People 2

Early in the morning we had loaded up our bikes on a bus and headed to Wonju. Our intention was to climb/hike up a mountain that day. We reached the city, biked around for about a half hour to collect our bearings, and headed towards the base of our goal. Reaching the mountain we came into a neat little town on a slope. Filled with restaurants, shops, houses, and the site of elderly hikers in full gear, we knew we had reached the right place.

We bike around the base for a bit, looking for a suitable path to take. We eventually settled on a quiet and steep stretch of concrete path at the north end of a small road. We climbed for about 40 minutes and reached a chain. The sign beside it said, "Danger:No entry" (in Korean, of course). Dismayed, we turned back.

Reaching the bottom of the path was no trouble, the steep angle helped us go quickly. We reached the pole where we had locked up our bikes in about 10 minutes. As we began unlocking and untangling our bikes a group of five or six old women came around the bend. We offered a friendly hello (again...in Korean) and the enthusiastically replied in kind. The women offered very warm smiles, likely impressed by our friendliness and surprised for our presence. One women came out from the group, digging through her bag. She produced a bag of about 6 small oranges. We tried to politely refuse but she insisted. With a great smile we accepted the bag and offered our sincere thanks in both words and short bows of our heads. We said good bye to the women and they said goodbye to us. We all carried on with our day.