서울둘레길 2.0 Trail 19
– To my Seoul Trail main page.
– To the official Seoul Trail website.
This is the Bukhansan Mountain & Seongbuk-gu part of the trail and is 6km. Below is the link to the route on Naver Maps:
Trail 19 https://naver.me/F3TK22FC
[Photos to follow]
I got on the road at Hwagyesa Temple at about 10:30. It was cloudy and chilly, and some snow and ice on the road and trail. These parts of the trail follow the same route as parts of the Bukhansan Dullegil, so just follow the same signs. I was walking south, counter-clockwise, so in the opposite direction of the route numbering.
The first point of interest was a tall wooden tower. This is what piqued my interest in these trails; I saw a photo on a hiking poster at a subway station, then started looking into the trails. There are probably about three or four of these tall watch towers on the trail and they offer nice views to the mountains and the city. The sky was quite hazy so even thought the sun was starting to show, it was making the distant view look more foggy!
The rest of the trail is mainly forested, gently inclined paths. Some parts were icy, others completely free of snow. There was another temple built into a modern building along the trail (I’d passed this before on another hike). I kept on until I was about to enter Pyeongchang and the end of the trail. Just before the end is Gubokam hermitage. I’ve been past here lots on other hikes, so this time I wandered inside. There are two impressive looking boulders at the entrance!
Then I went to the final stamp booth for the final stamp in my book! Phew! I tried to take a photo but my phone camera froze so I had to restart it. As I was waiting, a man drove up, parked then entered the trail entrance and stood by the booth. I thought he might be waiting for someone as he didn’t do anything. Then I sensed that perhaps he was waiting for me to leave? I was still waiting for my phone to reboot. Eventually, he pulled about 5 stamp cards out of his pocket then put a stamp into each one. Then he left, got back in his car and drove away! I wonder what that was all about. I wanted to chase him and shout, “Shame! Shame! Shame! Shame!” but that would’ve been childish. Is there a mini industry in collecting Seoul Trail stamps?!
I headed a little way into Pyeongchang and thought about getting coffee. It’s like the Beverly Hills of Seoul in that there are lots of expensive hillside properties built on the border of the national park. It’s a nice area. There are cafes and art galleries to visit. Just a word of warning; the cafe called Piano Cafe is lovely and unique, but a coffee there might set you back about 12,000 won or more! In the end, I decided to head back home and do a bit of shopping and prepar dinner for me and Romana (Emart were selling fresh oysters for 6,000 a pack so we had those with white wine in the evening!).