One More

 Cool bridge and entrance to Sangwangsa temple. 

Amuzing Video

Koreans use the teeter-totter a bit differently than Americans. They stand on it and try to launch their partner as high as possible. Josh and I attempted this with little success.

More Pictures

Josh, Ashley, In Soo, Melanie and I posing in the field with the monk's tea plants.

Tea plants

Road Trip!!!

Old grain mill.


Summit Crater of Mt. Halla. The highest peak in Korea.

Josh, Ashley, Mel, Pedro and I just returned from an awesome week long road trip around the Southern part of Korea. We visited Jeju island which was advertised as the Hawaii of Korea. Pedro endured the 5 hr. ferry ride with only minor sea sickness and was stoked to circumambulate Jeju upon our arrival. We drove to the southern most campsite in all of Korea and set up camp for three nights.

We befriended the slightly deranged caretaker of the campground Kim In Soo. He served as our impromptu guide for a couple of days. In Soo had the amusing habit of blaming every weird American or English language related thing on Gogie Bushie (Gogie means penis in Korean). Somehow Josh's name also translates into Korean as Gogie. The first day was spent on a fifth class ecology hike that culminated in drinking tea with a monk and stealing plants (In Soo wanted them for his mini garden things) from the temple. Later in the day we went skinny dipping, ate sushi on the beach, bought some oyster cross abalone things from a hanyo (female diver) and ate those raw on the beach too. They tasted mediocre and were more chewy than my mountaineering boots.

The second day was spent climbing Halla-san, the highest mountain in Korea. We saw virtually no one except the ranger that yelled at us on his megaphone for being in a closed area. In Soo claimed to have a permit, but I am guessing that he didn't by the rate we skedattled when we saw the ranger. It was really nice to hike in an alpine environment without tons of other people. The next day we bid our farewell to In Soo and meandered back toward Seoul. We saw some beautiful tea fields, ate lunch with monks at an awesome temple and drove through beautiful valleys where they still were planting rice by hand.

It was a great road trip!

Off to Jeju

My mom sent me this picture of Pedro. When she was here I drove the van through a big puddle and he died. We got towed.

Josh and Ashley arrive later today and next week I will be off work for a trip down south to Jeju Island. It has Korea's highest mountain and is supposed to be the Hawaii of Korea. 

My Sick Day

Graham and Greta hiking along the fortress wall in Bukhansan.

Yesterday I called in sick to work and went for a nice hike with Graham and Greta. We got a late start due to some card games, 4 belated Mother's Day phone calls, and the fact that I lost my bank card in Seoul (my stupidity) over the weekend. We finally got hiking around 3pm, but managed 10ish awesome miles before dark. Graham actually enjoyed the hiking, which I did not believe possible.

Dana Goes Off

One of my hardest boating partners, Dana, made a first raft descent of Vallecito Creek. Check out his trip report here.

I can't wait to start boating again!

Tons of Friends!

Allison was popular with the Korean kids.

Friday night Graham, Greta, Allison and her dad all arrived in Korea. Al and her dad have moved on to Mongolia and Graham & Greta are hanging out with us for another week. Saturday we putzed around Seoul and ate great food. Sunday, Corey joined us for a wonderful day of climbing at Ganhyeon.

Next stop....Central America!

Mel and I got tickets for our next adventure! We are flying to Guatemala City November 24th and coming home 10 weeks later on February 2nd. We are hoping to spend time in Guatemala, Belize, Costa Rica and Panama. The best part of all is that we will get to spend time with Jasmine, Louie and Lane! Time to start studying Spanish.

A bit more about our long-term plans....
After a brief sojourn to China, we plan to be back in Oregon from Mid-October (my birthday) until Thanksgiving. After Central-America we plan to ski-bum it up for a couple of months at a ski area yet to be decided. We are open to suggestions, especially if it includes a free/cheap place to stay! Come spring we are going on US tour... Coming to a climbing area or couch near you. Summer is set aside for pushing rubber (river guiding) in Bend. After that, we'll count our pesos.

Adventures with Mom

Cool hat man doing a sweet aerial at the Suwon Folk Village.

My mom was here for a wonderful 12 day visit and just left this morning. Of the 12 days that she was here I only had to work three, which made it all the better. We ate a ton of wonderful food and consumed ourselves with a whirlwind of activity. Besides getting to see me, my mom loved checking out all the Korean crafts especially in the Suwon Folk Village. Mel and I had never visited the folk village and had a great time checking out the performances, handmade homes, and drinking the dong-dong-ju. After the 동동주 Mel took a trip through the haunted house and came out snorting with laughter.


Lanterns at the parade in celebration of Buddha's birthday.

Another interesting event came on a rainy Saturday when we decided to drive Pedro (the van) into Seoul. A short ways from our house I decided it would be real fun to drive through a deep puddle. Pedro died. I tried to restart, but to no avail. So we are stuck at the edge of this huge intersection with hundreds of cars honking behind us. We decide to wait for the next green and push for the gas station on the other side. We were a little slow off the mark and made it across 4 of the 10 lanes of traffic before the light turned red. So here we are slowly pushing a broken down van perpendicular to honking busses and trucks that are confused between the horn and the brakes. I'm certain that they thought we were playing 'chicken' and were happy to oblige. We made it, but it was close. The adrenalin subsided about 3 hours later.

Did I mention that when we went camping my mom for got her tent?

Mom Visit

I have not been doing a good job on my blog lately because my mom is here and we have been having a great time doing so much. So far the highlights have been a lot of great food, a camping trip where my mom forgot her tent, and lotus lanterns on Buddha's Birthday. Today it is pouring down rain and tomorrow we are heading to the traditional folk village near Suwon. We are having a great time and really enjoying my mom's company.