laughing, scribbling, broken english, and corrections, we said goodbyes and headed down the peak



Video of the Peak

Making our steep descent down. 

We made a 1 kilometer detour to ensure a Korean hiking experience with some well deserved ramen. We also loosened our body at a bathhouse after the 8 and half hour hike. Truly sculpting a Korean vacation.