Korea is really far from America.: Jirisan

We have a friend named Shawn, who's from Newfoundland. He writes for a local magazine, but above all, he's a mountaineer. We've been able to go on hiking trips with him a few times now.

The three of us bright and early at the top of Jiri after sleeping in the very cold and dusty shelter all night with a bunch of drunk middle-aged Korean men.

Last spring, the three of us hopped on a train and headed to the southern end of the country. We ended up in a town nearby the mountain. Shawn got us a taxi and we payed the driver to take us about 30 minutes to a small restaurant at the foot of Jiri mountain. We had a cool traditional Korean meal of bipimbap, rice with fresh vegetables pulled from the mountain at this outdoorish restaurant. There was a small dog that was very interested in us and kept coming close to get a look at us and an occasional petting.

Once we got the little dog to stop following us, we answered a few trivia questions that were on the side of the trail and then we headed up a little valley with this river and its huge rocks.

As amazing as this mountain is, there was still garbage left behind from time to time. So we took some pictures of it for Shawn's website. He runs an organization that goes to the mountains of Korea and cleans up the garbage. Korean's aren't very big on garbage cans, so Shawn and his crew are very busy. Still, 99.9% of this mountain was absolutely gorgeous.

This sign pointed us in the direction to the shelter we were gonna stay at.

We'd stop to take a breather time-to-time. A lot more than we needed to, it was just too beautiful.

Shawn said the water was clean enough to drink. He drinks it whenever he hikes this mountain.

Ricky caught Tiff while she was getting lost in one of those moments when you forget that you live in a city with cars and fast food.

Seriously, with a view like this, being able to see all of this in one place, you all are lucky Ricky even wants to come home at all. Just kidding, he's counting the days.

We loved this pool and wanted to jump in so bad, but there were millions of little tadpoles swimming around. They told us to back off.

Then we got to the shelter. A man named Mr. Ham (pronounced like "mom") decided 40 years ago to live in the mountains. He's been living there ever since. He was really nice and funny, too. He wore a beret (Shawn said he always wears it) and he has a goatee. He was married when he decided to be a mountain man and he has stayed married the whole time. His wife was apparently cool with him being gone a lot.

He has stacked up rocks to bring his home closer to heaven. Visitors have contributed as well.

He has almost everything he needs at his shelter. 24 hour running water from the stream for drinking and washing. He has a small garden where he grows his dinner. There's even a bathroom. He only charges the equivalent of $10 to stay there. His goals are only to live a peaceful life in the mountains and to provide a shelter for fellow mountain lovers.

Here's a peek into the living quarters. He provides heavy, warm blankets. Nobody freezes there.

There was only one pair of house slippers, and Mr. Ham said, "Ladies first!" and gave them to Tiff, leaving Ricky and Shawn in their socks.

The next morning we got up and said goodbye to Mr. Ham. Then Shawn took us on a serious hike to the top of Jiri mountain. We love to hike, but hiking is what Shawn does, and he didn't take it easy on us at all. But this mountain was remarkable, so it was okay.