On Sunday, I received a text message about hiking through the mountains at Bogyeong-sa. The trip was scheduled for Monday. On the other end of the text message was Andy. Andy is a Canadian who loves the outdoors. He is a Tae Kwon Do instructor.
Recently, I haven't had the time to exercise much. It was the weekend of Children's Day, which is a special holiday for Korean children. I didn't have to work on Monday. For that reason alone, I jumped at the opportunity to take the hike. Now he told me it was an eight hour round-trip hike. I think I'm young, fit, and up for a bit of challenge. With that attitude, I agreed. I didn't take the time to think about what this trip would entail. For starters, It was around 9pm on Saturday when I received his message which meant that I'd have to hit the sack in less than three hours to get enough rest. We were meeting at 7:30am to catch a bus. Were we to have missed that bus we would have waited an hour for the next one.
I packed light. Too light! I ate all my food one-third of the way up the mountain. I was very tired by the time we reached two-thirds of the way to the summit. That wasn't good at all! Six hours after we began, we made it to the summit where we took our longest rest. We took photos, and enjoyed fruit shared with us by some Korean hikers who happened to arrive at the summit around the same time. I was starving and very appreciative of our Korean counterparts' selflessness, and generousity. It's the Korean way! :)
As I mentioned, I was tired and hungry. By the time I made it down the summit I was injured. My knee began to show signs that it had been overused. Even at the base of the summit we still had four hours of hiking to do before we returned to the temple. I cursed the trip! I wanted nothing more than to be in my apartment, eating a nice warm meal, or surfing the internet in a PC ¹æ. In retrospect, I've done some stupid things. Underestimating this challenge is now one of them. As I understand it, "stupid" in Korean is "babo." That kept ringing in my head throughout the trip.
Also, I think that the hike was great, however, I wasn't prepared. I'll pack more food, chocolate, and another bottle of water next time. Oh, I didn't mention it earlier. I did have a bottle of water. Luckily, the water in the bottle was frozen so I was able to drink small amounts of water throughout the day. Imagining how I'd have been without any water is a very dreary thought.
Lesson: Be Well Prepared for Life's Challenges!
|  | 
|
