Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Enigma]

I'm thinking about heading down south for one of the long weekends coming up and I'd like to hit Jirisan for a day hike while I'm down there.
I know it's a huge park with lots of access points, but I thought maybe some of you could recommend your favourite hikes. I'm thinking no more than 4 to 6 hours return, and I'm in good shape so I'm not worried about the difficulty. My preference would be for a good balance between scenery and solitude (i.e. not overrun with millions of hikers on cellphones).
Any suggestions (including how to access them via public transport) are appreciated.

Thanks

[emilylovesyou]

Just went there last week.

First, if you plan on spending a night on the mountain at one of the shelters, you will have to bring food and cooking supplies. The most they offer is canned tuna, uncooked ramen, and choco pie. You can rent a sleeping bag. Also get there earlier in the day, maybe around 5pm. They fill up fast and if you don't have a reservation too bad.

Other than that, We took a bus to Gurye (구례) from Nambu terminal. From there took a smaller bus to Hwaomsa temple, spent the night in a minbak, and then did the uphill hike from there the next morning. It was tough (you're climbing rocks 80% of the time), and takes about 4 hours. That trail takes you to Nogodan where there is a rest stop. At Nogodan we took a smaller trail along the mountain and hiked to another shelter where we spent the night (took another 5 hours or so, lots of up and down mountains). The next day it started to get rainy, so we hiked down to Banson Village (반선, about 5 hours) and came back to Seoul.

Wish we could've gone to the highest peak, 천왕봉, but didn't want to do that in case it rained/snowed. Apparently you can do that peak as a day hike, up and down in a day.

I recommend the trail up from Hwaomsa as it's very pretty, although very rocky, and the trail from the ridge down to Banson. It's a gradual decline for about 10 km, not too rocky and you follow a stream the entire time. If you want to go up that trail, take a bus from Dong Seoul terminal to Inwol (인월), and then another bus to Banson. If you have time go to the highest peak, but I'm not sure how to get there from the bottom of the ridge.

[I-am-me]

Dont worry about tons of other hikers. I went there in the summer and seldom even saw a bird! Kinda sad. Too quiet for me.

[Troglodyte]

Anyone know where you can download a garmin IMG file for that area?