서울둘레길 2.0 Trails 12, 13, 14, 15
– To my Seoul Trail main page.
– To the official Seoul Trail website.
These is the Hoamsan mountain, Anyangcheon Stream (up- and downstream sections), and Noeul & Haneul Parks of the trail. It was a total of 33km. Below are the links to the routes on Naver Maps:
Trail 12 naver.me/GjZAeLsw
Trail 13 naver.me/5ITpNcIe
Trail 14 naver.me/54xrUE9g
Trail 15 naver.me/51aq5DfZ
I only did four sections today! The weather was clear and about 12 degrees Celsius, perfect for a long hike (and ride!).
Route 12 Hoamsan
This starts at Gwanaksan Mountain Station, Gate 1 and goes into the park entrance. It follows a trail westwards in forest along the foot of the mountain. There is a nearby temple you can visit on the way, plus some really nice pine tree parks with lots of boardwalks and places to sit and picnic; saved for future reference!
The end of the route is at Seoksu Station and is a pretty bleak looking industrial area!
Route 13 and 14 Anyangcheon
The next few sections are along a river and cycle path, so I decided to transfer to a city bicycle, one of the white and green Ddareunggi bikes you can rent as part of Seoul City’s bike share scheme. I had to walk about 150m to get a bike, then cycle back to the station. Then I needed to cross the tracks by taking the elevator up to the bridge over the station, then an elevator down. Then I set off at speed along the trail. Then I remembered in all the excitement that I’d forgotten to get my stamp! So back I went (thank goodness I was cycling), got it, then set off again.
This part of the trail is definitely worth cycling, the only way in my opinion! It’s long, straight and doesn’t change a lot, so walkers might get a bit bored. That said, it’s still a pleasant section, with interesting flower parks to see next to the river, a raised bank above the stream for walking, and sections with long avenues of autumn trees. Trail 13 ends at Guil Station. There, I reset my city bike for another hour and took a quick rest.
The trail continues straight on from here on a bank alongside the river with long stretches of pretty trees and park by the river. The trail continues on all the way to the Hangang River on the west side of Yeouido. At the Han river, I had another break and tried to spot the pilot of a drone in the area (couldn’t!). A bit further along, I left the trail to find a bike station to reset my bicyle for another hour then set off to the end of the trail, Gayang Bridge, near Gayang Station.
Route 15 Noeul & Haneul Parks
This would be my last section of the day. It would end up at Jeungsan Station, near my home, so great! No long subway and bus ride to do! You go over the long bridge and can take an elevator down to continue the trail. The elevator was out of service though, so had to clumsily wheel my city bike down the winding stairs…
Anyway, now I was in very familiar territory, having ridden along this section many times in the years. It goes past Nanji Park and campsite, the public outside pool I found this year and into the parks near Sangam and the World Cup stadium. At the parks, you walk amongst beautiful metasequoia trees for ages. At the end of autumn, the change from bright yellow to a deeper reddish, ginger colour. Out of the parks and you walk around an art and culture place built into a set of disused industrial storage tanks. Quite and interesting place I’d visited before, so I didn’t stay, just walk through.
After that, I cycled the rest of the trail along Bulgwangcheon Stream and to my local bus stop! Great day!