Gaysan National Park and Haeinsa Temple

Sorry for the long absence from blogging, loyal readers! Last week was fairly busy, but I hope I can get back on schedule this week.

As is demanded by the nature gods in the fall season, I went camping yet again last weekend. I am well on my way to checking every Korean National Park off my list. This time, it was Gayasan National Park. As with most of the parks in Korea, the terrain is pretty rugged, but that is hardly enough to keep away the mobs of tourists. I got a slightly different taste of camping this time, as opposed to the shelters of Jirisan, because there are only campgrounds for tents in Gayasan. Again, these are not the typical campgrounds that I'm used to. Every one of them has road access, running water, and bathrooms, and associated fees. Just past the bus stop in the charming mountain village of Chi-in (about a 1.5 hour ride from Daegu), there are three campgrounds to choose from. I was shocked to see only 6 tents set up in the first (which can allegedly accommodate 100), especially during fall, which is clearly the best time to go backpacking. The second campground, situated next to a small brook, was completely deserted. The bathrooms were locked, and the running water was off. I walked up and down the road for 30 minutes looking for an office, or a park official, or any place where I could pay my fee or find out if this particular site was closed. I couldn't find any, so I got the whole site to myself and didn't have to pay a dime. Upon leaving, I saw a sign and copied down the characters for later translation. It said, upon review, "Campsite closed because of wind." Oh well, one more advantage to being the ignorant foreigner!

Luke, Tom, Lisa, and Lisa, other teachers from Avalon, met me at the bus stop the following morning to hike the Gayasan Peak and check out Haeinsa Temple, which is on the way. Haeinsa was one of the bigger temple complexes I've yet visited, and the decorations went above and beyond what one usually sees at these sites, although there is one thing that still throws me, as a Westerner.

Haeinsa was by far the most crowded temple I've been to yet, and though the architecture was more of the same, Haeinsa is special for a few other reasons. First of all, the scenery is amazing. Like Daewonsa in Jirisan, the buildings are nestled perfectly among the mountains of Gayasan. Second, Haeinsa is home to the Tripitaka Koreana, which are a set of 81,258 wooden blocks from the 13th century containing the Buddhist scriptures in Hanja (Chinese characters). They are only viewable through wooden slats on the outside of the buildings and photography is forbidden, so here's an image courtesy of Wikipedia:

Finally, as this collection of ancient wooden texts attests, Haeinsa is one of the few major temples that survived the Japanese occupation. It has undergone numerous renovations since its construction in 802 AD, and was almost completely burned in the 19th century, but it still holds the place of oldest temple I have seen yet.

After we spent a while at the temple and got involved in a photo-op with an extremely touchy ajumma (that's a middle-aged Korean woman) who was very fond of foreigners, we started up the trail. It quickly became apparent how lucky we were over the Chuseok holiday as far as crowds, because the mountain was absolutely packed. I started to count the number of other hikers I passed, but got depressed and gave up after I reached 200 (and that was before I even reached the summit). Not since Peru have I had to share the heights of the great outdoors with so many people. Here is the seemingly endless line waiting for the summit:

And here is the zoo that is the summit of Sangwangbong itself:

You can see at the very top of the photo another huge line of people waiting to make the twin summit of Chilbulbong. In spite of the endless crowds, we triumphed! And the whole hike was one long stroll through foliage whose like I haven't seen since I left the Adirondacks (it still didn't compare though).

Luke and I came down the opposite side of the mountain, which was luckily a little less crowded, though we still had to pass crowds of other hikers on the narrow trail frequently. All told, it was about 2.5 miles from Haeinsa to the summit of Gayasan, a 2 hour hike at a fast clip. The hike down to Baengundong Village, another 3 miles, took just about 1.5 hours.

Baengundong seemed to be a much more popular destination with tourists than Chi-in, where the bus from Daegu deposited me. There were flocks of taxis and tour buses positively everywhere at the eastern foot of the mountain range. They were all Korean weekender tourists, with the exception of one. Living here, you quickly get used to people approaching you and chattering away in a language that you don't understand one bit, so you learn to ignore it, or at the very least smile and nod. In the main parking lot, a Korean woman approached us, obviously looking to ask us a question or garner help of some sort. A park official stepped in and politely rattled off her spiel in Korean, but the woman was just as perplexed as we were. Turns out she was from Hawaii, and spoke even less Korean than us, so she finally had someone to ask about the hiking trails. It's funny what can throw you for a loop when you judge a book by its cover.

Gayasan is the closest national park to Daegu, so I foresee many more day or overnight visits in the future. However, one thing that is quickly becoming clear is that despite the downfalls of my schedule at EMS, there is something to be said for being able to go camping on Wednesday and Thursday. It's crowded enough in the woods here on a weekday, and the weekends are absolute pandemonium.

Most of my hiking posts seem to be rather verbose, so I'll cap it here for today. I have a lot more to talk about this week though, so stay tuned!