There’s a great long distant mountain hike in South Korea called the Baekdudaegan (great ridge white head) It is 735km long and passes throught buddhist temples, mountain spirit shrines, and small villages. It has some stunning scenery and I have just completed it. Visit the blog at baekdudaegan.blogspot.com for more details.
Roger Shepherd
roger
How long did it take you to walk the ridge? Where did you begin the hike and where did you finish? How can I get a map of the Baekdudaegan. I went to highschool in Seoul 67 - 68. Have always wanted to return. During that time very few westerners ventured into that part of the country. What a lovely adventure!
Peter
The map on your web site shows the trail extending the length of south & north Korea… Is that right? I would think the North section wouldn’t be open, considering the gov’t situation there. Is there a northern extension of the trail? Or… was there some time ago?
Why did you do this so late in the year? I’m guessing it had to do with your personal schedule, but it would seem to be a lot easier in the summer months…
Congrats on the hike though - great to see long trails in different places!
Jonathan
Peter: The walk took 70 days.We will be making english maps of the ridge, but you can buy good Korean sets only in Korea.The maps we used are from gosanja.com.The hike begins on Chungwangbong 1915m in Jirisan National Park and ends at a place called Jinbu-ryeong just north of Seoraksan in South Korea. It passes through six National Parks and never crosses water.
Johnathan: The Baekdudaegan is a geographical and spiritual feature of the Korean peninsulapurporting to emit life energy forces. Overall it stretches about 1600km from Chungwangbong in South Korea to Baekdusan on the border with China in North Korea.The North Korean section is understandably inaccessible, although the Korean military let us walk to within 4km of the DMZ (a first). The best months of the year to walk this trail are either in Spring (April & May) or Autumn (September - October). Thanks it was a great experience, we aim to publish a guide book. Let’s hope one day the North Korean section becomes available.
Roger
I remember Korea having a rainy season, but it all looked very dry from the photos I saw at your blog. What was camping like? Were there shelters on the trail? What can an expedition like this cost? I remember everything being quite inexpensive but I’m sure that’s all changed.
Peter
Thanks for the info. It would be great if someday someone can organize a “peace hike” the entire length of the Peninsula… maybe including hikers from both sides of the DMZ.
I just had one comment, and I’m really trying to be constructive, so I hope you take this the right way… Your blog is difficult to follow. I can’t tell if you went north? south? when different things are posted, where the photos are, etc… There’s a bunch of stuff on the right side, but I don’t know how that relates to the left side of the screen. Plus, the colors make it hard to read (though, I realize it’s appropriately the trail’s colors…). There are some new photos posted ‘today’, but I thought you were done hiking??? Also, there are a bunch of ? marks everywhere, which I’m assuming are Korean text that my browser can’t display…
Two things that would help greatly are:
Again, I think it’s wonderful that you did this trip, and I’d like to learn more about the route. There’s a lot of interesting content on your blog, it’s just hard to figure it all out. Be well!
Jonathan
Thanks for your information. I’ve been researching a long hike in South Korea for awhile and never came upon this trail, so I’m glad you’re adding to the information. I read Korea by Simon Winchester last year, about his walk across the country. My question to is how were the logistics of resupply? Did you mail food to towns along the way or shop in each town you passed by along the trail.
David
Peter: Yes we did it supposedly in the dry season which should run from September through to end of Winter in late March, however weather is weather. Camping, you camp anywhere you want outside the National Parks, inside them you sleep in their shelters. 70 days hiking will cost you between 2500USD and 5000USD depending on your style. Their is also plenty of accommodations in nearby small towns on the trail. Korea’s O.K price wise, good service, excellent public transport, great country.
Johnathan: We went north. If you go back to the older posts, they will run sequentially. The blog is a bit messy but it’s a blog not a website. The hiking is finished but I am still in Korea doing some more touring along the flanks of the Baekdudaegan, with the occasional excursion back to the ridge for photo opportunities. We will be writing two books. One a guide book and the other a classical and educational account of the Baekdudaegan. A website is also planned. The trail isn’t hiked a lot due to its length, but many Koreans hike segments of it on their weekends to acheive the overall result. We were the first foreigners to hike it and recognise it internationally, the trail is navigable and acheivable for any confident outdoorsman.
David: Winchester walked on roads (good story though). We shopped in small towns when we needed. Korea is a very developed and small country.
N.B. The Baekdudaegan is new to the western world. More information will be found in our guide book. I also suggest you visit www.san-shin.org. Prof David Mason is our academic researcher for this project and is an authority on aspects of Korean mountains. He has a page on the Baekdudaegan that covers a lot about its concept. I’m happy to answer more questions.
Roger.
Roger
san-shin = mountain spirit… Roger, thanks for posting this… It’s made me study and remember my time in korea as a teenager my hikes up kwanaksan north of Seoul and dreaming of a possible future hike there. Seoraksan looks pretty amazing. Wikipaedia has quite alot of info about the Baekdudaekan.
Peter
Glad to hear Peter. The Baekdudaegan is not just about the hike but also its reverence. The Baekdudaegan is a provider of life for Koreans due to its watershed and in the old days was respected by way of worship, acts still seen at altars, shrines, temples, and sanshinguks today. This ancient fascination blends quite nicely with the modern well developed inclinations of making money in the quirky land of Korea…crime free by the way too!
Roger
Roger, thanks for all the info. I look forward to seeing more info (book/web) when you get it together.
It’s amazing to me that more Koreans don’t thru-hike the trail all in one go. If this ridge/divide-line is so revered… and it seems like a beautiful thing… Why do you think that is? Perhaps a matter of a hard work ethic there, and not wanting to take so much time off to do it? Though, given the length, I would think it could be done in 30-40 days… Or, perhaps it just hasn’t caught on for some other reason - it’s just not seen as “something people do”. Anyway, I’d be curious to hear your thoughts.
jonathan
Thanks for your answer Roger. I have visited the san-shin and will do so again for future reading. I’ll also be ordering Dave Mason’s book Spirit of the Mountains. I went to the map site you suggested (gosanja.com), but can’t read Korean. Is there any other place to purchase maps for hiking the Baekdudaegan?
David
Thanks for the replies fellas. I’m back in NZ and will continue more thoroughtly with this forum once I am back online. Glad to hear you ordered the book David, Johnathan I’ll get back to you with more detailedinfo when I get a longer moment.SuprScout, don’t mouth off on this forum please, just start your own, I’m sure the highlands are a great walk as well.
Roger