The foliage is much different from the mountains I have climbed more north. The hike has more of a jungle feel to it with the bamboo plants growing up and around the trail. The fall colors once again left me with an undeniable love for Korea, autumn, and mountains.
The trek began in the brisk darkness of 5AM. Headlamps on, things heated up quickly with our rapid pace and mission to reach the top for sunrise. So much so that Aubrie, our Atlanta wonder, was down to a tank top before we had daylight.
Few rest stops and a breakneck speed got us to a beautiful viewing point for sunrise. And a steep, rocky ascend gave us an 'on top of the world' view.
Coming down was a mission, with shaky legs and boulders to navigate through. It was a game of strategy to move briskly and successfully over the rocky terrain.
We finished the day with a tofu lunch and a Korean music lesson. Three different types of tofu soup, soft tofu, marinated tofu, tofu balls, tofu and veg covered the table. Next we built Korean style drums and all had to sing a korean love song independently for the crowd. It was downright awful! 
At some points I was worried for my friendship between Hwangsik and Aubrie for inviting them along on this adventure. But they both agreed, in the end, that they would willingly do it again, and I have that in writing! Others from our group were not so lucky. A handful remained on the mountain due to injuries while the bus cruised the others to lunch. When we were reunited my friend Danny seemed like Jirisan had taken every ounce of his strength. Not as bad as the others, who needed Mountain 911 to help them down and were then broadcasted on the news!
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