Korea yet again for the 7th time - March and April 2026 - Page 8

To get here is easy, take the purple line to the end, where the station is named the same as the mountain, Geomdansan. Weird church structure visible.

The hike starts immediately, not really, they put some hessian bags down and planted some trees along the highway. But really it is only about 300m to the trail starting point, with a convenience store in between.

It is not far to the trail, but you still get to cross a nice drain.

The start of the loop course trail to Geomdansan is more of a road. There were a lot of other people on the loop part of the trail today, but not many at all 'beyond the loop'.

More hessian bags. You really cannot get lost on the loop course.

Stairs or hessian bags, they are proud to offer both.

Lots of shade today, and other people.

Rocky staircases, with ropes to steady yourself.

I am standing against the rope. These people have foolishly gone outside the rope. They could plummet at any moment.

First view of the day. Squint at the very centre of the screen and you can see the observatory across the river, which was a feature on the first hike I did on this trip 3 weeks ago.

I took a great photo in autumn of very colourful leaves the last time I was here in this exact spot.

The hike up the left side of the loop to the main summit is a lot of steps, quite relentless.

Finally a ridge.

Not quite the summit, but other people and summit furniture at the faux summit.

Last push. I went very hard up to the main summit.

This guy has set up a noodle stand. There were 3 such businesses running on the way up, I am sure one of them was selling moonshine.

Do they ever use these? They really do not look big enough for any helicopter to land on.

Behold the summit, and others beholding the view.

Another noodle stand.

People enjoying the view back towards Seoul.

Just a small part of Seoul below.

Another chance to get conjunctivitis.

More river view without fixed binoculars getting in the way.

Last view shot before I continue, beyond the loop.

I went along ridges to 2 more peaks, Gochubong and Yongmasan. As you shall see, neither has a great view.

Probably the only decent view along the stretch from Geomdansan to Yongmasan. You can see Lotte tower in the smog here, I will go there on one night, they have a cherry blossom festival, which is past it's peak by now.

Rocks and purple flowers oh my.

Looks like I lied, there is another view spot.

Gochubong peak, turning point for men in the Hanam trail race. I could use turning point for men.

This is where I waded through leaves in autumn last time. It does not look like it but it is very steep downhill. Not as leafy this time. Yongmasan peak visible in the distance.

A lot of down and up again today, hence the high calories burned.

Yongmasan peak, almost no view. Strange colour in this shot.

No view in the direction of Seoul, but you can catch a glimpse down the far side of the river.

Not my best stance, light was wrong. I was sweating a lot.

Time to head back along the same trail to the loop, a very green bit here.

Ancient penis fossil.

Back at the loop course, and immediately other people. I will now go down the other side of the loop.

Staircases the whole way down.

There is a plateau for the people that want a picnic, there are probably 100 or so people behind me doing just that.

On the way down you can glimpse Seoul a bit more.

Another plateau area shows how green things now are, 3 weeks ago this was all just dead and brown.

The rest of the way down looks like this, nice and forested, and other people.

Finally back at the farm line.

And then last of all, the martyr shrine (probably). A surprisingly long hike today, just the loop would have been too short, so I am glad I longered it, yeah longered.

I have never actually seen one of these before. Until now there was still the possibility they are just an elaborate joke.

A taxi! No really behind me is the world Taekwondo headquarters, refer to previous trips for photos. Tonight it is relevant because I nearly died in a wedding fight earlier, so I am studying up on the moves.

Many tall buildings to behold. I say behold a lot lately.

Horsie time.

Now for the main entertainment street at dusk, heading towards Sinnonhyeon station. It annoys me greatly that cars can drive down here, but even worse are the scooters.

My aforementioned dinner of Sichuan beef noodle soup with knife cut noodles. Excellent and only $9.

Cars even drive down here. Good luck pedestrians.

Last one of the entertainment street.

I fled back to the main road with the wide footpaths. Much safer.
Tomorrow is not a hiking day, I have no plan, less sun would be good.

