After yesterday's mammoth hike (as least as far as children are concerned) we decided to take it a bit easier today. We knew we needed to get back out on the trails again to stretch out our muscles so opted to hunt for a cachebox on a mountain near the Gwanak Subway Station--further southwest in Seoul's suburbs (if Seoul even has suburbs). It turned out this little mountain was the perfect elixir for us. As we headed out of the apartment to begin this hike a very threatening rainstorm hit but we decided to forge on and continue with our plans and dodge the raindrops just because it's so rare for Trekkie to get free time for hiking. As it turned out it was a great decision--by the time we reached the intended station the rain had stopped and the clouds were starting to clear. The rain had a 'purging' effect for all the hikers that are usually out and about Seoul on the weekends. Somehow the people were still on the metro and not on the trails as we've never been so crammed into the subway cars as we were on our various connections today. But that trend fizzled out once we reached the trail. The mountain we climbed was completely deserted! Awesome!
The ascent started out gradually--nice, smooth trails with a decent incline. This area reminded me a little of the Northeast US. The trees were sporadic and there was a hint of underbrush. What really caught my eye was the glittering pink & gold granite rocks all around.
It was sooo pink I had to snap a photo of it. We even collected some samples of the rocks--they're quite glittery.
Here's one of the views from near the summit. This mountain turned out to be a little respite of nature in the thick of the metropolis. We were surrounded on all sides by factories, highways, skyscraper apartment buildings--you name it. But the mountain itself was lush and green and seemed to be deserted until we discovered:
Defensive positions and trenches all around. This was our first discovery. The trenches were about 5-6' deep.
Here's a view of one of the abandoned guard stations we came across. This area explains why the mountain was so deserted! It had been a military installation for quite sometime. Perhaps even recently because I noticed communication wires strung all about.
Here's another defensive position we found. It, too, was about 6' deep but had this giant mound of grass-covered stones and rocks. I presume this had been an anti-aircraft gun position at sometime. Not sure if the mound is covering an old gun mount or if they just added it for 'fun' after they abandoned the site.
As we approached the cachebox we actually had completely crossed over the summit. On this tip of the mountain I saw dozens of magpies soaring in the strong winds that lingered after the storm had passed. You can barely make out one of the magpies just above the boulder to the left of the center of the shot (to the right of the evergreen). There were others but rnrB & trkr scared them off in the time it took me to retrieve my camera and before I could snap the shot.
Here's the reason we were in the area to begin with.
The Blue 001 GC was planted about a month and a half ago. We haven't a clue why it's named Blue 001--except maybe because the lid is blue/green? We rescued another TB--which is really bizarre. It was launched by a family who resides near Portland, OR--not terribly far from where we hail at the moment. What's even more bizarre is that the TB had been in a few parks by which we'd driven not too long ago. Somehow, we cross paths with it not even 2 months later some 5,000+ miles away from there. Small world, eh?
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Well, we completed the Blue GC around 4:oopm and decided to push our luck and try for one more cachebox in the city. It was not terribly far from this spot as the magpie flies but the way the metro lines are arranged it was quite far thanks to connections and parallel lines that never seemed to connect. If our metro transfers worked out well we might have a chance of finding it--if not, we'd at least learn our way to the spot and go from there on a future visit. Anyway, we managed to reach the origin for the next 'hunt' with plenty of sunlight left to spare and had to hop on a city bus (something we'd never before done in Seoul). That was interesting--we had to use the GPS during the bus ride to figure out where we were supposed to begin our hike. Odd but it worked. What caught my attention on the bus is that the seats are really, really narrow. I can't imagine many Americans (even average sized people) being able to fit in those seats. rnrB & trkr barely fit on the seats by themselves--much less Trekkie or I.
This is a view of the nearby mountains from Pin Box 2.
Turns out our next hunt is on the campus of Seoul National University. It made a very great impression on me. It was absolutely gorgeous! All this time I'd been in Seoul I had no idea this beautiful area existed. Well, I knew the university was here but had no idea it was so gorgeous. There were large lush green grass fields all around, an expansive amphitheater, hiking trails all around, exercise stations, water parks, fountains, picnic areas and even an area that seemed to be a science museum for families with what appeared to be an outdoor waterslide/water feature park and an observatory. Really beautiful spot! If we were going to be here longer I'd consider planting a letterbox there--especially in light of the fact that there's a large foreign contingent who attends the university (and perhaps knows about letterboxing?). We eventually reach our 'destination' and secure our treasure. This time we find a Singapore GeoCoin-- a first for us--finding an international geocoin. Up til now we've only found a wooden California Geocoin. So, that was interesting.
Here's the loot from this cachebox that bears the name Pin Box 2. Again absolutely no clue how these things are named! I'm thinking the original box may have actually been a 'pin' box and perhaps that's why it was named that but who knows? There wasn't anything associated with pins anywhere remotely near it. That coin with the red rectangle in the bottom is the GeoCoin. Upon returning home we looked into how expensive these things are and they run about $8 a pop--that's if you buy them in bulk! Not very cheap for some geo-fun. I'm amazed that folks go to those lengths for this hobby. The guy who planted this geocoin recently planted about a dozen of these coins with instructions to transport them to exotic places such as Thailand, Singapore, China & Russia. I'm even more amazed that those TravelBug dogtags run about $6 a pop, too! Who knew? You do get 2 of the TB dogtags for that price and a personal webpage to track its travels courtesy of geocaching.com. The hobby has definitely taken many twists, turns and deviations away from its 'mother-hobby of inspiration' in letterboxing.
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Well, after leaving our cachebox impression we still have some daylight to spare and opt to forego the busride back to the station and walk the 2 miles instead. It was an excellent decision because we were able to better study the surroundings. It was a lovely evening and a great opportunity to just be together. By the time we reached the apartment turns out we'd logged another 6+ miles of walking again--and this was supposed to be our 'easy' day. ;)
Gotta love it!
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