24 May 2022
Completely the wrong mountain
Undusan loop hike from Daeseong-ri station
Today I went and climbed a small mountain, it took ages, it was the wrong mountain entirely. Allow me to explain.
Every trip I go on I make a spreadsheet, it has days listed, columns for flights, hotels, trains, and then hiking options.
Those of you who have used excel or google sheets will know that the column to the right cuts off whatever was in the column to the left that would have otherwise overflowed to the right (accountants know what the hell I mean). Anyway, I had typed in Cheonmasan, a very popular, scenic shorter hike, and then to the right I had typed in the name of a station with a lot of unknown hiking trails, Daeseong-ri, as one of my backup options but never finished that line of thought. My spreadsheet therefore took the appearance of Cheonmasan from Daeseong-ri station but it was 2 different cells. OMG that is enough explanation.
So I had done all my research for Cheonmasan, so scenic, popular enough that people were complaining about the installation of some staircases that replaced ropes, only takes 4 hours up and back.
I turn up at Daeseong-ri station and set off towards the green line on my Naver map app that seemed to be the main trail nearby, assuming it was the many times already aforementioned, Cheonmasan.
I was already a bit surprised when I had to walk 4km to the proper start of the trail, normally that would make a hike unpopular.
Then I saw not one single other person, all day, not even one in 5+ hours. I was also surprised early on at the lack of signage, too many spider webs indicating I was the first person on the trail at least today, no staircases as had been discussed, no view...
Checking my map I was wondering how the hell these people got to the peak and back in 4 hours, I was nowhere near the tallest peak on the map, then I worked it out, I was at the wrong place entirely. Oh well. I could double back, or do a loop course, I chose the loop, bad idea.
The path down from my lower but longer journey to get to a peak with no view was almost completely overgrown. I relied entirely on ribbons to guide me. At times the dead leaves were knee deep, and I slid down the ridge, checked my map again, spotted a ribbon, continued on.
At least it was not as rocky as the previous days, until the very end.
So here is my pro tip, if you ever find yourself at Daesong-ri station, with the urge to go on a hike completely alone, by all means go up Undusan, but stick to the left loop up, and come back down the same way!
Here is the highway through Daesong, it is actually a tourist town, with many little cottages in the hills.
There are also a few of these theme castles to get married in or whatever.
I think the area appeals to older people, a lot of the accommodation seems to be time share things, and this here is old person golf. You play with 1 club, the ball does not go up in the air, and the ball is bigger than a regular golf ball. Pollution was a bit less today.
This river has kayaking, water skiing etc.
Brown signs, hiking trail maps, I thought I was on the right path.
Someone with a nice bike is holidaying here. It was up a dusty dirt road though, which I am sure he hated.
Bear trap.
Hmm, where is my mountain. At this stage I assumed it was behind here and invisible.
Early on I was thrilled with the path. A forest floor without jagged rocks, all to myself.
Then some nice soft leaves, yet still a discernible trail, with lots of spider webs.
This is the summit, no view. It was just before getting to here which took roughly 3 hours, that I realised I was on the wrong mountain. I was not even half way to the peak I thought I would get to today, which would have been the wrong peak entirely anyway. I planned my way down from here, chose the loop instead of retracing my steps. In hindsight, bad choice.
The sliding path down. That is super steep, you can't tell from the photo.
Even steeper, but looks flat in photos.
Every time I spotted a ribbon, I was thrilled.
Nearer the bottom, progress slowed massively due to rocks.
Very steep, I looked like a cat trying to climb down a tree.
After many hours, I was back at the river, which provides no easy access to the train station, you have to walk a long way and back around along the highway, weird.
Daesong-ri station. I took a photo to remember my great day going to the wrong station.