Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Gamecock]

I live in a rural area with fantastic hills, mountains, and forests. I've gone hiking/mountain climbing with Korean friends and co-workers on several occasions (always on the weekends or holidays), but invariably we end up surrounded by the Korean masses fighting for the same little footpath.

There are tons of desolate, forested areas nearby and I suggested to some coworkers that we go off exploring one of the forests or climb one of the medium-sizes mountains (errr hills) that doesn't have a path. They looked at me as if I needed psychiatric help! It couldn't possibly be done!

Is there a law that you can't go exploring such "untamed" areas in Korea? Or is this just a cultural thing?

[ajgeddes]

[Jarome_Turner]

Be careful you don't run into a mountain ginsing bodyguard. Those dudes will fu(k you up.

[eamo]

Korean hills are very steep. Go off-path and you will be scrambling on all-fours a lot.

Places where it's not too steep is where you'll probably find a path anyway.

[mj roach]

I do that whenever I go hiking.

Even on the most popular 'mountains' there are small 'side trails' that very few Koreans use.

From those trails it's possible to follow even smaller 'game' trails usually along the contours -

there's no need to do the straight up and down thing, if you don't want to.

The few Koreans who have gone with me had a 'really' hard time sitting quietly long enough to see birds and animals.

[Gamecock]

Don't Koreans ever just go exploring in the woods? Korean kids?

[normalcyispasse]

There's nothing wrong with going off-path. Be prepared for brambles and scrambling.

[dogshed]

Before I knew where the local paths were I went walking to find a good
high place to take a picture of my apartment from to send back home.

I got up the the big outcropping I saw but there were too many trees
to get a good picture.

I also found an indention that I think might have been a pillbox.

I tried to go up a part that was too steep and
I'm lucky I didn't kill myself. It wouldn't take much to strand me there
and my school would probably just think I pulled a runner.

Another time I went off the trail and found myself at the backstop of
the shooting range. I think it's only pellet guns and arrows, but it's
still dangerous.

[oldfatfarang]

There's always opportunities for getting off the trail. I used to hike every weekend on Nam san - Kyeong gu. After a while I got adventurous and found my own way. Man did I get lost - for a while. Doesn't matter, K is so small - you always end up on a valley floor complete with highways and buses back to town etc. And some of these mountans are very steep - I got bluffed once.

But I have a morbid fear of snakes - so I ony went off the noisy, well travelled trails in winter (I got sick of being startled by fleeing snakes).

[Muhaksan]

Going off-trail can be good for getting away from crowds, but it can also be steep, scratchy, and dangerous. I'd only recommend it in winter unless you like spider-webs, snakes, and bugs. I've been hiking in Korea for over 10 years and know some pretty good spots for avoiding crowds, although most of them are in the southern provinces.
One thing I was surprised to come across was animal snares. I was hiking a small mountain within sight of Masan, a city of 500,000, and a snare suddenly wrapped aroung my ankle. It was some kind of thin wire and not dangerous to me, but would've killed (or trapped) any number of small things like rabbits, pheasants, or wild pigs. I was pretty angry and in the next 30 minutes on the same trail I came across and threw away about 10 more. Some poacher must've been pretty pissed.

[Gwangjuboy]

You do have a much better chance of seeing the wildlife. I've seen many snakes by hiking away from the beaten track.