Geocaching in Mt. Geomdan

Geomdansan-1 Grave (GC13Z8Z)
Today, I woke up at 6:00 AM, and prepared all items by myself including some snacks, chocolates, Gimbap, hot water, and especially Makgeolli. Usually, my wife helped me, but today she was in her mother's home with Jin, and I was alone. I had suggested going Mt. Geomdan together, but she rejected because weather forecast said that today's temperature would drop down below zero. Shinyred also had other caching plan. So, I was alone today.
I took a bus in front of the gate 7 of Jamsil subway station. i had hesitated a little bit in front of Lottecastle because there was a cache, but I skipped it. It was too cold, and today's goal was Mt. Geomdan. I postponed it for someday's pleasure.
I got off the bus in front of Animation high school (what a funny name!), and followed other muggles. A few minutes later, I remembered a starting coordination that dts113 noted in the description of this cache. I returned and went toward that coordination.

You have to get off right after passing by this bridge. Bus will turn right.

Bus stop is here.

It took a little bit long to reach in this cache. I heavily sweated already, so I took off my windbreaker here. There was the tombs of Yu Giljun's family.

My gpsr pointed at the outside of the tombs, but I could find the cache at the inside.
Good start!

Under Rock  (GC1NEN4)

This is mystery cache. As I said before, I don't like this type of cache. But this cache was a little bit better because it was sudoku cache. You can easily find the sudoku solver at the internet. :-)
Mt. Geomdan has steep passes in early stage. It was too hard to keep looking at my gpsr, and I passed by the zero point! I could know that near the next cache! I had to return back to the zero point.
There was near a muggle's rest area. I saw that several muggles had a rest here with drinking water. But... the zero point was not on a trail. My gpsr pointed at large rocks several meters below from the trail. If you have visited here, you can remember the sign 'Don't go outside the trail. Unless you will be punished with a fine.' How should I have done in this case?  Right. I went down to the rocks when there was no muggles.
The rocks were big, so it took some time to seek. It was a little bit difficult. I rounded there twice. Finally I found the cache! Oh my godness! Is it really a terrain level 2.5 and difficulty level 2 cache? I think it should be more than 3 for both. The levels must have been ranked by owner's own ranking criteria.

Down-view at the cache point

up-view at the cache point

Did you see the pictures? You can hide behind the cache point against muggles on the trail.
Please be careful if you try this cache! Cache is in a not much dangerous point.

Geomdansan View (GC1NEMY)
I just found that I skipped GC1P0KH. How did it happen? I don't remember. I was so tired and so cold. It took so long time to find the previous cache.
Anyway, I returned back to the trail, and had a short break with Makgeolli. Then went up to this cache.
The cache point was scenic place. But it was too foggy. :-(

Several muggles watched this scenery on a big rock. I took a place below the rock because my gpsr pointed at around there. Actual point where my gpsr pointed was a few tens meter below a cliff.

I couldn't go there, instead I looked around here. But I could not find the cache. Anyway, thanks for the scenery!

Geomdansan-2 fine view (GC13Z93)
I continued to walk up to the next cache thru the trail. But I could find that my gpsr pointed to the other direction.  I leaped over a fence, and walked to the direction. Soon, I saw the great scenic point! What a wonderful place!
I had a rest on top of rocks, and watched a scenery with having some bananas and Makgeolli. At that time, I was frightened because a muggle's head was suddenly rose up below the rocks in front of me. It was just like a cliff, but there was simple rock-climbing course.

After short break, I could find that cache. As I mentioned, weather forecast said that today's temperature would drop below zero. It must be true, it was very windy and cold. It was difficult to write a log because of cold.

Geomdansan-3 mountain top (GC13Z94)
I walked by ridgeline and steep passes on the way to the top of Mt. Geomdan.

Approaching to the top, I was surprised to find the place where there were so many muggles.

I heard that Mt. Geomdan is very famous. I felt that at this moment.

There were more muggles than expected. Some muggles had Makgeolli, and impressively one party of muggles had a bottle of 21-year-old Valentine whisky there.
Unfortunately, I could not see any scenery due to too heavy fog.
I found that the cache was not on the top. I went down to the direction that my gpsr guided.

Wow! What a great place to have a rest! I wanted to have a rest in a warm place because it was too cold and too windy. This cache let me have a warm rest! Thank you for the fantastic rest place!

