Seoul personalities
at the Peak of hiS PoWerS Hiker and author Roger Shepherd wants to share Korea’s mountain beauty with the world Written by Ben Jackson | Photographed by Ryu Seunghoo
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oger Shepherd has been enticed out of a mountain hermitage in Korea’s deep southwest and now sits in Seoul Selection’s bookshop, entertaining a group of journalists. After a series of ever longer periods of unpaid leave that culminated in his resignation from the New Zealand Police at the end of last year, he now spends most of his time in rural Korea, staying in hermitages and monasteries and walking. Hot on the heels of the July release of his new book, “Baekdudaegan Trail: Hiking Korea’s Mountain Spine,” Shepherd speaks to SEOUL about the experiences that led to the publication of perhaps the most detailed English-language guide to this hugely important mountain range.
Along the artery “The Baekdu-daegan is an ecosystem,” says Shepherd. “You get opportunities to witness Mother Nature doing her stuff. You’re part of an ecosystem when you walk on it.” He speaks of looking down on banks of cloud crashing into the sides of the ridge, rolling back on themselves and dumping rain. Shepherd has had plenty of time to witness such things, thanks to his willing self-immersion in Korea’s mountain landscapes since his first mapless and rain-soaked wander into the Baekdu-daegan in 2006 following a tipoff from New Zealand friend and “Baekdu-daegan” co-author Andrew Douch. A year later, Shepherd and Douch set off on a 70-day odyssey from the southwestern coccyx of the range up to the Demilitarized Zone (border with North Korea)—the trip that, in turn, provided the backbone for the book. Shepherd talks elsewhere of the “arterial magic” of Korea’s mountains, describing the Baekdu-daegan as the spine of a “giant central nervous system” of ridges and spurs that reach out from it across the peninsula. It is clearly more than the magical views that captivated him and persuaded him to resign from his job and “show foreigners the Baekdu-daegan.” Now an Honorary Ambassador of Tourism for Korea, a honor bestowed by Korea Tourism Organization as a mark of recognition for his efforts, Shepherd is preparing to launch a tour
38 Seoul august 2010
0x204mm s | Size: 15 | 452 page er ov tc of S
EXPLORE THE MOuNTAIN SPINE OF KOREA The Baekdu-daegan is a chain of mountains forming the backbone of the Korean Peninsula. The 735-kilometer hiking trail provides a great opportunity for outdoor enthusiasts to hike their way through a geographical repository of culture and history.
This guide will get you packed up and ready to hit the road!
E-mail fran@seoulselection.com travel & culture Seoul 39 Tel 82-2-734-9565 | Fax 82-2-734-9563
Seoul personalities company taking hikers along the ridges that link the country’s many peaks.
When asked about his favorite aspect of the Baekdu-Daegan, Shepherd is quick to pinpoint the areas between the national parks through which the range passes. “They’re really great to visit,” he says. “Only local people go there. The trail takes you through orchards, temples, small villages, and so on. People wonder what on Earth you’re doing there, and how you’ve ever heard of the Baekdu-daegan.” Here, Shepherd is touching on another favorite theme of his: encounters with surprised locals. He enjoys telling of the time when a truck passed him and Douch on a quiet country road. “It screeched to a halt just up ahead,” he recounts, “and a guy got out, went round to the back, opened the door, got out a crate of apples, ran over, put it in front of us, ran back to the truck without a word, got in, and drove off. We thought, ‘What on Earth do we do with all these apples? Make pies?’”
of every information sign along the way,” he says. “After we finished, we had them translated, and suddenly this whole flood of new information was released. It’s all in the book.” Baekdu-daegan Trail is primarily a travel guide, breaking the trail into 17 broad sections, each in turn broken down into daily subsections. “I used a navigational data sheet to record everything as we hiked,” says Shepherd. His text explains the trail, kilometer by kilometer, and is supplemented by various maps, illustrations, and photographs. But the information gleaned from translated signs allows the book to contain much more than practical hiking data, thus enlightening walkers about the abundant cultural, historical, religious, and other sites along the route. What, though, is it that gives Korea’s mountains their unique character when you take away the layers of human culture that surround them? “Level rows of peaks, blue haze, waves and waves of mountains,” says Shepherd. “Probably similar to China. And then white, smooth patches of rock bursting out from the forest.”
Scaring the locals
Recovering lost links
Looking for accommodation in unfamiliar villages at dusk also provided anecdotes that Shepherd enjoys sharing, such as the time he and Douch followed a winding dirt road down from the ridge, lured by a sign to a minbak (guest house). “When we finally got there, a dog started barking and the lights went on, but nobody opened the door,” he explains. “After we knocked, the door opened a crack, then slammed shut straight away. Andrew knocked again while I held back in the shadows. We had to shout for a while that we were foreigners hiking, and eventually they opened up and allowed us to stay there.”
“Korean people had a close affinity with their landscapes and their mountains,” says Shepherd. “A lot of that has been lost with modernity. But I hope they find that link again.” The link between man and landscape, however, is not the only one that has been severed. The Baekdu-Daegan trail is itself prematurely terminated, for those hiking northwards, by the border with North Korea. Shepherd tried to overcome it with an email to the North Korean government asking for permission to hike the range from the border up to Mt. Baekdu. “I got a reply politely declining my request on grounds of security,” he says. “I’d love to do it one day, even if they escort me the whole way.” In the meantime, hikers can take three months, a copy of Shepherd’s book, and plenty of instant noodles and enjoy discovering the 735km of Baekdu-daegan trail that lie within South Korea.
Glut of apples
More info Roger Shepherd’s websites can be found at www.hikekorea.net and www.hikekorea.com. “Baekdu-daegan Trail: Hiking Korea’s Mountain Spine” is available from Seoul Selection’s bookstore (www.seoulselection.com), priced at 28,000 won.
40 SEOUL July 2010
Revealing hidden culture Shepherd emphasizes how his new book will unlock layers of the Baekdu-daegan previously unavailable to non-Korean speakers. “When Andrew and I did our 2007 trek we took photos