Northern Yeongyang

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East from below Chilbo-san

This weekend I was joined by A.J.Howarth for the long march north out of Yeongyang county. Saturday we walked some 25kms between the passes of Hanti-jae and Pangbi-ryeong crossing 12 peaks including 974m Chilbo-san.

Nakdong-jeongmaek map at the start point in Subi-myeon

Teeth in the grass - a large and healthy snake in our path on the climb to Chilbo-san


The hills in many areas of the country are now lush and green, with azaleas and other plants in full bloom - conditions that Roger Shepherd is currently enjoying on the Naknam ridge in South Gyeongsang province. The Yeongyang area however has just come out of its driest winter for years and has thus far received no significant spring rain to bring the forest back to life, the ridge was bone dry on Saturday but rain came on Monday and more is forecast for later in the week so hopefully next time we're out there's a bit more colour.

Fine looking young man

The bloke above is one of the most prolific ribbon-hangers on the Baekdu-daegan trail and features in the much celebrated video "The Ribbon Tree" , no one-hit wonder he's obviously giving the jeongmaek's a go like so many others, walking the Nakdong north to south.

Chilbo-san (seven treasures peak)- the last, largest and only named peak of the day.

Pangbi-ryeong - end point for Saturday

Howarth with an '82 Hyundai Pony flatdeck in original Lemon-chiffon, one of a fleet of classics on the streets of Yeongyang.

Yeongyang Mountain Village Life Museum

The plan was to walk Sunday through to Uljin county, but Howarth went home with sore legs and I got lost taking an ambitious offroad route to the trail head leaving little time for the hike, so I checked out the Yeongyang mountain village life museum, a really impressive building with no visitors on a fine weekend.
The museum has the expected displays of farm tools and stuffed animals but also celebrates the shamanic history of the area.

A Seonang-dang tutelary shrine

The three famous-sacred women of the Yeongyang area in a reconstucted shrine

In the middle is Madam Hwang of Ilwol-san, to her right is her daughter and to her left Oknyeo, whose shrine I came across last week.

Plastic Mireuk Cave

Mireuk Cave is the energy centre of Yeongyang's famous mountain Ilwol-san and is said to hold the energy of the sun and the moon.

V-shaped pines

We first came across pines cut with the v-shape a few weeks ago on the trail and i offered my own theory on them based on the history of other parts of the country. These displays perhaps suggest something different, maybe the pines have long been harvested around here for fuel, or carved for some other purpose.

An old map of Yeongyang


Alright so we still haven't broken through Yeongyang, so this weekend I'll be back out to hopefully get through into Bongwha and Uljin for the final push into Taebaek.
Four days left

-cheers