Hiking Jirisan

i went on another hiking trip outside of seoul last weekend. it's almost too cold for the likes of me, so i figured i might as well do at least one more good mountain before it's unbearable. jirisan happens to be one of the three most notable mountains in korea (the others being seoraksan, done that, and hallasan, which is on jeju island).
we left seoul before midnight and made it in time to start hiking in the dark, just before 5am. we caught a nice sunrise en route to the peak, and then it was a long, knee-jarring descent, but we made it back in time for a late lunch. unfortunately, the fall colors were past their prime, but it was a great hike w/ a sweet group of folks. we were pretty beat by the end, but a little soju and makgeoli took care of that. ;)


before heading back to seoul, we made a little cultural detour for some traditional music, and we also got to make our own jjango drums! we probably looked pretty ridiculous when we got back, though... about 40 foreigners w/ little toy drums walking the streets of seoul at night. haha. bap, bap!