Tackling Taejosan, Twisted

8 September 2012

On Saturday, we went to Cheonan, a bigger city next to Asan, where we live.  There, we hiked up Taejosan, one of the smaller mountains in Korea.  It was my first time to actually hike up a real mountain.  Initially, I was thinking, “Come on.  How different can it be from hiking in Broken Bow, Oklahoma?”  Ummm…the answer is…pretty different.  To get to the actual hiking trail, we had to walk up a really long paved road, which in and of itself was pretty steep.  I have to admit that I was already huffing and puffing a bit in spite of the fact that I jog almost daily.  When we got to the top of the paved section, there was a really beautiful temple.  

The colors they use on temples here are amazingly vibrant.  

After resting under the guise of taking lots of pictures, I began the trek up the mountain.

I tried to stay to the back so as not to slow anyone else in the group down although I wasn’t doing a horrible job of keeping up and was only slightly abashed when this seventy-five year old man in full hiking regalia whizzed past me, taking with him my mountaineer-ing dignity. 

Cleverly disguised cell phone tower

I was happily climbing along when suddenly I stepped onto a tree root that was rising from the ground a bit.  As my ankle started to move forward, my foot stayed where it was.  A sharp intake of breath preceded the minor expletive that escaped my lips (don’t worry Mom; it was only a minor one).  My hiking companions turned to see what had happened only to find me bent from the waist, clutching my twisted ankle.  After the initial surprise, I realized it wasn’t really that bad.  I probably just needed to pay closer attention to the path in front of me.  I assured everyone that I was fine and just needed to walk it out, and we continued. 

When we finally reached the peak, we looked out over the city of Cheonan, which is much bigger than I would have thought.  I had a similar, but opposite, reaction to New York City when I moved there.  I had always thought of NYC as this huge, overwhelming place only to discover that the island of Manhattan itself was so much smaller than I had initially expected.  Cheonan is a sprawling city with various, smaller pockets of commerce and residential buildings.  It is similar to Dallas in this way.  It is spread out so much as to make public transportation take a distant second place to the convenience of a personal vehicle, as we have been discovering during our time here so far.  Good thing I like to read on buses J.

On the way down the mountain, I was talking too much, and, sure enough, I twisted the same ankle again.  This time, I went down for a good three or four minutes while the Hubby and our friend looked for a walking stick for me to use as I navigated the descent.  I only hope the scene didn’t too closely resemble that Family Guy episode where Peter Griffin is lying on the ground, constantly moaning and grunting in pain for an exorbitant amount of time.  I am proud to say, though, I sucked it up and kept going.  I felt a little Gandalf-like with my staff (or large tree branch, however you like to refer to it) and, in spite of my swelling ankle, had an overwhelming urge to yell, “You shall not pass!” to the family of Korean hikers passing me in the other direction.  I refrained. 

The way down the mountain seemed even more difficult than the way up, not only because of my ankle, but also due to the vast amounts of rocks in various sizes that littered the path.  It took all my strategic ability to place my support branch in exactly the right spot so as not to injure myself all over again.  Finally, I met the rest of the group at our main destination – a gigantic statue of Buddha nestled on the side of the mountain.  It took me aback as I rounded the corner to see the large figure looming overhead.  It really was quite impressive.  We took more pictures and started down the paved road that led to the foot of the mountain.

After the hike, we ate at a vegetarian buffet nearby and then, exhausted, headed home to our little apartment where the Hubby found some frozen blueberries in the fridge to wrap around my ankle.  Be assured, however, I am healing nicely (but I admit, I have milked it for all it’s worth J).