Today I went to an absolutely gorgeous waterfall near Chuncheon with a couple friends. It was about half an hour away by public transport. It was really beautiful and the ideal place to beat the August heat. There were a ton of families there, picnicing and swimming and even napping. There's a picture of the major waterfall to the left. It's not huge, but really cool because it's a series of waterfalls through a rocky crevice. It was a really hot day, but there was a cool breeze off the water that was amazingly refreshing. My two friends stayed at the bottom to write postcards and read, but I hiked up the stream further to Samaksan mountain. (FYI: "San" means "mountain" in Korean.) It was a slow hike up to the top, but I finally did make it. The humidity really wears on me after a while, so I don't move nearly as fast as I do back in Montana. And the terrain tends to be rockier and stairs are often built into the trail.
It was a beautiful walk, for the most part, however, and I did enjoy myself. To the right is a picture of the trail I followed further upstream, before it turned away from the water. On the way, I started to hear this mysterious singing and it was only when I accidently invaded a Buddhist temple that I realized where it originated. I couldn't read the Korean, so I didn't really have any idea where I was. It felt very awkward.
I could see Chuncheon from the top (about 6500m). In the other directions were forested hills, as far as you could see. It really was quite beautiful. There wasn't the mountain breeze I was expecting, but it was cooler nonetheless and a nice place to relax for a bit. There were many groups of Koreans picnicking up there as well, munching on kimbap (a Korean dish similar to sushi) and kimchi, of course.
I spent the rest of the day lazing around--eating, cleaning, and watching my new favorite TV show, Grey's Anatomy. It's excellent.