A nice walk in the mountains, if you get past the sprawl.

I went to Su-tung-keul creek, which sits in a valley near the mountains I usually visit.
I had a fantastic time getting out and walking, just talking with some friends. I hadn't done something in the mountains this entire year so far. We ended up eating dinner at a place in my old neighborhood, and going to a board game room to spend the entire day outside the house. It was a great time.

(blurry picture of a wish tower)

One of the most unusual things you'll see when climbing mountains in Korea are stacks of flat rocks scattered anywhere there are loose river rocks to be found. Any trail you go on will have rocks piled on top of each other to form a precarious tower. Often, several dozen of these towers will sit next to each other, all composed of twenty or more rocks stacked in each pile, one on top of the other.

I didn't know the reason these stacks existed despite seeing them multiple times, but I finally got an explanation. I was told that each layer represented a wish made by someone that had added a stone to the pile. Each of the piles were simply a representation of people's desires laid out in stone and piled as high as they could go before it would fall for whatever reason.

I'm amazed these delicate stacks are left standing despite being obvious targets for children to destroy. As far as the trail habits of most people going to the mountain, their idea of hiking isn't up to the standards I was taught. I was always told to carry out what you carry in, and leave no trace you were there if possible. I saw several people swimming in places marked by signs as off limits for whatever reason, and garbage floating in some places that was only being cleaned up by more responsible people.

I think people have a hard time "escaping" the city when ever creek and accessible mountain has a parking lot, and even on a light day you run into a few hundred people on the trails everywhere you go. The people that go to these mountains on their trips bring the city with them and leave behind their garbage. This serves to push people to go farther up stream to avoid everyone else's noise and mess. The sprawl of the picnic campers soon extends farther and farther along the trails, meaning you have to go farther just to escape to the city you came to the mountain to avoid in the first place.

It wasn't too crowded today, but it took a long time to get past the bulk of the people today. At least I can pretend that the sounds of the phones I left behind are birds instead of the latest downloaded music tracks.

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