To get to the Folk flea market, I went to Wangsimni station. There are many closer stations, but this one was on a line convenient to me. I have changed trains at this station perhaps 20 times, as the trains to the mountains in the east seem to go from here. Anyway, it is a very large station area, and the surrounding streets were all quite nice.

Very hot today, 27c, a lot of people doing drain appreciation early in the day. Note this must have been a freeway in the past, you can still see a couple of old pylons in the water.

I will now enter the market area, it goes for many, many streets, in the traffic at times. A lot of what I suspect are deceased estates of junk.

Plenty of things in the sun that should not be.

I bought nothing of course, if I lived here, I probably would still by nothing. I do not like things.

I do not know exactly what is going on here, there are air force flight suits, machine guns, traffic lights, the door off a humvee. Everything you need.

Here in the distance you can see the actual market. I read that it is a school that was shut down. I am not sure about that.

Lots more junk in the streets out the front.

Inside is a labyrinth of more of the same, but a lot less people.

It even has a food court! I was too early for lunch.

Behind the official bit of the market, is more unofficial market, with old clothes just piled up on the road. OK I would probably buy stuff from here.

Train ride was next, a long way south, I got off at Uiwang station. Behind me is a nice enough main street.

A rare treat. A photo of my lunch. A salad and a coffee bun. The horrible looking grey dressing I chose is pepper and black sesame, and I have to say, it was an awesome dressing.

About 15 minutes away on foot is the railway museum, just follow the train line, there area huge number of tracks in the area as I suspect it is the main maintenance yard for Korail.

It is less than $4 to get in. These 2 are probably the star attraction. They may have been the presidents trains, the insides were very opulent, but you cannot go inside.

There is the actual museum part, but the main attractions are the trains outside.

This is the only carriage you seem to be able to get inside of. It was hot inside. It is much like the inside of trains still in service.

The stairs go up to a locked door.

Nice steam train. It looks new.

I think I have actually ridden on one of these on a regional line in the south of the country.

Inside was very quiet, not much English. The huge model train all these museums have was behind tinted glass and not running, hence no photo of it.

You can press a button and make the signals flash and the gates come down. I did that 9 times.

Bonus activity, I exited the museum area and went through a tunnel under the real train tracks and came out at this park. Lotus ponds I believe, but lotus flower / lilly / water plant is not in season.

However, if you want, you can pay to ride a train bike around the park. These are the new hot thing in Korea, they are everywhere!

Finally, after a hot walk back to the station, I got to enjoy this blue tunnel over the tracks. I pretended I was under the sea.

Before you get to the red road itself, there are many streets full of shops, nice trees, sunsets.

Time to start the traverse of the red road. Arches announce the start point.

As there is no room to walk along here, they have decided to plonk a few booths down in the middle of the walking area.

On previous visits I have always walked along here in the opposite direction, will it be different facing this way?

There are a lot more people than pictured, I wait for a gap in the crowd for the photo.

Mostly cheap earring shops. And of course, vape stores.

Theme toilet.

Bonus points for me for finding red road written on the red road.

Right at the end, a craft market, selling more earrings, custom vape covers.

I wandered to the next station before settling on my meal, bravely I went up a dark set of stairs after viewing the menu at street level. Once I got to order, I realised the thing I wanted, which was a beef bowl of some kind, was a seasonal special, so curry hamburg steak, with cheese, was the best of the non seasonal options. Delicious but not very healthy, I add the kimchi to healthify it. Thankfully, tomorrow IS a hiking day, but not a long hike, although lately I seem to make the not a long hikes long.

The hike starts basically still in Seoul at Sadang, where you can find everything you could possibly need, for example, the station has 2 Starbucks on opposite corners.

It is only a few hundred metres from the station to the edge of the city. Nice grey skies today.

I decided to stop and go beast mode and check my gains.

My path goes up to Gwaneumsa temple, where the distorted prayers were ringing out across the dark skies.

