10 June 2022
All the views of Yeosu
Hiking over Gubongsan, Janggunsan and Maraesan
After last nights enormous schnitzel, it was definitely time to go hiking. Yeosu is not really know for its mountains, it is more known for its coastal views and islands, so I was expecting poorly maintained trails and to get lost many times. It was a pleasant surprise to find this assumption to be incorrect.
As the title above says, I went over 3 peaks, starting further away from the city, walking all the way around the main area and ending up back at the train station.
I then caught the same bus back again after about 5 hours of hiking, but no fights or other weird incidents occurred on the bus today.
There are lots of photos, the white buildings are very difficult to photograph because of clipped highlights, even though I keep my camera at -0.7ev at all times. That is just something a bit boring and technical I have noticed a few times so I thought I would mention it here for my own future reference.
My hike started about 2km west of my hotel, further away from the city, near a Starbucks. Useful info in case anyone wants to find the trails I used.
The first ascent up Gubongsan goes past graveyards. The islands in the bay have a few golf courses on them. I suspect quite a few of them are resort islands, people like me are not permitted to go there.
The early path up Gubongsan was good, and 5 out of 6 paths all day were good, more on that a bit later.
Here is the view towards the older, touristy part of Yeosu with all the fishing related tourism.
A view back down to the starting point of the various golf course islands. I will say view lots of times today.
Nearer the top of Gubongsan the path became boulders. I appreciated a bit of a change.
Those are all parts of Yeosu on the far side of this small mountain range, further away from the ocean. I will be visiting none of these places.
Almost at the summit. I like this photo for some reason. Will I be able to get to the actual summit today?
Yes, Standing on the summit marker I celebrated with a selfie.
View from the summit was good. Tomorrow I will go walk over those bridges and visit one of those islands, the main touristy things to do.
My next 2 peaks are in shot here, in the middle of the screen. The closer one is a bit shorter than this one, the one behind it right smack bang in the middle of the shot is exactly the same height as this one, to the metre.
Gubongsan had a nice spot to sit and enjoy the view. Descending from Gubongsan was the main route most people were taking up to the summit. It was by far the busiest part, I only saw 10 other people, but most of the day I saw no one else at all.
Back down from Gubongsan, it is time to go up Janggunsan. You have to cross a road.
The path up was pretty good, no other people, through a plantation.
Halfway up, here is a view of the parts of Yeosu I will not be visiting. The presumably non fishy parts.
Looking back on Gubongsan. I like typing these mountain names over and over.
The path down from Janggunsan started like this. I came to a fork, the left fork continued to Maraesan, the right fork went down to the city. I went left... It then became very steep, hard to follow, and filled with spider webs. I had regrets for the 30 or so minutes it took to get back down, but I was determined to go to the third peak! I am assuming the right fork down to the city is much more developed.
Eventually I came down from Janggunsan (pictured on right), brushed all the cobwebs off, crossed over the little houses in the valley by going up staircases that are apparently roads, and was ready to go up the last peak of the day, Maraesan.
The path up was ok at first, eventually it joins a different path up from the city again, and is much more developed, I would go back down that path.
On the way up for the third time today.
The two earlier peaks are on the right of screen. You can see the communications towers on each.
And now the view from the top of Maraesan. The wooden sloped decking in most of the pics is for paragliders to run down and launch from. Sadly no one was doing that. A couple of other people arrived on the summit while I was messing about.
Here is a view down a different valley of some farms you can paraglide over, then land on that highway.
And here is a view back to the main part of Yeosu. You can see the train station on the left, where I would descend to, and the world expo site just to the right of it.
ABSOLUTE thirst trap.
People love these shots with something in the way of the view.
The descent down to the city was largely stairs, and came out at another graveyard. I had passed a few today.
I couldn't have the graveyard be the last photo of the day, so here is where you really come out and join a road through some apartments, just off to the left of the screen.