Seohaerang Gil | Day 57 – 60

23 – 26 May 2025 | Courses 65 – 74 (Taean)

Big plans to knock out 10 courses in just four days! We are hitting the tail end of our Seohaerang Gil adventures, having completed 90 out of 109 courses so far.

Day 57: Friday 23 May. We have completed 90 out of 109 courses so far, not far to go! Today we catch the bus to Taean where we will stay for four nights and complete some more courses 🥾 On our way to the bus stop we visit 냠냠냠베이커리 / NNN Bakery. We have been wanting to visit all week but they tend to sell out early (by 1pm most days!) so we want to get there right on opening time. It is absolutely worth the wait as the bread is some of the best we’ve had and one of our new favourite bakeries. The baker gave us a few extras for the road and we wish him the best with the business. If you’re ever in Seosan make sure you visit @nnn.bakery 🥐 We catch the slow bus to Taean, drop our bags off at our motel before catching the local bus to our courses, 65 & 66. It’s overcast but the trails run along the beaches, through pine forest and past camping grounds. Camping in Korea is very different where people drive to the camping grounds and set up their tent or caravan near plentiful restaurants, convenience stores, showers and toilets ⛺️ The second part of the course is back along farmland and we make the bus back to Taean just in time. The town of Taean is a bit smaller than Seosan but everything seems closer together making it more convenient to get around. The rain eventually does fall around dinner time and will continue to fall throughout the night ☔️

Day 58: Saturday 24 May. A big day in Taean today, knocking out four courses (71-74) over 20km. It rains briefly around 11am but the sun does come out in the afternoon ☀️ Course 72 starts with trails along the beach, followed by a few highways and farm roads along 73. We then head up Humangsan Mountain for course 74 before finishing on course 71 along easy trails and the beach 🏝️ Back in town we drop by a toast and snack place for lunch and a bread shop 행복한빵 (Happy Bread) for their signature white roll. Dinner at a Chinese place 화룡 where they make some really good noodle dishes 짬뽕 (Jjamppong) and 콩국수 (Kongguksu) 🍜 A good day where everything just seemed to fall into place!

Day 59: Sunday 25 May. A beautiful sunny day today for our 25km hike along course 69 & 70. We had read that course 70 is supposed to be one of the best nature courses to hike so we decide to complete it in its entirety, along with a few check points along course 69 🌲 The first section is a roller coaster trail of ups and downs. We finish it pretty quickly and move onto course 70, which is quite long (19.2km) but very pretty. We pass a lot of hikers along the way who turn out to be a hiking group from Daejeon 🎒 Towards the end of the course we start chatting to a hiker who is sitting by himself. He is part of a hiking group and thinks he is at the very back of the pack so we walk with him for the last few kms 🥾 Turns out he is part of the Daejeon hiking group so we tell him there are plenty of other hikers behind him and when we arrive at the end point he is actually one of the first to arrive. He kindly gifts us his Seohaerang Gil keyring from his backpack and we give him a clip-on koala 🐨 We make our way to the bus stop and drop by a cute cafe before boarding the bus. Back in town we have dinner at the local Inari place 정직유부 / Jeonjik Yubu. We have an easier hike planned for our last day in Taean tomorrow which will be nice as it’s been a while since our last rest day.

Day 60: Monday 26 May. A shorter 14km hike today along course 67 & 68 🌲 The weather is nice but the air quality isn’t good and you can see the smog in the air. The courses are mostly farmland and seawalls, including another area that has a diversion in case of high tide 🌊 The final check point is along the beach so we decide to check out the cave nearby, which takes us along a few trails, before heading to the bus stop. Local buses have been a great source of anxiety for us this trip! 🚎 Luckily they also provide a form of amusement, including today when an Ahjusshi brings his whipper snipper onto the bus with him. We get back to town and grab some Korean toast for lunch, followed by a visit to the 오늘도소금빵 salt bread bakery 🥐 We have hit the tail end of our hiking adventures, having reached 100 stamps (out of 110), and will be heading to the town of Dangjin tomorrow!