Leg 29: Hosan Bus Terminal to Yonghwa Railbike Station

Now, I have to be upfront here. I suppose under other circumstances and in other places, this would have been a fairly nice hike. It went over a little mountain through a pass, and the trees had their leaves so it could really be quite nice. But this is the leg where I really got quite angry about the trail.

From the Hosan Bus Terminal, the trail followed the road (surprise, surprise) out of town and into the mountainous areas just north. Along the way, it passed lots of new construction. (And this continues to confound me as well... everywhere in Korea seems to be building new places to live, and often for lots and lots of people, tens of thousands in many cases... I don't understand where all these people are supposed to come from. Are people supposed to be moving from other spots? What happens to the places they leave? Korea is not a very immigrant friendly country, so it's not likely people coming to Korea from elsewhere. Where are these people supposed to be coming from?)

More concrete...

Other industry of some sort...

And lots of being on the road.

There was one spot where the road bent around a curve that gave a nice view down on the coast. But that was it for coastal scenery. Now I understand that it's a very mountainous area, and they haven't probably got trails that lead along the coastline here. But this is Gangwon Province, billed as some of Korea's most scenic and beautiful terrain. So far...? I'm not impressed.

Then the trail veered off toward a mountain, and away from the coastal highway. Okay, I thought. Maybe there is something up that mountain that is worth seeing. Maybe it's more important than the coastline, which is really what the whole billing of the East Coast Trail is supposed to be about.

There was indeed greenery.

And new crops blowing in the breeze.

And more greenery.

But as I came over the pass and then back down towards the coast, I checked my map. And that's when I noticed that there were a couple of cultural parks of great interest, that showed on my map, and that were along the coastal road. These included Haesindang, a park that has a special lore in Korea. I will put some photos up from there in the post for the next leg, but I had been waiting to pass this park, as it is unique, and promised to be interesting. And instead, the trail had turned up a mountain path to bypass Haesindang Park completely. And that made me very angry. After all the hiking along highways and roads with traffic. After all the concrete plants and power generation plants, they bypass a very interesting cultural park. It boggled my mind. They don't know what they are doing. They really don't.