Fall on Palgongsan

It was a perfect Fall day, low 70's, mostly sunny. Our Korean hosts had invited us to climb Mount Palgong. We left the Village at 8:30 and arrived within an hour. After waiting for the rest of the staff to arrive, we set out on our hike. Took the first group only about 90 minutes to reach the top. While the views from the top were less than ideal due to smog or fog (I'm not sure which it was), the trail itself was absolutely stunning. This was the color I had been anticipating for months!

Our kitchen staff had prepared our lunches, which we were asked to carry along. We were NOT going to go hungry. Had I been able to figure out how to refuse, I might have declined the two HUGE sandwiches, which I ended up lugging both up AND down the mountain. This was in addition to two rolls of Korean "gimbap", three tangerines, a bottle of water and a Korean chocolate bar (yummy).

Even at 11:30, there were many groups already up at the top, which was a huge rock shelf where people spread out their lunches. Koreans know how to eat at a picnic! We even had some wine and "Soju" (a Korean rice wine--think grain alcohol! Bonnie, very similar to Nepali rice wine). It was amazing to see what other Koreans had hauled up the mountain!

There was much picture-taking, and everyone had a great time. At the bottom, our Korean hosts presented us all with yet another gift of appreciation (for all our hard work--and here I thought I was hardly working!) A lovely box of rice soaps. Very nice.