It’d been a while since doing a long hike at Bukhansan (북한산) so I was looking forward to today’s hike with Niall and Dan. We started from Gugi-dong (구기동) and did a loop through Bibong, Munsubong, and Munsusa temple (비봉, 문수봉, 문수사). It took about four hours in total.

Some leaves were getting a bit Autumny but it’s not in full swing yet. The hike started at a good pace and some places were familiar. We soon got to the famous Bibong which I seem to see every Bukhansan hike, as it’s at a main intersection. A few peaks and side trails were taped off because of the pandemic and hiking was marred a little by having to put our masks on whenever we passed other hikers.

There’s one particular stretch of the hike that goes up a steep incline that requires gripping onto metal poles and cables; the kind of place where I know I will only be going up! It’s quite hairy there, but also quite breathtaking once you look back.

This is the ascent just before Munsubong, another well-known peak. This is a large granite area, reasonably flat with steep slopes going down a few sides, a big rock on top and a few trials leading to some of the walls and a ridge hike towards Bukhasnsanseong fortress.

After this, it’s pretty much downhill. There’s a section of wall over a fortress gate and a temple with a section in a cave (Munsusa temple).

After that, it was very pleasant valley trails past mostly dry, rocky stream beds.

Map of starting/finishing point and a few of the places we went through.