Hiking in Deokcheon

The last time I remember hiking up a mountain I believe I was about 12 years old.  Maybe I have since then, but obviously it didn’t leave an impression on me.  Back to the story, though. I was wearing flip-flops and drinking pop.  My family was on vacation in Montana visiting my mom’s best friend, my Aunt Laura.  Just so you know, this hike was NOT planned.  My mom just wanted go check it out on our way back from somewhere—“it” being the mountain I guess.  But how do you just go check it out without actually planning on hiking?!  This mountain wasn’t anything too big or crazy, but I was so angry and we have this awful picture to prove it.  I think it’s of my mom, sister, and me?  They are smiling and I am crying, my face is all red, and I look like I hate the world.  Looking at it now, it’s quite funny.  But really?  Who would want to go hiking wearing flip-flops and drinking pop?  Can you guess who was the first one down the mountain?  I pretty much ran out of there.

For a while (and by that I mean for some years of my life) I didn’t like doing outdoorsy type things.  I’m not saying that hiking experience caused this; it just wasn’t my thing.  I do quite like being outside now, though.  Of course I love running outside, especially in the country.  So when I was invited to go hiking here the other weekend, I was so excited!  I really was looking forward to it all week.  Then of course I started feeling sick on Thursday and Friday.  There was no way that was going to get in the way of my hike.  I was determined.

                                         With Katrina towards the beginning of the hike.

Saturday morning a group of maybe twenty or so of us met at the subway stop in Deokcheon—just two stops from where I live.  We made our way to the trail not at all expecting how difficult this was going to be!   Our one big group pretty quickly started spreading out as we began to go at our own pace.  I was fine until about halfway up.  It was so steep!  This is when our breaks became pretty frequent.  And finally we took a break to eat our snacks.  I was so hungry.  I have never had a pb&j that has tasted as good as the one I had on that mountain top!  So glad I packed that in my book bag.

                              Making our way up.

                                          View from where I took my pb&j break.

It wasn’t too long after our snack time that we made it to the top.  The view of course was amazing.  There wasn’t a whole lot of space up there, though, with the big group we had.  We still stayed there for a little while, ate some more, and enjoyed the view.  As everyone started heading down, there were a few others who wanted to continue hiking because there was actually another peak just a bit higher.  Of course I joined them when Katrina asked if I wanted to go.  It was only about another 10 minutes, if that.  Not bad at all.  And the view was even more amazing.

    The view from the top--well, the first place we stopped.

         

                                          Now this was at the top.  The girls who made it to the second peak!

         Amazing view of Busan!

Remember I was sick?  Yeah.  I was fine during the whole hike but definitely think I overdid it.  Once we made it back down, I tried to get back to my apartment as quickly as I could.  My head hurt so bad I wanted to cry.  I missed out on the St. Patrick’s Day hang outs that night and took a nap from 7-9:30 p.m.  Who takes a nap at that time of the day?  Or should I say night?  Really I just wanted some of my mom’s homemade chicken noodle soup.

So glad I made it on the hike, though.  It was nice to be away from the city for a few hours and just enjoy being outside.