Testing, Testing, Ready for the Olympics!

The first time I went camping was when I was 10 years old. I went to a campground in Grayling, Michigan, and I loved every minute of it. I enjoyed being out of the city, and being able to explore the forest surrounding me. After that, I would go camping 2-4 times every year, up until I graduated from college. Since moving to Korea, I have had many opportunities for hiking on mountain trails, but I have only been on one actual camping trip in the four years that I have been here in Korea, and that was on a biking tour in Japan.

I was completely stoked when I saw the advertisement for 'Free Camping'. Usually, outdoor activities here in Korea cost more money than they do back in Michigan or Tennessee, so my interest was perked when I saw the word 'free'. A two-day, one night trip to Pyeongchang, including three meals, and some minor activity called the "Olympic Test Event" was thrown in as a consolation prize. I was excited about the prospect of hiking and camping in nature in one of the more rural provinces of South Korea.

The reason why the trip was free was so that there would be a large contingent of foreigners at the Olympic Test Event for women's ice hockey. There were 6 buses transporting 170 foreigners and 30 Koreans to various locations for events and activities. The local government personnel seemed to be conducting a practice run for the police, fire departments, vendors, and tour groups for the main event coming next winter.

The woman's hockey game that we attended was between the Netherlands and South Korea. Both of these teams are ranked low, so this was not an important game for rankings. The Netherlands was an aggressive team, but they were completely out-shot by the Koreans 30-11, and the final score was 2-0.

Sunday morning, I woke up bright and early, and went exploring the general area around the campground before breakfast. This was a rural location, and I only saw one business in the area, a restaurant that was closed. I also climbed to the top of the hill in front of our campsite. Arriving back at the campsite, I noticed that there was a CPR training program beginning. The local firefighter department came out to instruct us foreigners. I felt that this was boring, and so did one of the other hikers who was standing next to me. She told me that she wanted to climb the same mountain that I just descended. We quickly rounded up a few other delinquents, and we started to climb the overgrown trail. One of the event organizers noticed that we were leaving, and shouted from the foot of the hill for us to return. After we ignored her summons 2 or 3 times, she changed her mind and told us to be back by 10:40, or the buses would leave without us. No problem! We came back on time, but one of the hikers had slipped on a rock on the descent, and he needed to go to the hospital for stitches. That made me feel a little bad.

For lunch, we stopped at a traditional Korean market, with a voucher good for ~$10 is food. The market here is almost identical to every single Korean traditional market. It will be a treat for the foreign visitors who are visiting Korea for the first time in February, but for me it was rather normal.

After lunch, we stopped at a trail head by the East Sea and went hiking for about an hour. The bay here was choppy, but we were not in danger at all due to the walkway that was constructed along the coast here. At this time of year, the wind coming in from the sea feels nice, especially after being on a bus for a while.

One issue that I had is that it felt like we spent most of our first day on a bus. We rode from Seoul to Pyeongchang. We dropped off our gear and ate. Then we got on a bus to travel to Gangneung for the hockey game. After this we returned to Pyeongchang on the bus in time for nightfall. I do not want to complain too loudly, as it was a free trip. But this part of the tour was exasperating.

Some good points about this trip include the fact that all of the provided meals were vegetarian friendly, so I was able to get enough to eat without much supplementation. Sometimes, when I go on a tour trip, there are not any good options for me, and I can go hungry if I did not prepare well in advance.