The Suspensful Bridges of Daedunsan Provincial Park, Korea

In January of 2011 I was able to meet up with Mad and Jeff in Daejeon. In the early morning we, along with some of their friends and coworkers, bused out to go hiking in Daedunsan Provincial Park. I was immediately struck by the impressively jagged ridges and rock faces. 

After a quick breakfast, we passed by the gondola ride up the mountain and took the hiking trail that lead to the same point. 

In one spot along the trail up, ice had accumulated in stalagmite-like formations.

Midway up the trail we looked up at one of the big draws to the park, an acrophobic's nightmare of a suspension bridge. 

We reached the top of the gondola, which was home to many birds who had learned to eat out of tourist's hands. Feed was for sale in the building where the gondola unloaded. 

The views from the stairs made up for them being steep and a bit icy. 

I love utterly literal signs. 

At last we reached the suspension bridge. 

The fact that one could see right through it didn't deter me, but some of our party were a bit hesitant. 

The next artificial bit of trail was a bit more inclined than the bridge. 

The steel stairs weren't nearly as treacherous as the ice-covered stone ones, however. This was the only part of the hike that actually seemed unsafe to me. 

Despite the icy stairs and see-through suspension bridges, our path was not the most terrifying way to get up the mountain.

Okay, I'm pretty sure these cages were only used for equipment.

My favorite part of the steel stairway may have been the sign at its base:

We continued hiking and reached the 878m high summit of Daedun Mountain. 

There was a decent view.

We were surprised to see little birds all around the summit. 

The hike back down was fairly uneventful. Back in Daejeon, I encountered  stairs in a pedestrian underpass even icier than any we had seen on our hike: 

On the subway to the train station, I finally got a picture of my favorite of the images on the constantly playing loop on the subway screens that also shows the current station. Dear Daejeon subway safety presentation creators: I'm pretty sure the guy throwing the Molotov cocktail knows that he isn't supposed to be doing so.

I returned to Bundang and my usual teaching life.