Life is a different Wave moving by Time and ending at Shore: Gangwondo Samcheok Deokhangsan Mountain Hike – Yesuwon Course

1. Date and Time : Jan 29, 2019 10:00 ~13:00 (3 hours and 30 minutes including one hour break).

2. Location : Singi-myeon, Samcheok-City, Gangwon Province in Korea

3. Distance and Course : About 9.3km. Course is to start at Yesuwon Parking Lot => Three Way Junction => Gubusiryeong Gorge => Saemaegigogae gorge => => Samcheok Deokhangsan Summit (1071m Altitude) and back to the Yesuwon Parking Lot through the same ascending course. Please see “Gangwondo Samcheok Deokhangsan Mountain Hike - Yesuwon Course” and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYqc3bMn2Yk&t=78s

4. Overall Mountain Explanation.

Deokhangsan Mountain is 1,071m above sea level and covers parts of Singi-myeon, and Hajang-myeon, Samcheok City in Gangwondo Province in Korea. Features of the east and the west side of the mountain are very different.

The west side has a gentle slope while the east is continuation of sheer cliff. You can see an observatory if descending a little from Jaamjae Ridge to Jahagol Valley. Looking at Deokhangsan from the observatory reminds of a great canyon.

5. Detailed Hike Course Explanation.

I had tried to locate suitable hiking course at my room yesterday based on two conditions since I had to go back to my home in Seoul after Hike on Jan 29, 2019 as the same day, first is transportation from my lodge, KFS Galiwangsan Recreation Center less than 2 hours and second hiking time less than 5 hours for up and down. I found 1071m altitude Samcheok Deokhangsan as a good and suitable mountain tomorrow; transportation was not far from my lodge, about less than an hour and hiking time from Yesuwon. I took a decision to climb tomorrow last night. I was today tried to move to Yesuwon as early possible and arrived at Yesuwon village area before 9 o’clock and saw warning sign board at left on narrow hill road stating as “Only Relevant People is Allowed to Enter”. I thought a while and decided to go other hike course starting area near-by. But it took a longer time for hiking times, more than 6 hours and therefore I checked Yesuwon on the web site how to reach by car and learned I could ignore the warning sign board. I so made a U-turn and back to Yesuwon Village passing warning sign board and found it was about 15 minutes before 10 o’clock and tried to rush climbing up Deokhangsan Mountain, just behind the Yesuwon Village and walked freely through Yesuwon Gate and faced mountain transportation road after five minutes from the Yesuwon Village Parking Lot. I was continuously walking up on the mountain transportation road for a quarter minutes and reached three-Way junction and took a straight road. I started to feel hard take a breath due to severe and heavily steep uphill road and kept walking for about 10 minutes and changing wide mountain transportation to ordinary mountain hike road and forwarding through stream at the valley for less than a quarter minutes. I reached junction at lower hill area where I turned left and keeping walking on ridge road at steeper uphill. I climbed on this somewhat highly sloped hike road for a quarter minutes and reached junction again without any sign board and carefully checked which way I should take either turn left or go straight and found more colorful hike ribbons hanging on the trees at straight than left hike course as see at the Photo. Please note you should always refer to these mountain hike ribbons organized by each mountain group with each different color and shape for their group’s information. Anyhow I was just heading to the Summit through this junction for about 10 minutes and found junction mark at gorge stating as 1.1km to Deokhangsan Summit at right and 8.8km to Hanuiryeong Hill at left. I took short break and carried on going up on the sloped ridge road for 10 minutes more and reached landmark asking to turn left and going down to Saemaegigogae gorge. I followed the indication and remotely saw Deokhangsan Mountain at right on the way down from the ridge and reached the gorge after more than a quarter minutes down. There was landmark at the gorge saying as still 600m to the Summit at left and 500m to the Gubusiryeong gorge. I just followed the arrow at the landmark and continuously struggling against so difficult sloped uphill road at oak tree and latch forest for about 20 minutes. I finally touched down 1071m altitude Deokhangsan Mountain Summit as see at the photo and unfortunately see clear surrounding landscape because there were many trees around the summit, visual obstructions. Anyhow I was trying to take possible nice shot to surround mountains and taking back to the Yesuwon Village Parking Lot after one and half an hour from the summit including half an hour lunch break.