We had a very adventurous weekend last weekend. People here have commented about us being “doers”. Go figure. 🙂

Saturday, we got up very early to try to climb to the top of Mt. Halla – the tallest mountain in South Korea. We live at about 30 meters elevation, the trailhead is at about 600 meters, and the peak is at 1950 meters, so we did an elevation profile equivalent to walking from Cold Spring, MN to Boulder, CO. Not bad. 🙂

Patrick and Beth on the trail to Halla. Photo taken by a very nice Swedish girl on the trail.

The trail was well signed and travelled, but made of the materials they had – very porous volcanic boulders. I was glad I had good hiking boots with ankle support over the hours of uneven surfaces.

Some of the cool rocks on the Halla trail. Ripples in rocks – volcanos are awesome!

Air bubbly volcanic rocks on the trail

We climbed up for about 4.5 hours with a couple of stops at shelters/pit toilets on the way. That was good, because there were enough people on the trail that you couldn’t just step off the side to “water a tree”. Korean hikers are quite entertaining. They are very image-focused, and almost every Korean hikes in the same knock-off brand neon-colored long pants, long sleeve shirts, vest, hat, and boots combo. Yes, even the boots are often neon orange or purple. It’s a sight to see. And every dozen or so people we passed, one was talking, texting, or worst, playing K-pop music from their phone for the whole trail to enjoy. Very Korean hiking experience for sure!

Some of the awesome fashion on the trail.

Korean hikers taking a snack break: gimbap, cucumber, and some Makeli (unfiltered rice wine). Yum!

The trail wound through beautiful mixed deciduous/cedar forests into more evergreens as we got higher. The leaves were just starting to change colors for the fall, so we saw a few shocks of bright reds and oranges, and lots of hints that the best colors would be here soon.

Some bright leaves against the beautiful clear blue sky.

We reached the top after 4.5 hours of solid hiking, and planned on a summit lunch to enjoy the crater lake view. Scratch that. When we reached the top, we met about 200 other people, all crowding around the summit pole for photos, or ducking out of the gale-force winds.

Some of the huge crowds on the top of Halla.

Almost dry crater lake at the top of Halla.

Patrick and I at the summit.

It’s been a very dry summer, so the crater lake was nearly dry, but still beautiful. More amazingly, we could see almost the entire island from the top – we saw the town near our home, the eastern coast and off-shore islands, the big city to the north, and several cruise ships out at sea. It was shockingly clear – a serious rarity. When we got back, several of our coworkers were really jealous, because every time they’d been up to the summit, it was the more typical hazy cloudy weather.

Some of the view from the top of Halla, looking down on Jeju city.

We ate our lunch of some cold leftovers, fruit and cheese just below the summit out of the wind. It was fun to watch the Koreans pull out their gimbap (seaweed/rice/meat/veggie rolls), ramen cups with hot-water thermoses, and take-out containers fo pork cutlets. A few had things I’d consider more portable “hiking” food, but the norm was pretty different than mine.

The trek down was faster, and we clocked back into the base after about 8 hours of hiking. Long day with some pretty sore feet. In fact, neither of us could walk easily for about three days after that, but the views were completely worth it! We might have to do it again in the spring when the waterfalls are running and the crater lake is more noteworthy.

So, here’s a few photos of things that made me smile on our hike. This one – a perfect example of some typical terrible English translation on the danger signs. Any guesses?

A beetle on some color-changing berries. Cool!

Me with something that looked almost exactly like a Minnesota paper birch! Feels like home!

Sunday was pretty great too, but this is enough for one post, so come back soon for some fishy tales!