Maisan Ride
Yesterday--a day without rain and work, Will and I met halfway between Nonsan and Gumi in Yeongdong. Or, were supposed to at least. I underestimated the speed of my esteemable steed and arrived at 1030, 30 minutes ahead of time. Around 11 I got a call from Will saying he got lost--it's not a normal ride if you don't get lost or nearly die here--and to meet him in Geumsan another 30 minutes down a beautiful windy road.
After a lunch of snails and beef we hit the road, whipping through curves, passing the Sunday drivers (mistakenly out on Saturday) and hitting the straightaways with a cacophonous blare. I still win with respects to sound, though I can't keep up when the curves dwindle.
We rode south to Maisan, mountains that Jason told me are called the horse ear mountains. Two pinnacles towering over the surrounding terrain, seemingly quite different. "It's like someone took a big dump here," Will eloquently stated.
The rock consisted of pebbles and other stones cemented together, almost like it was man made.
We paid our parking fees and our entrance fees and hiked up a bunch of sweaty stairs to this cave where Will decided to be a poser and pose for this shot. Supposedly there is some unsolved mystery with the water that is drawn from a spring in this cave.
We saw no mystery and walked back down to the saddle between the two peaks where we saw this:
Here we saw mystery and suspense, danger and thrills. All the elements of a tragic Korea Times article about two naive foreigners falling to their deaths from a cliff in a southern province. We also saw three men with climbing equipment come down through this blockade. We had 1/3 bottle of lukewarm water and some quickly rotting plums and figured we too were sufficiently equipped. Besides, this guffawing horse encouraged us.
After a short set of metal stairs and badly washed out trail we came to the crux:
A few hundred meters of vertical ascent, hauling ourselves up on ropes such as these. Will's big bike couldn't help his weak body here; I dusted him on the ascent using my superiour climbing ability.
Here, he pauses to take in the view
of the neighboring spire to east.
About halfway up the rope section we found a shirtless man at the top of a small cable car setup. Despite the fact we were where we shouldn't have been, he welcomed us with a friendly 어서오십시오! He still looked serious, making me think better of asking him what he was doing.
It seemed to me that he was hauling his these sand bags filled with a grass seed mixture up the mountain in stages. Every few minutes another load would come up. He would yell once, the cable stop and yell again for the cable to resume. He stacked what arrived at the bottom of the next stage.
Lower on the mountain, the grass was bushier, more lush.
The cairn at the peak, both of us dripping sweat. 676 meters, most of it in 25 minutes.
Beyond this rope, as this signs states, there was a significant amount of anger.
Braving the anger, and the ants, we crossed the line to take this mediocre photo of the other pinnacle. To the right the anger increased precipitously. We thought better of going any further.
A flower we found inpiring:
Though not nearly as inspiring this this old yangban. Will is pretending he is hopped up on ginseng too.
Close up of the man whose climbed the top of my most wanted to meet list.
We rode more, welcoming the cool breeze after such exertion in the sun. We found a rocky valley, a steep stream running through it that would have been real nice had we found it earlier equipped with bathing suits and beers. There were crowds of Koreans of all ages camped out on the rocky banks. Some throwing balls around, others grilling pork products, and one guy doing backflips off a rock. Alas we had some distance to go, still hoping not to get caught in a sudden downpour.
We sat overlooking this lake as the sun burned our skin on its downward path. Then the ride back to Geumsan and Will going west, me east.
After a lunch of snails and beef we hit the road, whipping through curves, passing the Sunday drivers (mistakenly out on Saturday) and hitting the straightaways with a cacophonous blare. I still win with respects to sound, though I can't keep up when the curves dwindle.
We rode south to Maisan, mountains that Jason told me are called the horse ear mountains. Two pinnacles towering over the surrounding terrain, seemingly quite different. "It's like someone took a big dump here," Will eloquently stated.
The rock consisted of pebbles and other stones cemented together, almost like it was man made.
We paid our parking fees and our entrance fees and hiked up a bunch of sweaty stairs to this cave where Will decided to be a poser and pose for this shot. Supposedly there is some unsolved mystery with the water that is drawn from a spring in this cave.
We saw no mystery and walked back down to the saddle between the two peaks where we saw this:
Here we saw mystery and suspense, danger and thrills. All the elements of a tragic Korea Times article about two naive foreigners falling to their deaths from a cliff in a southern province. We also saw three men with climbing equipment come down through this blockade. We had 1/3 bottle of lukewarm water and some quickly rotting plums and figured we too were sufficiently equipped. Besides, this guffawing horse encouraged us.
After a short set of metal stairs and badly washed out trail we came to the crux:
A few hundred meters of vertical ascent, hauling ourselves up on ropes such as these. Will's big bike couldn't help his weak body here; I dusted him on the ascent using my superiour climbing ability.
Here, he pauses to take in the view
of the neighboring spire to east.
About halfway up the rope section we found a shirtless man at the top of a small cable car setup. Despite the fact we were where we shouldn't have been, he welcomed us with a friendly 어서오십시오! He still looked serious, making me think better of asking him what he was doing.
It seemed to me that he was hauling his these sand bags filled with a grass seed mixture up the mountain in stages. Every few minutes another load would come up. He would yell once, the cable stop and yell again for the cable to resume. He stacked what arrived at the bottom of the next stage.
Lower on the mountain, the grass was bushier, more lush.
The cairn at the peak, both of us dripping sweat. 676 meters, most of it in 25 minutes.
Beyond this rope, as this signs states, there was a significant amount of anger.
Braving the anger, and the ants, we crossed the line to take this mediocre photo of the other pinnacle. To the right the anger increased precipitously. We thought better of going any further.
A flower we found inpiring:
Though not nearly as inspiring this this old yangban. Will is pretending he is hopped up on ginseng too.
Close up of the man whose climbed the top of my most wanted to meet list.
We rode more, welcoming the cool breeze after such exertion in the sun. We found a rocky valley, a steep stream running through it that would have been real nice had we found it earlier equipped with bathing suits and beers. There were crowds of Koreans of all ages camped out on the rocky banks. Some throwing balls around, others grilling pork products, and one guy doing backflips off a rock. Alas we had some distance to go, still hoping not to get caught in a sudden downpour.
We sat overlooking this lake as the sun burned our skin on its downward path. Then the ride back to Geumsan and Will going west, me east.
posted by The Principal at 1:15 PM
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