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.

Baegun-san hiking route by transit. GPX DL

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.

My first visit to Korea. I was stoked.
View from my hotel at 22nd floor
April was fortunately the blossom season
There were quite a lot of flowers in the neighbourhood
Looking back at the hotel (Sky Top) where I checked in
The start of the hiking route
Not sure what kind of building that was, but it was cool
The start of the trail
More about the flowers
It was about to get dark. I was not far from the summit by then.
The rain had already started.
Arriving at the summit of Baegun-san
A little bit of night time view of Yeongjongdo
Descending with head-lamps on. It was slippery
Down to the flat ground, looking back towards the summit
The final portion of the trail had enough light
Almost back to the hotel, looking back

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.

I then went straight to a restaurant. Not sure who’s that celebrity
The food was too spicy for me….
It was pouring by then. The umbrella came handy.