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| Chicken Foot Mtn. from the top of the mountain at the Fortress | |
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A few of us here have decided that we would like to further take advantage of Korea's great hiking and scenery that can be found all around us. Sunday Joseph, Amy, our friend Jessica, and myself set out on a hike to travel up the mountain in our backyard called Mt. Gyejoksan, which is 429 meters in height. Its name means "chicken′s foot mountain," because its ridges extend outward in various directions, like the toes of a chicken′s foot. According to legend, the rain that falls after a dry spell are tears from the mountain.
At one point in our hike we saw a fortress through the trees and decided to hike over there as it didn't look "too far." Silly us. What began as a 1 or 2 hour hike became a 5 hour hike to this fortress. It was amazing and some of the steepest hiking we have ever done. At one point it was so steep our knees almost reached our faces.
Atop the mountain, at the fortress, you can see for miles in any direction. Adjectives such as breathtaking, picturesque and beautiful don't quite describe this view but we hope you get the idea more from the pictures we took. We saw far away mountains and had an excellent view of some hikers as they made their way to the fortress. Our walk down from a different direction was less demanding and we ended up on the barefoot walking marathon walking trail on the same mountain. About 2 or 3miles later we are at the foot of the mountain not exactly sure where we are located. Are we still in Daejeon? A friendly local helped us out by calling a taxi for us. Your hike is really put in perspective when the hike up, down and around a mountain took you about 5 or so hours and the taxi ride to your neighborhood took 18 minutes. The great day ended with a much needed dinner of dalk galbi.
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| One of our many spectacular views |
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This is about the half way mark from the beginning of our hike.
Notice the video camera on the top right of the tower?
Nothing like CCTV in the middle of nowhere on top of a mtn. |
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Wildflowers on the Mountain
This is for you Mrs. Utke! |
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sitting on the ledge of the fortress looking down.
In Korea there are no barriers |
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See the tower at the top in the middle?
That's about half way from where we began our hike |
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| Mountain Fortress |
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View from the Fortress
(the lake in the background is the same one J and I hiked to earlier) |
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| Mountain Fortress |
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| A sign we found at the top of the Fortress |
Interestingly enough, if I haven't already told you this, the mountain we walked down translates to "chicken leg". So, we walked up the toes and down the thigh :)
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