T minus 3 weeks.

Hard to believe but this day three weeks, we will be in Spain.
Our preparations have been going quite well. Not having to be at school until 4pm on weekdays has helped a lot.

The monsoon season is in full swing and there have been perhaps 4 dry days in the last two weeks.
On those days we have managed to get out for a hike up Cheongaesan, Gwanaksan and yesterday Samsungsan.

On Monday we went to Dongdaemun and visited about 15 hiking stores and picked up a couple of backpacks. Anna's is 35 liters and mine is 45.

More later.

Cheonggyesan

South of Umyonsan and west of Gwanaksan lies Cheonggyesan (Clear Stream Mountain 618m).Although not as famous (or busy) as Gwanaksan, it offers a gentler if longer hike.

Beginning near Yangjae, it is a steady climb up forested trails and wooden steps (over 1400 of them) to ridge line at about 580 meters

On the northern slopes is a memorial to 53 members of the 250th special air operations training course who were killed here on June 1st 1981. While trying to land at an airstrip in Geoyeo dong, their C-123 crashed into Cheonggyesan in dense fog killing all on board.

As is the norm for mountains in this are the top is occupied by the military meaning a long laborious detour around the peak.

Near the peak is a large bolder, Manggyeongdae. With the establishment of the Joseon Dynasty (1392 - 910) an advisor to the fallen Goryeo Dynasty(918 ~1392) Jo Yun took refuge here and sulked for a while, unwilling to accept his new rulers (Coupled with the story of the grumpy princes doing a similar thing on Gwanaksan, I'm starting to see a pattern emerging here. I wish some of my grumpy and indignant 3rd graders would take after their ancestors and clear off to a mountain for a few years). Having a clear view over Umyeonsan and across the Han river into Seoul, Jo Yun named this boulder Manggyeongdae.

On the southern side is the famed temple of Cheonggyesa. Established during the Silla Dynasty (57 BCE – 935 CE)and restored in 1284 in is similar to many Joseon era temples with the notable exceptions of it's large reclining Buddha.

(From here)

In order to extend our hike (Our route over Cheonggyesan took only about 3 and a half hours) we passed Seoul Grand Park, Seoul Racecourse and cut over Umyonsan and back to our apartment. In total it took nearly 4 and a half sweaty, sticky hours as humidity was 100% and the temperature was close to 30.