Wetland Weekends

Scrolling through my blog posts you would know for sure, no question, that Korea has some beaches and some mountains. As the temperature and the humidity rise, I find myself resorting to free-time options less physically demanding than knocking off another Seoul peak. Beaches are nice and relaxing summer-time activities, but Mihai and I like to spend the better part of a beach weekend in or around the tent. July being rainy season, a weekend without at least some rain is rare. It has however, been a much nicer July this year. The rain comes, but not everyday. The sun shines, its hot and humid but not impossible. With conditions as they are, I've turned to the bike. I can take it easy on the bike if I want, rest in the shade where I want, go hard when I'm ready for some more exertion. In the past weeks, I found out that when you want to get out of the city, avoid the mountains, and you can't reach the beach, you find wetland. At least in these parts.

Siheung Ecological Park

My first visit to this somewhat local, ecological feature was a solo trip and a mistake. The plan was to visit a small hill that looks out over the sea in Oido, a neighborhood that is about a 1 to 1.5 hour bike trip south of Yeonsu. About half way to Oido I pass through a fish market in Sorae, an area at the furthest southern reaches of Incheon that I adore for the coastal life that it emits. It doesn't have a beach, but it has the smell of the sea, the gulls, the walkways and bike paths along a shallow canal that the fishing boats crawl through with a fresh catch.

To go on from Sorae to Oido you have to cross a bridge, effectively leaving the Incheon city limits. From up on that bridge, I like to look down and watch the small fishing boats unloading their catch. As I said, it's a small fish market. The unloading of these boats is simple. One of the 2 or 3 person crew puts the fish in a plastic crate and hooks a rope to each side of it. Two men up on the concrete platform at the other end of the rope hoist up the crate and put it on a wagon that one of them will have to take through the market once its full. Sometimes, simple manual labor can be beautiful thing to watch. It was on the tail end of that bridge crossing where I spotted two folks on bikes taking a trail going under the bridge that I was on. I had no clue that there was a trail there, and so I thought I would take a look.

After one peek, I never turned back. To this day, I still haven't visited that hill by the coast at Oido where I intended to go originally. I'm used to nicely marked, laid out in red asphalt bike trails. Easy to see, city biking. That's what we have here. Well, once I saw the dirt track, my intrigue kept me going on it. The bumpy dirt road followed a tidal canal. Its steep walls of dirt dropped down to a narrow strip of brown water. At the top of those walls, vast fields spread over the landscape. First there were these interesting purple plants that I was not familiar with. In the distance stood Soraesan, a small mountain that stands out among fields and smaller hills. Meanwhile the foreground was populated by these purple plants that, at a certain moment, took a muddy slide into the stream, only to pop back up again and continue on.

Soraesan in the distance.

Further along the trail, with bent over farmers barely visible in the fields on my left, the small purple bush-like plants gave way to tall grasses and the cranes started to appear. In flight, their long necks curled up but as they stretched their legs out to land revealing their great wingspan, so too did the long thin hose of a neck lengthen. While crossing a small bridge I noticed the muddy stream bed below riddled with holes. I later found out that these were homes of crabs. Many of which I would see later on. Soon enough, a golf course appeared my right and the Siheung Ecologocal park, on my left.

The view from the small bridge. Colonies of crabs inhabiting the mud.

My favorite part of the park was situated along that main stream that I followed in. There is a shaded region there where you can sit on a wooden swing and look out over the stream, the fields and the hills in the background. A deck was built out into the tall grasses and marsh land from where you could view birds to look down on the muddy surface to see brown crabs scurry to their holes. There was also a tower standing at five or six stories tall. A slight slope spiraled up around the structure with a platform every twelve feet or so. I climbed to the top where I found some great views. You could see marsh and fields of grass to the north, rice fields to the east, the rest of the park and mountains to the south, and a distant Sorae to the west. Large binoculars are placed around the top platform for better viewing. When I went there a week later with Mihai we watched some horseback riders down in the marshy fields ride their horses at a trot.

You can sit and rest in the shade, or go out on the decking and explore the surroundings.

The park included a large section where salt is harvested. This part of the park included several flat stone or concrete pools, most of which were empty. I don't know when they harvest sea-salt but I'd like to see it when they do. There was also a section of the park with small pagodas situated next to small ponds, ideal for resting.

Salt flats in the park

After a ride around the rice fields I turned back toward Sorae, but I rode back on the other side of the main stream. Rather than taking the main dirt road the whole way back, I decided to cut off onto one of the smaller paths. I was immediately surrounded by grasses much taller than I. They closed in on the path until they were brushing me on both sides. It seemed like a labyrinth, periodically opening up at a pagoda or a deck by the stream. After exiting I checked myself for bugs. Shortly up the trail I rode by a couple of horses with riders feeding. After just 10 minutes or so of slow riding, taking in the nature around me, I look back to see two riders galloping toward me. I picked up pace, and every time I looked back I saw these riders, high on there horses, running. It was actually quite exciting. For a moment, I felt like I was part of a western.

The way back took me through another ecological park at Sorae. Before arriving at that park, Mihai and I passed by some folks taking off, in flight. They had parachutes, and big propellers on their backs. We stopped to watch them. Once they got some air in their chutes, they flipped a switch activating the propellers and lifting off. I'd like to learn how to do that.

Sorae Marsh is another Ecological park with salt harvesting, interesting purple plants, another, similar stream, and good views of Soraesan mountain. It also has some dutch-style windmills and a section where folks, young and old, play in the mud. I didn't have time to stick around there and check it out much but I plan to return. What I like about Sorae Marsh, is seeing the fishing boats beached high up in the mud. The water level drops very low at low tide.

Siheung Ecological Park may have been one of my first wanderings into a wetland, but not the last. Today, I found myself watching crabs scurry back to their holes at a riverside much further inland, at the Han river. I was on the North side of the Han, Northwest of Seoul, riding along a similar marshy landscape to that of Siheung. These bike rides are a nice alternative to the mountains in this hot and humid weather. Since arriving in Yeonsu, I have found it very pedestrian friendly, bike-rider friendly, and a nice place to roam. As I stretch out, expand my territory, I continue to find more interesting features of this landscape. My own version of the South Korean landscape. What will I find tomorrow?