The pictures show how small scale merchant/farmers try to take advantage of the wealthy hikers that are bussed in from Seoul.
Unrelated, I bought a bright LED flashlight worn around the head. I decided I wanted to night hike after work. The first night was somewhat eerie. The second night we were about 30 meters into the trail when a set of eyes reflected back our light in the distance.
I wasn't sure at first if it was an animal, until after a couple minutes of hesitation the eyes looked to either side then back at us. You could tell it was a large animal. The color was white, so I ruled out a cat. My friend explained using about 10 words of English, 40 words of Korean, and much emotion that he saw a news program about wild boars. It was reported that Korea, and this region, lacked predators and wild boar populations were growing unchecked. They had attacked hikers recently, and this time of year that presents the most danger. Instead of doing the prudent thing I went the sinister road. I wanted to see how far we could get before complete fear took over. It took me a while to convince him, and I only convinced him to climb half the mountain. Twenty minutes later with much looking over our shoulders we heard grunting off the path. We came down the mountain quickly after that drunk on adrenaline. I asked around, and read online... apparently he was right.
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