Autumn Hike: Mt. Bukhansan

I’m not ashamed to admit that my hiking experiences was non existent before this one. It was the last day Bukhansan Mountain opened for public before it temporarily closed on November 15-December 15 for fire-prevention and maintenance. It’s located just north of Seoul, so it’s very convenient if you just want to have a day hike close to the city—how hard can it be?—and that’s why I wasn’t taking this hike as seriously as I should’ve.

Bukhansan is a mountain of many peaks. There are several trails that leads to its peaks. In the end, I decided to hike the highest peak, Baegundae Peak. It said to serve the best view of ‘em all. The loop to Baegundae Peak and back is about 8 km. People said they can arrive at the top in just over two hours, so I expected the same for me.

The hike to the top is tough, yet rewarding. There weren’t many options to buy food and drinks when you start the hike. But you can always opt to pack your lunch and eat it along the hike—you’ll get plenty of opportunities to do this. Throughout the hike, you will find a little bit of everything here. At first, you’ll find yourself walking on a slight incline and the route started to get tougher from there. It’ll be best if you have hiking boots but you can get away with a decent pair of sneakers.

In the end, it took me around 6-7 hours to reach the top and go back, almost two times compared the average. Though, it's no wonder as me and my friends took a break in almost every turns. That just showed how out of shape we are. But, in my opinion, just enjoy the hike and savour the scenery slowly.

Whether you’re a pro or just hitting your first trail, Bukhansan is a quintessential that must be checked off the list when you’re in Seoul.

Are we still friends?

It's been more than 4 years since the last time I blogged. Was it second year or last year of high school? Now that I'm in college, probably the way I wrote then and now would differ. I'm trying to keep most of my past posts. Now that we became more self-conscious, some might think that middle to high school times was an embarrassing phase. I do agree, but not everything was as mortifying as that. Every seconds of it was precious, so I'm trying to preserve it through the posts.

College was a true turbulence. Throughout all the pressure, I was like an ever-changing piece of clay molded and shaped into something. I'm sure it helped shape my character—into the better or not, I'm not sure. One thing that I'm sure of was it changed a few of my interests. which was very unfortunate and regrettable. I sold my LC-A+ and Diana Mini, used the money to buy Kindle, and stepped on it. So that's the end of my analogue camera hobby and could be one of the reasons I read less books. Still, I like to take pictures. I gave my old love, Canon 60D, some new friends, Canon EF 35mm f/2.0 USM and Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 STM, and candies—filters. I didn't play PC games anymore, though I'm now exploring mobile MMORPGs. There is one that I'm crazy of so maybe I'll write about it. I'm still and more into skincare and a little bit of makeup now.

Hopefully, after this semester—which means I'll have more spare times—I'll try to read more and write more.