Korean Trails

From the more popular northern side the mountain trails from Unmun-sa have been closed from 2009 for conservation reasons, and will not re-open until Jan 1st 2012*. Although a bit disappointing this has given me the opportunity of exploring the remote southern circuit which I'll explain below.

The famous monk Ilyeon-seonsa, author of the Samguk-yusa history of Shilla was the chief monk here in the 1230's. In 1958 a University for Bukkhini (female monks) was opened nearby and is now one of the largest in the country.

At the centre of Unmun-sa's large grounds stands a huge sprawling 500 year old Red Pine known as the Weeping pine of Unmun-sa. With apparently no pruning it has strangely grown out rather than up and covers a huge area of the central courtyard. Every spring Weeping Red is fertilized with makgeoli (rice wine) which may explain its outward rather than upward growth - I feel like sprawling horizontal after that stuff as well.

The greater Unmun-sa area is a cool place to walk around even if your intention is not to climb the mountain - or if, like me, you find the trail closed. Unmunsa's four hermitages are spread far apart around the foothills and there is some very rewarding walking between them.

The shrine to Dokseong was built here in 1845 and its painting of the Lonely Saint is a very old one, having stood in the shrine since 1851.

Sari-am and its shrine are so popular that large tour buses travel specifically to this hermitage, often bypassing Unmun-sa on the way through. One such bus I saw there, from Busan was called the ????? Sari-am Tour Bus, and had about 50 people on board. This hermitage is accessed from the end of the road which continues behind Unmun-san for a couple of kilometres along the river toward the mountain, ending at a large carpark. From here the only way to the temple is another kilometre up a brutally steep path, which seems of little concern to the hundreds of pilgrims, many elderly, who make their way to the temple every weekend.

More on Dok-seong - The Lonely Saint.

* April 14, 2012, I returned to Unmun-sa only to find that the trail closure has been extended to December of this year. Signs at the trail head state hikers found on the trail face a fine of 500,000won, and 2000,000won if found collecting any mountain products. The reason is to protect the habitat of the Otter, which is very rare in Korea and present in the upper reaches of Unmun-san's gorges. Some hikers still walk the trail despite the risk, probably people like me who'd driven a long way unaware of the extended closure, but its not recommended as all signage has been removed from the trail and it can be quite challenging to navigate the thinning track which involves quite a bit of fording across the stream. Looks like I'll be back again later in the year - I'll probably call ahead next time.

To Unmun-sa

By Bus

From the town of Cheongdo 청도 buses leave for Unmun-sa 8 times a day at 7:40, 9:20, 10:40, 11:30, 13:10, 15:30, 17:30, 19:30

Buses leave Unmun-sa for Cheongdo at 06:50, 9:30, 11:30, 12:00, 13:30, 15:30, 17:30, and 19:15

By road

From the west (Cheongdo) - Expressway 55 (Daegu-Busan) has an exit at Cheongdo, from here take National Highway 20 to Unmun-myeon, turn right onto Provincial Road 69 which hugs the southern side of Unmun lake until you reach the junction to Unmun-sa on your right.

From the east - Expressway 1 has an exit at Eonyang. From here get onto NH24 heading west, get off the main road when directed to Seongnam-sa (석남사) and shortly after turn right onto Provincial Road 69 which crosses the Gaji-san ridge and drops down into Cheongdo area to Unmun-sa.

Accommodation:

The Unmun-sa entrance road off PR69 has a great number of excellent restaurants and some pretty good looking Minbak guesthouses, its much like the entrance to a National Park. Further east up 69 there are also a lot of minbaks along the riverside, and a camping ground - Unmun-san Family Campground - which looks pretty groovy. 8km east of the Unmun-sa turnoff on PR69 is the Unmun-san Recreational Forest ???????? which has cabins and camping sites.

This is evident when driving up the Seokgol valley to the trailhead crossing one-lane bridges and navigating through village lanes - no tour buses are making it to this starting point - and neither is a city bus - if you want to bus here from Milyang you'll be dropped off a good 30/40min walk from the trail.

Seokgol-sa is a pretty little temple set atop a raging waterfall. The falls and the small, clear pools it flows into are relatively popular for summer chillers and the gorge road leading to Seokgol-sa has a handful of good looking restaurants and minbaks on the river-side. There is no store as such for hiking food.

Seokgol-sa 석골사 - 3.6km - Sangun-am 상운암 - 700m - Unmun-san 운문산 - 2km - Dakbat-jae 닥밭재 - 2.6km - Seokgol-sa. 8.5km / 3-4hr

The track follows the stream closely on the climb to Sangun-am, and there are a number of good waterfalls on the way, although most can't be seen through the thick forest. The best falls can be reached on informal sidetracks cut through the trees, some of which are a bit dodgy.

Sangun-am sprung up some time later, and is perhaps the most modest mountain amja I've ever seen, made entirely of corrugated iron with a veranda of stretched plastic and a swastika spraypainted on the wall. Its a really charming spot, and puts me in mind of the rustic temples you find in the Himalaya - incidentally Sangun-am is the highest temple building in the Yeongnam Alps.

The walk down from Ddeokbat-jae is a good one, through much easier terrain in a more sheltered valler than the Sangun-am gorge, and the hike to Seokgol-sa shouldn't take much over an hour.

As highlighted on the map below, it is possible to do a longer loop than the one described by walking on to Palpung-jae and heading down the green dotted line back to Seokgol-sa. This allows the opportunity to summit Eok-san, a further 500m west of the junction.

Milyang city buses heading to Eoleum-gol will stop at the Wonseo junction, it might pay to tell the bus driver either "Wonseo" or "Seokgol-sa" as he'll just keep going if noone's waiting.

From Milyang Bus Terminal buses Eoleum 1, 2 and 3 얼음1, 얼음2 and 얼음3 all stop here.