Challenge #6: A walk in the park

I took the day off from running, giving my body some time to recover and stay injury free.  But I had a lot of energy and a little bit of cabin fever....so I talked my amazing husband into going hiking with me!  (cha-ching!  does anyone say that anymore?).  The first step was trying to figure how to get to the mountain.  But I used the handy-dandy internet and wonderful public transportation site and we were on our way.  We went hiking at Mount Apsan.  I had read on some other people's blogs that it was really easy hiking so I was thought it was going to be a walk in the park.

Nice Beginning

After navigating our way to Apsan Park, we began our hike.  It was just like the other bloggers had said, nice clear paths.  It was so nice to be in nature.  We even saw a chird (a mix between a bird and a chicken, I am not sure what it was) as we started our hike.  The air seemed cleaner.  The sun was shining.  It was a great day for a hike.  All the pictures that you will see in this post were taken by my amazing husband.  (He is way better at taking pictures than I am).  And any picture you see, you can click on and it will be a lot bigger.

People working out!

Then we hiked a bit further.  The path became less paved and more dirt.  And more snow.  And way steeper.  I was panting.  (So much for being in shape).  I decided that we needed to take a break.  Guess what we saw?  A gym.  Halfway up the mountain, in the freezing cold there are people working out.  I am pretty sure I have never witnessed this.  People hike halfway up a mountain to workout in the outdoors in the middle of winter.  Gotta love Koreans.

After hiking for like 2 hours we finally made it!  We were on top of the world!  Would you like to know what is on top of the world?  A helicopter landing pad (true story).  Here are our pictures from the top of the world.

Woohoo!

So pretty!

Our lovely city!

 So then after making it to the top of the world, it was time to go back down.  We decided to try a different trail for the way down.  It was so steep! (Side note: we did not see any other people on this trail, I think everyone else knew it was too slippery and steep to hike on...) They had wooden posts in the ground and rope connecting the posts.  I was holding onto the ropes most of the way down.  It was fun trying to stay on our feet.  I felt quite accomplished with our hike.  It was so nice to be in nature and the quiet peacefulness that comes with hiking.  

The rope that helped me down the mountain.