Yesterday, with one more day left with Jeron, we both decided to go hiking one more time. I had taken him earlier in the week on a short hike up and over a small mountain just within walking distance of Uijeongbu, but this time we decided to tackle one that I knew would be much larger and more challenging. I went into it expecting to be huffing and puffing my way up. We arrived there at around lunch time, but having already eaten something small at home, started following the droves of people up past all the little kimbop stands and various other snack food establishements. We arrived at the base of the park and stopped and studied the large map of the area for a few min. Not sure where to start, we just continued on in following the masses. It was Sunday and families and individuals were all over the place. We soon came to some trail markers and choose a course of around 3km. We'd already gone around 1, so that left only 2. Thinking that might be ok, we trudged onward happily. Dobongson, the national park we were in, is just within subway distance, but it still is amazingly beautiful and definitely all forest and rock everywhere. We worked our way up and I was soon breathing a little more than I would have liked. I stopped a couple of times to rest and more than once gazed on rock climbers on the large, numerous rock faces around. There were trail markers every so often, which helped me to keep going, but it was definitely a bit hard going. The last hundred meters or so, suddenly turned into all rock too and we just had to grip our way up little by little at quite an angle. I'm more than willing to admit, I was more than a little scared by the time we got to the very peak. It was a spectacular view, with forest and rock everywhere, but I didn't linger too long. Jeron hung out there a little while longer, while I got on down to more stable ground. We got some great pictures though, that I'll be sending home sometime this week. After a tiring stagger downward, we finally stopped at a river at the bottom and gobbled up some kimbop, we'd bought earlier. We soon headed home after, both feeling tired, but pretty good.

This morning, we woke up early, and I got him in a taxi around 8am. It was cool having him here to hang out with and talk to all the time. Walking back into my apartment, I cleaned everything up and put his bed away, freeing up all my extra space again. It was strange though, having only my own thoughts as company again. Nice, but strange.