A quick trip to Apsan

Last weekend Blair, Mina (my old co-worker from St. Louis!), and I went to hike up Apsan. The plan was to hike up, watch the sunset, then hike down. The problem was that Saturday was hot, and when Blair and I left Sunday, it was warm.. by the time we went to go hike, it was freezing! It was raining intermittently and very windy. We decided to take the cable car, get a view of the city, and hurry home.

It was slightly disappointing not to actually take the trail, but the cable car is great because it is open all year. You can get an awesome view of Daegu even when the weather isn't conducive for hiking.

Getting to Apsan is easy. Take the 401 Bus, it's the last stop. There is an information center on the path, and you'll pass a little museum on the way. The cable car is 8,000 Won for a round trip ticket.

Apsan Park

This weekend Corinne and I decided to go hiking. As I am sure most of you know, I don't hike. It was an experience. In Korea, there are no switchbacks - you don't hike at an angle going up, but instead it is straight up. As some points it is stairs, other times just large rocks with uncomfortable points coming out of them. Needless to say, we stayed out far too late the night before, and went anyway.

We were quite the troopers.

Reading the Korean signs, we basically just walked towards the arrows on whims. Our goal was to to hike up and see a few temples and then walk to the cable car and take it up to the top. We ended up hiking 2 km in the wrong direction, but ran into the temples regardless.

(The rest of these pictures were taken by Corinne, because my camera's batteries died, and her camera is awesome.)

At some point we decided we must be going the wrong direction, and double backed. Luckily we were right, and found the way to the cable car.

It was a pretty amazing experience.

This should give you an idea of what hiking in Korea is like. These are not smooth cobblestones, but sharp, pointed rocks I could feel through my sneakers. And of course the stairs.

Random playscape items on the side of a mountain.

The pictures really cannot capture how amazing this was. We could see the entire city of Daegu from the top. We arrived at the perfect time to see the sun setting, it was worth the sore legs the next day!