Birthday Hike-Hiking the Fortress Wall Part 2

 I'm going to call this one "Lost in Translation- Part 2":
I'm pretty sure this was supposed to say "Crunchy" not "Crunky".  In fact, when I bought it I wasn't paying attention and I indeed thought it did say Crunchy.  Either way it was a horrible disappointment.  They tasted not good at all.  After my terrible review, Russ didn't want to even try one.  The girls did but neither of them liked it either.  Next time we will stick to buying our candy on base where we can get normal American candy.  I love all kinds of chocolate, but not Crunky Chocolate. 

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If you haven't been able to tell by now, our family loves to hike.  I am always looking for new hikes to do around Seoul.  Often if Russ gets a day off, that that girls are in school, I will try to find a hike that is a bit too difficult for them and we will do that for the day.  For us, hiking accomplishes a few different purposes.  First, we are outdoors and enjoying nature and the city we are living in.  Second, we are getting good exercise and we often don't even realize it.  Third, we are spending time together either as a couple or as a family.  The time we spend on hikes always brings good conversations with each other.

Russ has been working some crazy hours lately, so he decided (or rather I asked him) to take his birthday off so we could spend it together.  We decided to hike the western half of the Seoul Fortress Wall.  If you remember from a previous post, we hiked the eastern half a few weeks ago on another day that he had taken off. 

The half we did on his birthday was not as long in length, but it was a much more difficult hike.
We had to hike up a small mountain just to get on the trail.  Since it was the beginning of February, it was very cold and we had just gotten a good snow a couple days before.  Thankfully, the sun was out and it wasn't very windy.  This isn't a very good picture of us, because the sun was in our eyes and it was cold, but notice the tower in the background.  Next to that tower is where the trail picks up and that is where we started our hike.  You will see the tower again a few pictures down.

Once arrived at the wall, it was completely covered in snow, but for the most part the path next to it was pretty clear.

At one of the lookouts on the first mountain we could easily see across the city to the second mountain we were going to climb that day.  It looks far and steep, but once you get started it isn't to bad.  Isn't it a beautiful city?

Again, we had to keep a lookout for the small round signs.  The entire middle portion of this hike was through the city and there was no wall to guide us, so we really had to watch for the signs.

We might have made a small pit stop in the middle of the city for some nourishment.

We passed the Russian Embassy on this hike.  We couldn't take pictures of the actual embassy, but we did snap a picture of the sign.  All the street signs in this area were written in Korean, English and Russian. 

After navigating through the city, we were back to hiking in the mountains.  One of the awesome things about Seoul is you can be in the crazy, busy city and about 5 minutes later be on a peaceful (but steep) mountain path with the city behind you.

This part of the path was not cleared and was very slippery.  Russ caught a picture of me as I was trying not to fall on my butt.

Here is a lookout on the other side of the city...see anything that looks familiar?

That tower at the top of the mountain is where we started out hike.  We took this picture from the bottom of the mountain so we are looking up at the tower...keep that in mind as you keep reading.

Just to gross out my sister a little bit, here is a kissy picture with the mountains in the background.

At the bottom of the second mountain someone had made a huge snowman.

I'm 5'4" and this thing towered over me.

If the steps straight up the mountain weren't a dead give away, there was a sign to guide you towards the "Top".

This mountain is at the north side of the city.  As you all know, there are some unfriendly neighbors to the north of us, so this mountain is still used as a lookout.  There were guards at different lookout posts all along the trail, at the top of the mountain there were actual guns pointing north and we weren't allowed to take pictures for much of the portion along the top.

We did take a few pictures on the way up, though.  Since we were hiking the wall we had to hike straight up the mountain at this portion of the trail.  The steps were not even and it was a difficult portion to climb.

The city in the background.

 I didn't get a picture of it, but Russ' mom called us while we were hiking on this part of the trail.  She actually made a FaceTime video call (Apple's version of Skype) to Russ' i-phone.   It was awesome to be on a mountain in the middle of Seoul, Korea and have a video phone conversation with his mom who is in Kansas City, MO. 

I forgot my sunglasses this day, so I'm squinting in most of the pictures.  But you can see the wall goes straight up the mountain.  Look at the beautiful blue sky.

This was a lookout post.  That huge rock looks like it is just barely balancing there.

This sign cracked me up...

So is the guy slipping and falling because of the loose rocks or is it because his one leg is significantly shorter and smaller then the other leg?  I really think he needs to be more worried about his leg issue then he does the loose rocks.

Another view of the tower where we started.

Here we are looking straight across at the tower.

 At the top of the mountain we had to do some boulder climbing.

Russ made it to the very top.

What a good husband.

And we made it. 

Now for the climb down.

It was a beautiful hike.

He loves me.

Since it was Russ' birthday I brought a gift along with me for him to open on the trail. 

On the way home.  We were tired.

In the spring it is our goal to hike the entire fortress wall in a day.  It will be long day, but we are planning on doing it with some friends so it should be good time.