Dobongsan

About a month ago (I know, timely blogging, Meg!) I went for a nice little hike with Sarah at Dobongsan, which is a mountain in the same range as Suraksan, just a little north of Seoul. You can see Suraksan from the top of Dobongsan. It was a crisp 50 degrees and zero chance of rain, a perfect day for a little hiking. I went out in my oh-so-lame hiking “gear” of course attracting skeptical up-down gazes from expertly tricked out Korean hikers. I feel like a rookie in the big leagues, still using the baseball mitt my dad gave me and all of the veterans are chuckling to themselves, “I wonder how long she’ll last in those… (snicker snicker) New Balances. Ha ha ha! Let’s watch!”

But really, Koreans who you find on the trails of mountains are the nicest ones you come across. Everyone in the city is always on task, has an agenda, has to be somewhere, busy, important and most importantly, busy. Everyone’s checking their cell phones, yelling in Korean, shuffling around to make sure they’re on the right bus, subway, or stealing taxis and the best part is, they all do it in heels. But out on the mountain, even though you feel like you’re in the middle of a hiking apparel fashion show, you find the people most willing to say hello, ask where you’re from, if you like Korea, if you like hiking, etc. If you’re wondering where all the friendly Koreans are, they’re all hiking.

Anyway, as mentioned earlier, Dobongsan is in the same range as Suraksan and it’s really close to the city so all we had to do was take the subway there and walk to the park. We stopped at the information desk to get a trail map and the woman mapped out a trail for us that took us up to one landing and past a temple.

The temple was absolutely breathtaking. It sits on a cliff that is nestled into a fold of the mountainside. I’m really hazy on the details of the temple but I do know that it is Buddhist and just absolutely beautiful. It was about halfway up the mountain and there was a “grotto” type place that you walk through to get to the actual buildings. There were tons of candles and people praying. There were three buildings, that I could see, and a very big balcony with a “ceiling” of lanterns above it. Sarah and I were nervous about disturbing solemnity of it so we didn’t take too many pictures or linger for very long. We stayed long enough to make wishes and toss coins into a fountain and then we moved on.

The rest of the hike was pretty uneventful. We reached a vista about ¾ of the way up the mountain, rested, and ate some kimbap. The top was similar to Suraksan, just bare-faced rock with a metal railing to hold onto in order to teach the top.

The last 100 meters or so were precariously steep and there were a few people who were warning us about ice on the rocks. At the time I was young, foolish and invincible so I charged on. Sarah was wise, cautious and sensible and didn’t make it all the way to the top this time. But! We went again the weekend after and she was determined to make it up the last bit, and she did. Yay Sarah!

All in all, Dobongsan is one of my favorites. It’s easy to get to; there are many different trails to choose from and it’s as easy or hard as you decide to make it.