Choongbuk Boeun Gubyeongsan Mountain Hike in Korea- Gubyeongri Village Course

1.     Date and Time : Oct 24, 2018 10:30~14:20 (4 hours including half an hour break).

2.     Location: Nae,Oesongni-myeon, Boeun-Town, Chungcheongbuk-Province and Hwabuk-Town, Sangju-City, Gyeongsangbuk-Province.

3. Distance and Course : About 10.73km. Course is to start at Gubyeongri Village Office Parking Lot => Donggul Poongheol Junction (Wind Cave) => Gubyeongsan Summit (876m Altitude) => Back to the Gubyeongri Village Office Parking Lot through the Same Ascending Course. Please refer to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuNsGj3iG0w&t=2s

4.     Access :

There is several ways to connect “Seoul Express Bus Terminal (”connecting at subway lines No. 3, 7 and 9). Please walk to Central Bus Terminal from the Subway Station taking 5 minutes where you should get on Express Bus bound for Jeomchon City, non-stop and taking 2 hours and 40 minutes. When you get off at the Jeomchon Intercity Bus Terminal, please walk to Jeomchon Intercity Bus Stop taking 1 minute for 37m. You could get on local bus No. 532 and get off at Gubyeongri Bus Stop taking 1 hour and 30 minutes for 31 bus stop passing. You could walk to Gubyeongri Village office taking 3 minutes for 204m. Please refer more details to the “Transportation from Seoul Central City Bus Terminal to Boeun Gubyeongri”. You could simply take reverse course on your way back home. I could estimate total transportation is about 3 hours including waiting times for one way which comes total 6 hours for round trip. But you would reduce this transportation time to 5 hours for round trip in case you use private car or rent car which you could save one hour for the transportation. 

5.     Overall Remarks.

Gubyeongsan (Mt.) is 876m high, close to national road no. 24, to the south of Songnisan (Mt.) national park. It is located in Sangju-si, Gyeongbuk and Boeun-gun, Chungbuk.
Apart from Songnisan, made up of 9 magnificent and graceful peaks and located on the provincial border between Jeogam-ri, Maro-myeon, and Gyeongbuk, it's also called Gubongsan (nine-peak mountain).
The main ridge continues a long way from the east to the west with 9 peaks standing successively just as a folding screen and makes up a beautiful scene so a lot of hikers visit all year round. Dense forest and clear waters attract visitors in summer but the scenery in fall is also worth seeing.

6.     Detailed Course Information

     I made a schedule to hike Gubyeongsan Mountain today and left Seoul early in the morning at 06:30 hours and arrived at the Gubyeongri Village slightly before 10:00 o’clock and tried to check the Hike Course Map as soon as arrived. I learned this Gubyeongri Hike Corse would be the shortest and fast hiking course. I tried to move up to the hill along with stream at the village for about a quarter minutes and found junction indicating Course 1 and 2, the one at Straight and the other at Left. But I came to know Course 2 was not clear and provably not available yet. I kept walking straight through Course 1 for about 5 minutes and reached next junction; 2 km to Gubyeongsan Summit at right and higher village at straight. I started to ascend somewhat slopped uphill road and walking on the steeper uphill road which became steeper and steeper according to time by time. As I made a hard effort to climb the uphill for less than half an hour and reached next junction at ridge which was indicating arrow to the Summit at Left and Donggul Poonghyeol (Wind Cave). I turned left and walked on comparably milder and softer ridge road for about 10 minutes and encountered higher slopped uphill road again and carried on walking on this road for about three quarter minutes via higher sloped uphill road and steeper wood blog stair road and found landmark standing at ridge again where indicating Summit at left and Bieryeong Dam at right. When I walked on the ridge road for about 10 minutes, I met junction stating as 800m to the Summit at left and 4.9km to Seowonri Village at right. I kept walking on the ridge road for about 30 minutes via steep wood stairs at almost last pitch and finally touched down Gubyeongsan Summit; 876m altitude after about 2 hours ascending works. I tried to see proper place around the summit and found suitable point where I enjoyed lunch break. I started to descend the downhill road as soon as finished lunch break vis the same road as I took for ascending this morning and returned Gubyeongri Village Office Parking Lot after about 2 hours from the descending from the Summit.

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