Gangmangsan 강망산

374.4 meters

1.53km to the peak

📍trailhead

I don’t have good experiences with this mountain, but it’s a mountain in Geoje and I’ve hiked it, so here it is.

The first time I attempted to hike this mountain I followed the trailhead next to the British International School. It was early morning as the sun was rising. The orange glow on the mountains behind me on the other side of the highway was stunning.

A little further up the trail though I heard lots of leaves getting trampled and looked expecting to see deer. To my surprise, it was two wild boars running full tilt up the trail. Looking back, I think that they were as scared of me as I was of them, but I didn’t stick around long enough to find out.

ATTEMPT TWO came a week later with a late morning start (I’ve since learned that wild boars are more active at night and it’s more likely to see them at dawn and dusk) and a hiking buddy in tow.

The first part of the trail is relatively decent with a few good views looking back towards the highway near Deokpo. Once at the top though it’s very hard to follow the “trail”. Our plan was to continue to hike to Deokpo and emerge at the fire beacon there.

Near the top, there is a turnoff to the left to reach another peak (큰산봉우리). It's only 0.3km to get to get to this peak, but it was a steep climb and there were no views (or markers), so I personally wouldn't bother with it again.

Back on the trail to Deokpo, we struggled for quite some time trying to follow the “trail”. There is a great viewpoint along the way looking at the ridge ahead, but I wouldn’t really recommend this hike unless you’re up for an adventure.

After the above mentioned viewpoint, the trail does get easier to follow eventually. Getting there took quite the effort though as it was hard to see the taped trail markers on the trees.

We saw no wild boars on this outing, but we did see some goats deep in the woods along the way. Also, we bumped into a man foraging for some sort of plant. He looked very surprised to see us, as we were to see him, since it felt like we were well off any sort of trail. I told him about my wild boar “encounter” the previous week, and he pointed to a golf club he had with him and explained that he takes that with him because of the boars. So keep in mind, wild boars can technically be in any of the mountains in Geoje, but you may be more likely to see them on this mountain.