Touch the sky at Cheonmasan!⛅⛰️

Normally, I write my blogs in English but in an effort to cater to both our English-speaking and Korean-speaking audiences, the Korea Wanderers team has decided to add Korean summaries of our blogs. Now, we hope that more of you can now follow us on our journeys as we blog!This was brilliantly translated by Nikolett Korosi of the Korea Wanderers Team! Enjoy the read! :) Last week Saturday, the Korea Wanderers teamed up with NGL Forum to hike the mighty Cheonmasan (천마산) which is 812m in elevation! I am proud to report that we conquered the mountain successfully but it was not without its challenges. First off, coming from Seoul, I accidentally took a wrong subway line and ended up starting the hike later than expected but still managed to get an early start to avoid some crowding at the peak.

천마산 위에 하늘을 만질 수 있었습니다~

지난 토요일에 우리 코리아 원더러스(Korea Wanderers) 팀은 NGL Forum과 함께 812미터인 천마산에 등산하기로 갔습니다. 저는 서울에서 갔는데 지하철을 잘 못 타서 조금 늦게 도착했습니다. 아쉽고 미안한 마음이 컸는데, 팀이 저를 잘 기다려서 정말 고마웠습니다. 저희는 등산을 잘 시작할 때 오전이어서 사람들이 너무 많이 없었습니다.

저희는 2시간으로 등산하기로 했는데, 저는 그날 너무 피곤해서 등산이 생각보다 어렵다고 느껴서 걱정을 많이 했습니다. 그런데도 최대한 빨리 등산하기를 도전했습니다. 저희 팀장은 제가 너무 피곤한 것을 보니까 착하게 저의 가방을 가져 등산해서 제가 조금 더 쉽게 올라갈 수 있었습니다.
저희 팀은 등산하다 보면서 자주 쉬는 시간도 가졌는데요. 아름다운 풍경을 즐기며 놀랍게도 너무 빨리, 1시간 반으로 정상에 올라갔습니다. 불행하게도, 그날 미세먼지가 나빠서 정상에서 풍경을 잘 즐기지 못했습니다. 그렇지만 친구들과 함께 등산해서 아쉬운 마음이 없었습니다. 저희는 그 후에 또 다른 정상에도 가봤습니다. 거기 사람들이 엄청 많아서 시간 조금만 보낼 수 있었습니다. 그런데도 예쁜 사진을 찍을 수 있어서 다행이었습니다.
내려간 길이 같지만 느낌과 풍경이 약간 다르게 보였습니다. 내려가기가 조금 쉬워서 산을 잘 관찰할 수 있었습니다. 하지만 길의 마지막 부분에 다른 산로에 가게 돼서 결국 다른 멋진 산경도 볼 수 있었습니다. 내려가면서 은행나무가 많은 작은 곳에도 조금 멈추고 사진을 찍을 수 있었습니다. 저희는 작은 아이처럼 낙엽을 던지면서 행복하고 재미있는 시간을 보냈습니다.
천마산을 잘 등산하고 나서 저희 팀은 매우 배고팠습니다. 그래서 어떤 식당에 가서 딱갈비를 아주 맛있게 먹었습니다. 사진들을 보면서 천마산의 분위기를 느끼시지요?^^ 사진들을 저희 착한 친구, Jyoti가 찍었습니다. 

We were challenged to finish this hike in 2 hours and I recklessly accepted the challenge. Having climbed the likes of Seoraksan before, I was pleasantly surprised that this mountain challenged me so much. However, just 20 minutes into this hike and I was already panting but I would like to put the disclaimer out there that I am not very fit at the moment so do not let this deter you from climbing this beautiful mountain. As I woke up very early and travelled almost 2 hours to see this mountain, I decided that I had to reach the top one way or another. So said, so done!

Despite the frequent stops along the way, it was still a very enjoyable hike and surprisingly, we made it to the top in just under 1 hr 30mins. I was also kindly assisted by our mentor along the trail as he carried my bag to lessen my burden on the way up. When we got to the first look out point, it was not very clear but we could still see the mountain ridges in the distance where I happily took a rest.

We then forged forward toward the main peak but was already too late as this peak was very narrow and already packed with the religious hikers. However, we still got some nice pictures and was able to breathe in the fresh air before starting back down.

Although, we followed the same way back down, it felt much different. For one, gravity was assisting me and I happily skipped down the hill. At the very end, we did take a slightly different route which offered us a more scenic view and a less steep trail which our knees later thanked us for.

Tip: Always take the more scenic view!

At the beginning of this trail, I had spotted a beautiful area where all the yellow leaves had fallen off the Ginko trees (은행나무) and children were playing with the leaves merrily. On our way back down, it was less crowded and although, exhausted, I couldn't help my playful side from bursting out of me and I rushed to play with the leaves like a little child who has never seen autumn before.

We finished this hike and headed in a bee line to the ddakgalbi (딱갈비) restaurant from the suggestion by one of our team mates. There, we had a very late lunch but amply made up for that skipped meal by eating a quantity almost equal to two lunches. After eating, to our heart's content, we then browsed the nearby garden at the footpath of Cheonmasan's (천마산) entrance before calling it a day.

The beautiful fall colors merged with the temple and its sculptures created a nice peaceful ambience to end the day on a good note. The pictures below were taken by Jyoti Mahadeo of the Korean Wanderers.

On behalf of the Korea Wanderers, it was very nice meeting everyone from the NGL team and we look forward to more collaborations like these in the future!