Silence and Chaos in Rural Korea

The Baekdudaegan has certainly served up its share of rewards and punishment, and the last few days have been perfect examples of that. There are two facets to the trail. Some portions are in the national parks and are well maintained, populated and include services (and available water) at fairly regular intervals. The sections in between the national parks have so far taken us through the rural countryside and hills, where the trail has seen comparatively little maintenance, has much less access to water and supplies, and offers many opportunities for the birth of adventure. Here's an account of one of our days.

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The day began with arduous work climbing through tall grasses and dense shrub overgrowing the trail up a steep grade with poor footing for a couple hundred meters. The sun was already making its persistent heat known at 7:30 am, and the humidity added exponentially to the sticky, sweaty feeling we're wearing like a permanent base layer from the two previous days of hiking in the heat and camping in humid conditions. We'd been talking about how difficult it'd become to push through when the conditions weren't making it fun. Defeat was setting in, and although neither of us voiced this outright, you could read it all over our faces.

Stopped to look for the water source shown on the map in a stream, and again didn't find anything. This is the second water source in a row shown on the map that didn't pan out. Water has proven to be probably the most difficult logistical challenge to through-hiking the Baekdudaegan. Well, geniuses, its a ridge. There's no water on it by definition. Yes, sometimes I'm a slow learner.

Cooked some breakfast and discussed strategy. We may end up ditching the tent and sleeping bags and just trying to hike further each day and stay in minbaks (guest houses) every night. We'd do this sooner but it will stretch out budget. So the days go.

We had some nice stretches of views on both sides of the ridge, and could see back to the south from where we'd come, and further ahead northward. Its great to finally have the sensation of movement along the ridge. Covering ground feels like progress, and watching the country move by slowly is an interesting feeling. Nice breaks with snacks and views in the shade will lift the mood, and things seem great. Then a particularly hot uphill comes along and you want to throw in the towel.

And the craziest things keep happening on the spur of the moment. We reached the road and the end of the trail for the day, started walking towards the village to look for a minbak. Two minutes down the road a guy pulls up and offers us a ride. We squeeze into his car and off we go, with only minimal communication established. He quickly shrugs off our minbak suggestion in Jit-Jae, and proceeds onward through the small village in which we were planning to spend the night. On a corner, he pulls to a short stop, looking as if he's just realized something important. He gets out of the car, sprints across the street and returns with three bags of grapes fresh off the vine for us! More confusing discussion (to me anyway, Liz seemed to know a bit of what he was saying, but I'm totally lost at this point), and we stop in the center of the next village down the road. This time he goes into a bank and brings out three coffees for all of us. Yep, a bank. Weird.

We'd been asking him to find a motel or minbak in the Ayeong area, but he just keeps driving further south, back towards where we started hiking for the day. He's convinced we want to go to the national park where the Baekdudaegan starts. Liz and I are both thinking, "Oh great, there goes today's progress". Finally, we pull into a large building that looks like an old school. Apparently its a restaurant, hotel and bath house. We eat a huge lunch while he explains what he's gleamed of our situation to the hotel proprietor. She seems to understand and appears not only accepting of the transfer of responsibility for us, but happy to do it. After gorging ourselves, and our driver getting us set up with a room, he departs quickly with a smile. We move into the room, shower, do laundry in the sink and set it out to dry on the heated floor, then head outside with beer and snacks.

Sitting in the shade drinking and writing in complete, clean comfort, its difficult to imagine how different the segments of the day have been in only a few hours. The transitions in mood and energy are usually abrupt and dramatic. But the strange thing is the lack of control we have over these changes. We're along for the ride, but we're not always driving this thing. Who is driving this thing, anyway?
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Photos from the last few days...