It is Fall...

At least it was for maybe a week, about 6 weeks ago... I had finished work on a Friday and stopped at the grocery store for some dinner and when I can out of the store it smelled like fall. When I looked around I realized that there were old brown leaves all over the ground. This was at the end of November, so I didn't really expect anything and all of a sudden the season had changed.

The next day I met up with my dear old friend Patrick and two newer Korean friends for a nice day of hiking. The colors weren't nearly as beautiful as they are at home during fall, but I'm sure in Minnesota at this time the only colors are white and brown. It was still a nice change of scenery from the usual summer foliage. We went to a mountain that I had climbed twice before. After taking the subway about an hour and walking to the base of a mountain, there is a cable car/gondola thing that you can ride to to the top of the mountain. From there we cross over three or so other peaks and then finally make it to Geumjeongsan which is the tallest mountain in Busan. Jangsan, the Mt. by my house is about 670m and this one is just over 800 meters. If you are not a math major it is a difference of about 130 meters which makes it about 20% taller than Jangsan. It also feels more like a mountain when you are at the top. It is much rockier and has steeper cliffs going down. The view, like that on the top of Jangsan, is quite spectacular. In the one attached photo (3rd from top) , the haze in the distance is Haeundae beach and the sea, and the large mountain in the distance on the left is Jangsan. From the vantage point of the photo, my apartment is behind that mountain.

There are two photos that I took at the top of a feral cat. There were two cats just hanging out at the top of the mountain. It is 800m and can get windy and cold, but I guess they like it. Some of the hikers would throw them food and they fought over it, so maybe it isn't the best place to settle down, but they seem to be getting by.

These mountains make a fun hike because there is an old "fortress" that you can walk along. I think it was initially built around 1700. The length is about 17 Km and the area inside the walls is about 8.2 square Km. The walls range from about 1.5 m. to 3 m. The most impressive part are the ornate gates. There are 3 main gates that have been reconstructed in the fortress. As impressive as they are now, one can only imagine how great they must have looked 300 years ago. It is referred to as a fortress, but "stone wall" might be more accurate. Whatever the structure is called, it is impressive and can make for some cool pictures.