Jirisan

Hiking seems to be as sacred a practice in Korea as making holy pilgrimages in many other countries. From my very first visit to Korea in 2003, I noticed a major hiking culture here. And were not just talking weekend warriors who throw on a pair of old jeans and sneakers and fill a backpack with lunch, it seems that every serious "hiker" in Korea has to buy all the most professional gear and really deck themselves out before they can even head to the outskirts of Seoul for a light half-day hike. The funny thing though is that Korea doesn't have any really high peaks. But what they lack in size and quantity, they certainly do make up for in quality, and I have to admit that Korea is my favorite place to hike thus far (granted I've not hiked THAT many places, but I've done my fair share, at least in East Asia). On my second trip to Korea for my friend's wedding in 2004, I took off after the wedding to Gangwan-do (the best province in Korea for outdoors fun) and tackled its three highest and more interesting peaks in three days. Longing to hit up some of the other famous peaks in Korea, on my trip to the Jeonju International Film Festival I took advantage of the opportunity to tackle Jirisan, one of South Korea's three most famous mountains. While only 1915 meters tall, the hike to the top (with a few detours along the way) still made for a pretty strenuous full-day adventure, and the fact that I had diarrhea the entire time didn't make it any easier (but at least it meant I left a long trail of toilet paper behind me so I could find my way back if I got lost!). While it didn't quite compare to my hiking trip several years earlier in Gangwan-do, Jirisan was still a very pleasant hike and well worth the trip down south.