Walking and hiking routes in Korea: the Seoul Dulle-gil, the Seoul City Wall trail, Busan Galmaetgil courses and the national parks, with access, grading and seasonal notes.
December arrived, and with it Gamnaetgil Section 7’s first half — a walk that picks up exactly where our earlier Baekyangsan-to-Seongjigok walk left off, at the entrance to Children’s Grand Park. My friend Areum and I joined the same full-trail challenge group, past the halfway point in their 23-section series, a Christmas tree already up … Read more
Nineteen sessions into a 28-course walking program, our Traveler’s School cohort had earned a proper reward: a full autumn field day built right into Manbo Course 21, complete with games most of us hadn’t played since childhood. My friend Seoyeon and I gathered with the group at Gupo Station under a genuinely clear late-November sky, … Read more
By Manbo Course 17, our Traveler’s School cohort had settled into a comfortable rhythm — sixteen sessions in, everyone knew the routine, and the group’s energy on an early-October Saturday felt more like old friends meeting up than a formal walking class. My friend Jiwoo and I gathered with the group at Sinpyeong Station, cool … Read more
Yolo Gamnaetgil Course 8 doesn’t overlap with any of the official numbered Gamnaetgil sections, which makes it one of those routes you’d genuinely have to go looking for — not something you’d stumble onto by accident. My friend Seoyeon and I made the trip specifically because of that, taking a village bus from Seodaesin Station … Read more
By the time our full-trail challenge group reached Gamnaetgil Section 6-3, we were past the halfway point of the entire 23-section series — a milestone that came with its own quiet satisfaction, even as the calendar tipped toward Busan’s real summer heat. My friend Hana and I met the group at Gaegeum Station’s meeting plaza, … Read more
Gamnaetgil’s full 700-ri route is officially divided into nine long sections rather than the shorter numbered courses most casual walkers do, and Section 4’s first half is one of the longer single-day stretches on the whole trail — 14 km along Busan’s western coastline. My friend Doyoon and I joined an official group walk tackling … Read more
“Mosuyeong” — short for “Everyone Happy in Suyeong” — is a small local initiative pairing community walkers with adults with developmental disabilities for short, accessible neighborhood walks. My friend Areum and I joined its second session on a mild May morning, arriving early enough to catch the quiet, slightly misty look Suyeong’s old park trees … Read more
Manbo Course 14 sits deep in Gangseo district, in the section of Busan where getting to and from the trail takes real effort — the kind of stretch that thins out even regular Gamnaetgil walkers. My friend Jiwoo and I built in extra time for the trip out, and it turned out to be worth … Read more
Somewhere in that in-between stretch of early December where autumn hasn’t quite let go of winter, my friend Seoyeon and I joined a walk along Yolo Course 9 — a route nicknamed “Insaeng Samnak,” loosely “the three joys of life,” through Samnak Ecological Park. It’s another walk organized jointly with the local deaf community, and … Read more
Late November, a 4pm start, and a route named “Dadaepo Sunset Picnic” — the timing on this one wasn’t an accident. My friend Hana and I met at Sinpyeong Station with plenty of time to spare before the group’s afternoon departure, watching sunset light slowly creep across the station building as everyone signed in. Distance … Read more