I unpacked my backpack and displayed it. :-) You can see hot water, Makgeolli bottle, the cache container, CITO plastic bag (yellow), one roll of Gimbap, and other misc.

I don't have a stick yet, so I brought a monopod as a replacement of the stick. It was very helpful!

From now on, it was a downhill. I felt that Mt. Geomdan was easier than Mt. Baekma.

Rest area in rocks (GC1ADW1)
I think this cache was the worst cache among today's caches I tried.
The place was good rest place in front of a pile of stones. At first time, I was surprised there were many rocks and stones. At second time when I approached at the zero point, I was surprised again because my gpsr was getting crazy. At third time when I decided to refer to the description and hints, I was a little bit irritated that cache size was micro. MICRO? Oh my godness! I think here is suitable for even regular cache! How can I find the micro cache here? To make matters worse, difficulty level is just 2.
I gave up. I even could not find the place where the hint pictures were taken. :-(

Geomdansan-6, Turn right (GC189GA)
It was fun! There were so many muggles walking down the trail. It was not easy to be stealth.
I thought for a while, and I got an idea!

I pretended to a photographer. Fortunately, the zero point looked good place to take a picture of the snapshot of fall, 'fallen leaves and mountain climbing!'
Even though a family had a rest just 2m away from the cache point, they must not be able to think me strange! Photographer and a film canister were so natural combination!

Geomdansan, Another offroad (GC17EEM)
To reach at this cache point, I had to cross a small beautiful mountain stream.

Here was so peaceful place. I decided to leave the stress head TB here. Poor stress head TB had exploded maybe due to too heavy stress. I think he can loosen his stress with clean air and peaceful environment. I took Dokdo coin, which was my first Dokdo coin.

Traditional Cache  Geomdansan-7, Under the big rock. (GC18ACE)
This cache is also problematic. It was difficult to find it because there were many muggles up and down.
I searched many places several times, but I could not find it. I almost gave up, and it was final trial. I kicked a stone, and then I saw some colorful thing was buried in the ground, and it was the cache. I could understand its burial when I picked up. It was so thin.

Cache container was filled with water. I think owner should maintain this cache. I tried to dry a log sheet, but because it was so cold, it couldn't.

Hogooksa Temple Enterance (GC1P0KQ)

It was not easy to find the zero point. I just searched around here, and I found the cache where it should be.
This cache was also filled with water. Just logsheet was OK. I saw that jumbo352 put new log sheet with waterpoof. Thank you for the dry log sheet!

Geomdansan-4 Hyeonchungtap (GC13Z97)
When I reached at the zero point, most dangerous muggles (2 boys) were there. Fortunately, their dad and mom called them to go inside the house to avoid the cold weather. I searched zero point. At first time, it seemed easy, but I could not find it. So I decided to see the cache description and logs. I saw jumbo352's log mentioning that the construction were undergoing here. It might be muggled due to construction. This cache was the last cache that I tried today, but it was DNF.

I cound not find the statue in a picture in a description. Instead, I took a picture, and attached it. Is it a new one?

I can understand now from the cache hunting why Mt. Geomdan is famous. Frankly speaking, many caches in this mountain are a little bit problematic. I think their difficulty levels, and terrain levels should be revised. But mountain was beautiful.
Thank you, all owners of the caches in this mountain, for bringing me this beautiful mountain.

Geocaching in Mt. Baekma

Yangbeol-ri Ssangyong Apt (GC1Z2FB)
I decided yesterday to visit Mt. Baekma in this weekend, and I called shinyred to go along with me there. We had appointed 7:00AM in front of TechnoMart to meet.
As you see the picture attached, it was dark when I left home today.

We met on time, and we took a bus no. 1113, and we could reach Ssangyong Apt. before 8:00AM. The first thing what we did here was to buy 2 bottles of local Makgeolli, which would represent the terroir of this place! I heard that local Markgeolli here was delicious, but not as much famous as Makgeollis near in my terroir series. We would feel its taste on top of the Mt. Baekma. Because there is no water in this mountain, you have to prepare a bottle of water, and should prepare a bottle of local Makgeolli too! You can easily get it in a store near the bus stop.
Then, finally we prepared! So we started to seek this cache! But, unfortunately, it is fall. Many fallen leaves hid all rocks and other points where the cache can be hidden. We tried our best here, but we could not find the cache. After 30min search, we gave up, and went to next cache.

