Inception, Part 1: Daegwan-Ryeong Recreational Forest

The following is Part 1 in a 2-part series about my trip to Daegwan-Ryeong (대관령) and Seonja-Ryeong (선자령) on 29-30 May 2010. In this installment, I review our campsite at Daegwan-Ryeong Recreational Forest (대관령국립자연휴양림). Please see related post (Part 2: Windmills Oh My!) for additional photos and comments.

This is where it started, where the idea for this blog was first implanted and immediately crystalized in my head. Korea's backcountry, I had to get the word out, an opportunity to experience perfection. But when I finally got around to launching the blog a month later, I hesitated in posting about the trip and continued to delay until now, an additional month later, working through various drafts of text (should it be "under impossibly blue skies" or "under skies of impossible blue" or even "azure"?) and editing the photos so I could get it just right, do it proper justice. But ultimately, I realized that whatever I write and whatever images I present could hardly convey the mind-blowing majesty of what I had witnessed on that fateful five-hour trek along the Seonja-Ryeong mountain range. You'll just have to take my word for it that it was perfect.

Friday afternoon (May 29), on route to the campsite at Daegwan-Ryeong National Forest Park, MtG and I drive through the thickest fog I've ever seen in my life. We're simultaneously fascinated by the weather and bummed by the prospect of camping tonight and trekking the following day under such conditions. Had I anticipated the extraordinary events that would soon transpire, I wouldn't have risked our lives by pulling what is probably the dumbest driving-related stunt I've ever attempted. On-coming traffic visible only 15 meters ahead, a flash before it passes by, along a winding mountain road that'd be treacherous on the clearest of days, I shoot driver's-eye view video with my iPhone, one hand on the wheel. On the clip, in between yelps of surprise whenever a car in the opposite lane suddenly leaps out of the fog, I can be heard pondering the aftermath of our dying in an accident as a result of this maneuver, leaving behind footage of the moment of impact, something that would surely be a sensation on the internet.

Upon our arrival, alive, we're welcomed by the other members of Backcountry Camping (BC), most of whom arrived the day before. My second trip with BC, here I meet for the first time a number of members who would form a core group (unofficially) within the organization and become friends on the outside. By evening's end, after making merry under a single tarp in the center of the campsite, sharing and indulging in 13 varieties of food and 9 varieties of alcoholic drinks, I give up any aspirations of "solo camping" and accept that camping in Korea, like most activities here, is a communal affair, for better or for worse.

TO BE CONTINUED...