The 5 Emotional Stages of Hiking at Songnisan National Park

Hiking a mountain always comes with a mix of emotions. Stages, if you will. Especially for those not particularly experienced in muscle burn and keeping fit. First, optimism, then complacency, despair, denial and finally bliss. Not always necessarily in that order. Songnisan was one of those gems that I was presumptuously positive about, despite the restless 4 hour sleep the night before. We estimated a 4 hour hike. It took us a total of 7 and half hours and despite the second and third stages, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Stage 1: Optimism

So, we begin walking towards the misty mountains. There’s not a lot of people around, we guessed because of the fog and it was almost the middle of summer, so not really hiking season. We weren’t here for the weather though, we were here for the challenge. “Okay, I’m ready, let’s do this thing”, I enthusiastically exclaimed to Chloe. Who, in her usual easy-going way, said something along the lines of “sure”. Clearly, a veteran of the hiking world.

After 1-2 hours of flat ground however, it was hard to keep the momentum of that sentiment up. I wondered when we would begin ascending and I could start to wonder if I wanted to do this any more. Half an hour into our ascension, I think the feeling gripped Chloe first. This was on account of her somewhat naïve decision to bring her entire overnight bag with her and an injury she had acquired by falling on her coccyx a couple days before. To my dismay, an injury she had mockingly referred to as ‘pulling a Laura’, due to an infamous 2015 fatal fall on Bukhansan. My coccyx suffered a lot that day, and I still consider it a traumatic memory.

Stage 2: Complacency

Nonetheless, Chloe powered through. Meanwhile, I was having a great old time, not really feeling the strain at all. Just strolling my way up the cobbles. The scenery was beautiful. The mist actually made it evermore ethereal. At points I felt like we were in a studio Ghibli movie. At others, it felt like an exotic rainforest with the moss-covered trees towering high above and the green corridors of undergrowth fading into the distance. Despite Chloe’s pre-emptive despair phase, we both looked around and retorted, “well this is nice”.

If you don’t bring too much heavy stuff with you and you have an average level of fitness, the most common route up, classified as ‘intermediate’, I think is fairly straightforward. And, unlike a lot of mountains in Korea, there aren’t tonnes of devil stairs that, for one, are not fun to climb but also take away the feeling of being in the untouched outside. Most of the climb is just jig-jagged cobble stones arranged in a stair like fashion.

Stage 3: Bliss

So we made it! Getting to the top is always the best part of the climb; the bliss. We rested a while, looked out on the beautiful expanse of forested slopes below and tucked into some snacks. Nothing like a view from very high up to put everything into perspective.

Ironically then, despite the beautiful view below, we became transfixed on a tiny fly fighting for his life as he scrambled his way out of a puddle. We cheered him on as he made his way out of the wet and dried his wings. He rested on my bag for a while and then began plodding away again. To our bewilderment, it ended up back in the puddle again! It was an uncanny moment, as I began to realise a deep empathy for the Gods who must watch over us puny humans repeating history over and over in much the same moronic way. We laughed at the mordancy of this little metaphor at the top of a mountain.

Stage 4: Despair

It was then time to make our way down. We felt very positive, as we saw on the map that there was a shorter route down and we knew from previous hikes that down was always quicker. But as a wise Buddhist once told me, never have expectations and you’ll never be disappointed. This truism, of course, became apparent as we walked past Buddhists taking their daily walking meditation.

For some reason, my knee and ankle joints were really struggling after about an hour into the way down. It turned out to be the steepest and most advanced route in the national park. My legs began to feel a little shaky and I had to actually take a couple breaks. Enter stage 5…

Stage 5: Denial

Chloe’s denial came in the form of repeatedly saying, “I think we’re almost there now” and “once we finish this stage, it’s just 15 minutes to the entrance”. Somehow she was completely wrong. Every time we reached the next signpost, we still saw we hadn’t come that far.

My denial came in the form of just pretending my legs weren’t in pain every time I thudded down a step about a foot high or a ledge that was at about a 60 degree incline. After about 2 hours though, the path did flatten out and my legs found their second wind of adrenaline.

Now we just needed to walk the long flat walk to the entrance. It was a nice walk, and any struggle was assuaged by a stupendously long game of categories. We found out that day, that we have quite an extensive knowledge of historical figures and Asian cuisine.

The second bliss…

We had planned to catch the 17:40 bus back to Daejeon but in fact ended up on the 19:13. It would be another 2 hours until I was home, but I felt resolutely pleased with the day’s challenge. We drank our well-earned banana milk on the way back and looked forward to a restful sleep before a day of teaching the next day.

Songnisan is an underrated gem of a national park. We came across a beautiful lake, quaint streams and from the top, a wonderous panoramic view to take your breath away. I fully recommend this to anyone looking for a nice day trip around Daejeon.

Tips: How to get there

To get to Songnisan from Daejeon, there are a number of routes you can take. If you’re near the Daejeon Intercity bus terminal then you can get a bus direct from there. Initially I was a bit confused as to what the difference was between the Express Bus Terminal and the Intercity bus terminal, as google didn’t seem to distinguish between them. The Intercity one is just next to the Express bus terminal (East).

Naver maps or Kakao maps should give you an accurate leaving times on the day, or just turn up and they leave around every hour. Google maps is pretty useless in Korea. The bus will take about 1 and a half hours.

Alternatively, as we did, take the subway to Panam (the end of the line), catch the 607 public bus to Okcheon bus terminal and you’ll find a bus that takes you to Songnisan in an hour. This is the quickest option if you’re coming into Daejeon train station by KTX.

Once you get there, just take a right and you’ll be welcomed by a concourse of restaurant upon restaurant and souvenir shop upon souvenir shop. Perfect place for us to stock up on hiking fuel; snacks. One of the great things about Korea is that no matter where you go, all snack emergencies will be provided for with a CU, GS-25 or Seven Eleven. And to be honest, I have a lot of snack emergencies.