After short climbing towards the top of Mt. Baekma, we knew that the direction where we were going toward was not pointed to the next cache! Hey, this direction was guided by signpost! But it was incorrect for geocachers. You should see the attached picture. You should go thru this path for the next cache. We had to return back from the first cache point, and went thru this way.
 

There are two bottles of local Makgeolli in the shinyred’s backpack.
 
Tree-lmitation fruit (GC1Z2FC)
On the up-way to this cache, we reached the first scenic point of Mt. Baekma. Here were several tombs, and scenery from here was a little bit good, and it might be better if weather was clean. Today was cloudy and foggy.
 

Shinyred found the cache near this place.
 

We also found an interesting bench near this place. I took its picture, and it was attached. This type of benches was common in Mt. Baekma.

 
Bak-ma san – stairway (GC1Z5P5)
This cache is mystery cache, and actually I don’t like mystery cache. If I was alone here, I would skip this cache. Fortunately, shinyred solved a quiz, and we could try this cache! Thank you, shinyred!
Here, my gpsr pointed at a tree, and shinyred’s pointed other place. After a few minutes individual searches, we found very suspicious place, and immediately we found this cache. I took a coin and left a ring, Dharma LCD cleaner, and 1 EURO in the cache. Shinyred habitually wrote his name and his wife’s name on a log sheet. But because his wife was not with us, he erased her name, and instead, he wrote my nickname.
 

On the way to next cache from here, we found a benchmark. And we had a short Makgeolli-break. A cup of Makgeolli provided a little energy to us. We had ‘Saeng Makgeolli’ here. It tasted a little bit too sweet, and felt like having a bunch of grape.

 
Bakma-san 1 (GC1Z2FH)
Here we had the second struggle with fallen leaves, which covered all ground. We tried to search suspicious places where a small cache could hide, but we could not find the cache. Then, shinyred searched hidden places by fallen leaves, and finally we found it. I took a coin and left a heart, a star, and Thailand 1 baht.

Bakma-san 2 (GC1Z2FK)
From Bakma-san 1 cache, we could have an easy walk thru a ridgeline. After short walk, we reached in a peaceful forest. Because shinyred remembered the picture in the cache description, we sought the tree in the picture, and we easily found the cache.
 

Bakma-san 3 (GC1Z2FM)
On the easy trail thru a ridgeline, we also found this cache.
 
Bakma-san 4 (GC1Z2FR)
On our walk, we found the place where has a few benches and stretching equipments. We expected that there must be at the most commonplace, but we were wrong. We decided to use our secret weapon, and we found the cache after short search. Our new tool was easy and useful. I think shinyred will introduce it in the log pages of this cache.

Bakma-san 5 (GC1Z2FT)
I remember that here might be the end of easy trail. We could see a steep slope toward the top of Mt. Baekma. Shinyred were seeking the cache a little bit far place because his gpsr pointed at about 10m away of the cache point. I could find the cache at the place where it should be.
Sitting down on a tree-trunk-bench, we filled our energy with a few cups of Makgeolli for the steep slope.
 
Rock lock rock Rock Lock (GC1ZCYT)
We tried to find rocks, which the cache name emphasized it three times. They were, and it was a scenic point. After short searches around rocks, we found the cache. However, we disappointed a little bit. Was it a regular-size cache? It looked like a small-size cache.
Anyway, we had a short break hear with Makgeolli. We emptied remaining of Saeng Makgeolli here.
We could see a military base far away under the mountain.
 

 
Bakma-san 464m (GC1Z2FY)
We felt that we were approaching the top of Mt. Baekma. Cache name said that next cache was on Bakma-san and its height was 464m.
We climbed the mountain with the power of Makgeolli. Finally, we reached the landing place for helicopters. We decided to have a lunch here, because a couple of muggles were having lunch in front of the suspicious place, and we were hungry enough. We had two rolls of Gimbab, bananas, cucumbers, and Makgeolli. As I said before, we bought two bottles of local Makgeolli, one was Saeng (means ‘alive’) Makgeolli, and the other was just a traditional local Makgeolli. We drank up a bottle of Saeng Makgeolli at the previous cache sites. We had a local traditional Makgeolli. It was good! The tastes of a local traditional Makgeolli were well-balanced. Shinyred and I liked it.
It seemed that the couple would stay there longer than we expected. Therefore, I scouted to the cache point, and found that the cache point was not seen by the couple. I called shinyred, and we started searching. A few minutes later, we found the cache.
 

