The Korean Chronicles, Part 4

The grand finale of my Korean journey was none other than hiking the highest peak in all of South Korea. Apparently hiking is the national past time of Korea, so it was an opportunity that I was both looking forward to and dreading at the same time. I knew it was going to be a physical challenge, but I had no idea how much of one it would be until I actually went for it. It didn't really help that we got lost trying to find the entrance to hiking the mountain for 2 hours before the hike actually began. I was already tired before the uphill battle commenced, which didn't fare well for me in the end. There's not too much to say about the journey other than the scenery was absolutely beautiful, it was one of the most physically challenging things I've ever done (I saw my life flash before my eyes a few times, almost vomited once or twice, and fought blacking out by drinking copious amounts of natural spring water), and I am so proud of myself that I made it. There were several natural spring water stations throughout the hike that had little plastic bowls to fill up and pour on your head / drink out of.  I would usually be germophobic to things like that, but I was so exhausted that I chugged the hell out of that water and it was the most delicious water I've ever tasted (at least I thought so at the time). It was really cold too, which I thought was neat. Here's a picture of the SCW taking a sip:

The hike was about 7 hours total, and it only took a little less than 2 hours to make it down. This meaning that the 5 hours going straight uphill was absolutely absurd. It also didn't help my self esteem too much when 80 year old men were passing me up with their hands behind their back like it was no big deal to climb up stone steps for hours upon end. Here are a few snapshots of the hike up until the first major platform:

I was told that once I made it to the major platform that it was an indicator that I was almost to the top. This was the best news ever, until I made it to the platform and realized that this was my next challenge to face:

So once I mustered up the strength to move my little legs up each and every one of those stairs, I was ready to do the Rocky fist pump and celebrate my accomplishment, until I saw this:

Finally, for real this time, I was at the very top after I climbed this set of final stairs. The Rocky fist pump was out of the question because I was drooling and had a purple face and pretty much crawled to a bench that I could sit my fat ass on and catch my breath for the following 30 minutes. Once I felt like I could stand up without tipping over, I was able to get some pretty amazing shots of the most incredible view. Here's one of them:

This was definitely a challenge that I know many people couldn't do, and one that I am proud that I completed. The walk down was much easier, but very challenging to operate my legs because they were shaking so badly. It looked like the lower half of my body was having a severe seizure. What a great event to accomplish before coming back to the states, and one I lived to tell about (barely).