Baegun-san (白云山)
April 4, 2023
256m
Incheon, Korea
There are a lot of peaks named “Baegun” in Korea and this is a rather insignificant one not far from Incheon International Airport. This peak is also the high point of Yeongjong Island. My original plan was to use the 21-hour layover in Korea to tag the highest peak in the vicinity of Seoul, namely Bukhan-san, but the weather was not cooperating. April is generally dry and sunny in Korea, but I was unlucky. The whole week was sunny except for the day I was going to visit. I still wanted to bag a peak, so decided on this no-brainer objective. I had previously booked a non-refundable hotel at the base of Bukhan-san so that became sunk cost. I booked a last minute hotel on Yeongjong Island and the plan was to hike this peak right after I got out of the airport in the evening.
The routine in the airport was uneventful and so was the travel by train/subway to Unseo station. I do not speak a single Korean word but with English and Chinese languages I could get by in this country. I firstly walked to the hotel to check in so that I could unload my heavy ass carry-on bag. I then went out in fading daylight. The forecasted rain would come in about an hour and it seemed like I would be summitting in the dark, but that’s okay.
I was too lazy to do any research as the trails were marked on my Gaia map. There’s a bit of urban navigation to get to the base of Baegun-san and the trail was also rather civilized with wide and open staircases. I did hike on some narrower trails from time to time, but all the steeper sections had staircases. The darkness and the rain came at about the same time, and I summitted about 10 minutes after turning on my head-lamp. I had previously bought an umbrella at a grocery shop as the forecast was looking very grim. I did put the umbrella in use.
After finishing the hike I went to a restaurant for a late dinner, and then went back to the hotel. It was pouring cats and dogs by this time so the umbrella was definitely handy. It rained all night that even in the following morning I still needed the umbrella. I eventually got back to the airport at around 11 am with plenty enough time contingency to catch the flight to Kathmandu, Nepal.