 
Nano-Bakma-san pine tree (GC1Z2G0)
After short walk thru a ridgeline, we reached at the next cache point. I followed a direction where my gpsr pointed to, but distance did not decrease and gpsr pointed to 2m continuously. When I knew it, shinyred shouted, ‘I find it!’ Wow, it was the smallest cache I had found so far. Shinyred said that he saw the same size of a cache at other place. We must not find it unless there was a picture in a description.
 
Yongmabong (GC1Z2G2)
While we moved to the next cache point, we saw the warning sign of military zone, and road blocked by wire entanglement.
 

At that time, we met old muggle, who came here from narrow trail at other side. We asked him where we should go, and he guided us to go thru the pathway he came. He asked us where we started and how long we took to here. He surprised to hear our answer that we started from Ssangyong Apt. in Yangbeolri and it took about 4 hours, and said ‘how did it take so long time to come here?’ He could not understand even after our further answer, we did something on the way. How we can make him understand what geocaching is!
After said goodbye to each other, we went to the pathway he came from. Then we found a scenic point on the way to Yongma-bong. Shinyred decided to hide his first cache here!
After hiding, we climbed a steep slope, and finally we reached at Yongma-bong. Shinyred found the cache for a few minutes search.
We decided to have a rest here because there was a good place near the cache point. We unpacked Makgeolli and its subsidiaries (Cucumber and soybean paste (Dwuenjang))
 

A half-filled bottle was a local traditional wine, and the other filled bottle was nation-wide Makgeolli. Both of we agreed on that a local one was better. You can also see our CITO sticks with a trash bag. This picture was just for taking a picture. We moved to the better place just a few tens of steps away.
 

We emptied a bottle of local Makgeolli, and had a rest with watching scenery.
 
Yongmabong 1 (GC1Z2G4)
The hard trail continued here. There were many rocks near the zero point, and fallen leaves hid most of the rocks. However, we could find the cache after a few minutes of search. While searching, I fell down due to broken of my CITO stick, and got a light scratch on my arm.
In the cache container, there was a fish, which my daughter may like. I took a fish, and left a heart shaped accessory. As my expectation, she likes it so much now!
 

 
Yongmabong 2 (GC1Z2G6)
We had the third struggle with fallen leaves. We could not find any suspicious place for the cache because we could only see a forest and fallen leaves. We explored here for a while, then we could find some rocks below the fallen leaves, and we found the cache behind some of them.
 

After that, we started to climb to Balybong.
 
Balyibong (GC1Z2G8)

When we reached at the zero point, we could find large rocks. We searched around rocks, and found the cache easily. This place might be proper for small or regular cache, I think. Our guess was that owner might hide all small or regular caches he brought before this point, and he had to hide a micro-cache here because he might have only micro-caches in his backpack. We could think again about owner’s efforts for hiding the caches in this mountain. Thank you for hiding the caches in this mountain!
 
Three-forked road(maesan-ri) (GC1Z2GC)
Finally, we reached here. We could easily find the cache because it was hidden with same pattern of one of previous caches in this mountain.

Downhill started from here looked dangerous because it was not only very hard to find the trail, but also we could not see any ground due to fallen leaves.
 

We refilled our energy with remaining Makgeolli, and started going down.
 
Do not look away! (GC1Z79Q)
Downhill was difficult due to fallen leaves. After long dangerous downhill, finally, we heard the sound of muggles. We felt that we were entering into the cultural world.
We went to the zero point, and then searched around. Suddenly I saw the cache! What a lucky! The cache was exposed and visible from even 10m away. It might be because all trees here were gardened.
We now enjoyed walking around a campus, and reached at the bus terminal, which was the end of today’s cache hunting.
Shinyred and I talked about the series of caches in Mt. Baekma in a bus, and we concluded that it was very good and quick training course for beginners. In addition, I asked to myself about how to write logs for this kind of series of caches. This series of logs is the answer to this question.
Thank you for all owners who provide us the pleasure and bringing us here. We found 16 out of 17 caches here! So far, it was our highest record found in a day.