Final Thoughts

I’m glad I did the trail.  It was a worthwhile endeavour and it gave me a goal to complete for the year.  It also got me out and exploring the country.  I learned a lot along the way about some of the history of Korea, from Japanese colonial times to the history of the country since the Korean War.

But…

If I were to do it again, I would skip some parts.

For me, there was very little redeeming value to the third and fourth legs of the trail.  I would comfortably skip from the end of the second leg to the very end of the fourth leg.  In between there is very little that I would want to see again.

Similarly, the seventh leg is a bit depressing.  Ulsan is quite an ugly city.  The first part of the seventh leg is pretty nice, but as it gets down to the harbour area and its vision of some kind of apocalyptic hell landscape, it would be a total skip for anyone who wants to focus on nature.  That continues into the first part of the eighth leg which provides a lovely view down over the hellish landscape that is industrial Ulsan.  Skip…

The first part of leg nine is past a big plant of some kind and is quite uninteresting, but from then on, the trail becomes quite nice.

Leg eleven is a bit frustrating as it’s not clear how to get past the closed part of the trail.  Otherwise it gets interesting as there is history to be learned and historical stuff to see.  It’s also past a lot of the industrial yuck of the southern areas and so it’s mostly just coastline, right up into Pohang.

After that point, I wouldn’t say there is much that is a pass.  There are bits that pass through cities, but those bits aren’t nearly as bad as Ulsan.  I might give a pass on the leg through Donghae.

And leg 37 was really just kind of annoying, but it had been advertised as closed.  Once it is all rehabilitated after the construction, it might be better.  But it is in an urban area.

Overall, I did enjoy the trail.  It was not as natural as I had thought it would be based on that very first leg in the middle that I hiked with a hiking club.  But it was informative, it gave me lots of exercise and allowed me to make and meet an activity goal.

I’m very impressed with myself.  You will be as well.

Good luck if you are reading this in preparation for your trek up the east coast of Korea.