Post-162: On a Foggy Mountain Top in Korea

A third attempt at video-making a part of my hike (the first two: post-158 and post-157).

It was a rainy and eerily-foggy October 10th. When the rain let up for a while and the fog lifted, it looked like this:

Try to imagine what it was like on this particular day–

Imagine steady rain, cold, thick fog causing low visibility, and imagine your clothes wet, your body wet from rain (despite a raincoat) yet sweating. No fun. I spent a lot of time that day trying to find cover on the exposed ridge, mostly failing (though I succeeded in keeping the contents of my backpack dry). Navigating the trail was hard due to slippery rocks.

By now, a general rule for hiking that I’ve learned is this: “The harder the conditions, the better the views”.

The views over the foggy valleys you see here are an example. Without the misery of that day’s hike, the views would’ve been…uhh…less dramatic, or less vivid, or something. I remember reaching this little overview area, which I think is named Sambongsan [삼봉산] or Deogyusambong [덕유삼봉]. The view hit me with the force of a bucket of ice water dumped on the head on a sizzling August day.

Note: This was along the cross-country Baekdu-Daegan Trail (백두대간) in Korea, which I’ve been hiking since mid-September. It was along the trail northeast of a place called Bbae-Jae (“Bone Pass”, 빼재), and east of Deogyusan National Park (덕유산), and southwest of 소사곡개 (Sosa Pass).

Whoever is reading this, I hope you enjoy(ed) this video. I hope it gives a small taste of what my long hike has been like. Thanks for watching/reading.