Nice area, nice photo, nice statue.

Time to hit the trail, the first part is probably the hardest, there is a nearby staircase trail instead if you prefer.

But then you would miss out on the huge rocks.

Lots of view spots today, and they start almost immediately.

More early view.

There are a lot of old military positions on this trail, and some of them appear to not be closed off. I did not go in, there are snakes in Korea, they all live in there.

First of many minor peaks is up there.

Time to hang off some ropes!

Only via the ropes can you get to this first Korean flag spot.

Next view, and here you can see some stairs. There will be a lot of stairs from this point on.

Nearly every ridge has a trail.

Some more ridges, with stairs visible, and if you squint, you might see the antennas at the eventual destination.

The next mountain over. I think I have probably been up it.

Back in the direction I had come from, lots of stairs.

I was in no hurry today, so I took time to enjoy the scenery.

First of two of these today, stay tuned for my shocking realisation!

I had climbed along those already.

The next flag is the most famous flag, it is marked on the map.

The rocks up to the flag are not slippery, but it is a bit vertigo inducing.

Bonus flag shot. There is still one more flag.

When there were not stairs, the ridges were very nice, good tree cover, but also lots of view spots.

Cloud getting thicker.

Getting closer to my destination, but there's still some steep sections to come.

2nd helicopter spot, and I looked at it and thought ok, maybe a small helicopter could land here, then I realised... they do not actually land here to rescue someone, they just winch you up from here. All this time I thought Korean helicopter pilots were cutting trees down every time they landed on an H in the forest.

Still one more ridge between me and my destination.

I think this staircase is new, I remember climbing up here before, and I can see where ropes used to be attached.

So many great rocks today.

The golf ball tells me parts of the summit will be off limits. Also I can see a temple there - red bit to the right of the golf ball.

Still not raining, a lot of photos today.

Almost at the top.

Behold, the summit, with a Korean flag and barbed wire.

The summit area is very busy with a lot of construction. There is a cable car but I do not think it was operating today. You can see one of the cable car pylons on the left going up to the distant antennas.

Best I can do for a photo of the temple on a cliff, I think it is behind a gate.

However just over the summit, there is a very large temple, impressive how large it is given that there is no road connected to it.

The priests sell instant noodles and provide hot water, all these people are eating temple instant noodles.

Antennas in cloud. This shows you how close to the summit this temple compound is.

The walk down the other side does not really have many views, but it is still a nice walk.

I am always amused to see things like this on a mountain in a forest.

There are still a lot of nice rocks on the way down.

Nearly at the bottom, looking back up.

The trail ends at the bottom cable car station, and I am almost at it.

Eventually, a drain appears.

And after way too many photos, I even included one of my destination, government complex Gwacheon. There is another station very nearby called simply, Gwacheon, so take your pick. As I stood here taking this, the first drops of rain hit me, good timing.

I walked there and back of course, at dusk. Big wide streets, nice cool weather. Blue skies have arrived again after the grey clouds earlier today.

Temple time, behold a completely plastic sky.

Everywhere you look, the sky has been replaced by colourful plastic.

They even crammed a few behind the statue.

Out the front of the compound is the Buddha's birthday nativity scene, which also has an apple tree, just like the one Jesus was born from.

COEX - which is an exhibition centre. The actual shopping mall, and casino are underneath it.

As mentioned, there is a running track throughout the entire place, and kids do tear around dangerously, they are no match for me though.

Some parts have been through 'renewal' since I was last here.

Dinner tonight was particularly healthy, no rice! Just greenery and chicken (no tofu option). Delicious actually.

Finally the library. It is a bookshop, but they let you read anything you want for as long as you want, which seems to be a trend with a few Asian bookstore brands.

It is a very well known spot, there are tourists everywhere.
Tomorrow, not a hiking day, and I plan to go to somewhere that has risen through the ranks of worlds most popular very fast in the last few years, what could it be? You will find out tomorrow.