Cheonmasan, Maseok & Bakery Theater 천마산

I wanted to try a mountain outside of Seoul for a day trip and decided to go west (there’s a bakery cafe there I wanted to try; two birds, one stone and all that). The day didn’t turn out as expected, but was a good day anyway 🙂

My original plan was to hike Seorisan or Chukryeongsan (서리산, 축령산) because these were behind the Garden of Morning Calm, the surrounding area of which I thought needed more exploring (see another post). As I got closer, it seemed like rain was coming so at the last minute, I opted to go somewhere slightly closer, Cheonmasan (천마산). Buses aren’t that frequent, so I wasted a bit of time at Maseok Station, but eventually got close enough to start hiking.

I had a few false starts at the trail-heads I was trying to find; this part was not well hiked at all, and there was no real way through the vegetation. I had to double back a few times, but finally got to a trail. It turned out to be a fire trail, unmarked on KakaoMaps. It was therefore an easy hike which didn’t got to any peaks but afforded some nice views of the surrounding lush green hills. The light rain and mist in the distance really added to the feel. I thought about heading off the fire road and into the vegetation to try to go up, but by this point, I’d lost interest!

Once I got to the main road, I got a bus east to the cafe I wanted to visit. Before going there, I wandered around a bit and headed to the nearby river. It was so calm and peaceful there; people were ‘camped’ next to the river, fishing, and the weather was perfectly grey and pleasantly warm and breezy. I had my bread and guacamole lunch I’d brought with me and chilled for some time. There were amazingly long lines of birds flying along the river heading somewhere; quite the sight, one massive line after another. Geese? No idea!

I recognised this part of the river (the bridge, the connecting stream) from times I’ve cycled past from Seoul to Gangcheon.

My last stop would be Bakery Theater, a large, bakery/cafe that had shown up on my Instagram feed one day and I decided to follow. I was drawn by the river views and wide spaces shown in their photos and I wasn’t disappointed.