Taebaek Mountain

The weather is finally giving some hope of warmer and brighter days.  Recently, the skies have been grey and wet for a few weeks now. I appreciate the rain for how it helps keep the yellow dust out of the air.  Yellow dust comes in from China and moves down thru Korea and Japan. But because Korea has so many mountains it doesn't hit our neighborhood too badly. But I personally blame the yellow dust for my constant sore throat. 

Here is a pictures I found off of the Internet from 2006 depicting the yellow dust problem.

This past weekend, I decided to go for a hike with 9 of my friends up Taebaek Mountain.It was a two hour drive away, and once we arrived we decided to get lunch. We didn't start the climb

 until about 1:00 pm. The way up was pretty difficult, slick and steep.  I didn't realize how much snow there would be and my running shoes quickly became blocks of ice, snow and water. It took us about 2 hours to get to the top, and there is a temple at the top. 

We were all very happy to have made it and breathe the clean air!

We decided to walk from one peak to the next which took about another hour or so. This trail had even more snow, slush and mud than the one before and my feet were starting to get very cold.  We found a tree that is hallowed out, somehow, and still alive but you can fit an entire person inside!

       

It was pretty cool. Once we reached the second peak most of us were just hungry for some food and excited to head back down. We ate a little and enjoyed the scenery and time to rest. The mountains in Korea are definitely beautiful and vast. 

The way down was tricky because of the snow and ice and there were many falls.  Luckily some areas had rope where you could hold on and just slide down the mountain-side. 

We were all very happy to have made it down in one piece and we all just wanted a hot shower to thaw our feet.