The Korea Trail –
코리아트레일

Come to find out, I live literally right next to this trail and “discovered” it after spotting a trail marker posted on the back of a road sign my dogs like to smell during our walks. And I noticed more signs cycling later on near the coast, which got me curious.

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It’s a cross-country hiking path that starts up north at Imjingak Peace World Park - 임진각평화누리공원, near the border with North Korea. At that point, the trail intersects the Peace World Bike Path. It then meanders all the way south through the center of the country, passing through several cities, and finishes where so many of my favorite trails come to completion, Land’s End - 땅끝, the most south-westerly point on mainland South Korea. At the south, it intersects the junction between the Korea Circumference Trail's Seoharang and Namparang Paths. 

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A bit of its history: According to its website, www.koreatrail.co.kr, the creation of the trail began in 2008 and finished around 2018. The main guy who made it, 손성일, is a apparently one of the world's most elite long-distance hikers, having walked over 40,000km in his lifetime. Being inspired by his trek from Beijing, China, to Santiago, Spain, he had this trail intentionally pass along some of Korea's most beautiful ancient trading routes, traditional markets, historical sites, and stuff of that nature. It used to be called the Samnam Trail - 삼남길, which had a lot of meaning behind it, something about peace and Dokdo Island. Unlike most other trails, this one was funded privately, not through the government; that makes it pretty impressive. And the idea is that once the Koreas are unified, it’ll continue up North, then to China, and beyond.

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The trail is a mix of mountain paths, bike lanes, and city streets. 

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I’ve only done a little of this trail, very little. But here’s what I know so far:

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The App

The trail uses an app called "And the Spot - 앤더스팟." Like a lot of similar apps, it tracks your progress using GPS and awards you stamps for reaching milestones. I don't know anything else about the app because it doesn't work on my phone... 

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Navigation 

Whoever made the trail also made an amazing Google Map page that not only shows the entire trail clearly, it also lists all of the campsites, restaurants, motels, etc. along the way. Here's the link:

Korea Trail Google Map.

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Trail markers 

The trail is marked with a.) quick paintings of the trail’s S-shaped logo, meant to represent the shape of Korea, and also b.) stickers of the same design which are generously posted on poles, walls, road signs, etc., c.) you might also see ribbons further north. See images below.

 

For each type of marker, red logos point south, and green logos point north. (There might also be yellow markers.) 

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Some of the stickers have QR codes, and some of those lead to the trail's main website which you can find here: www.koreatrail.co.kr. It's got a lot of information about long-distance trekking (as in trekking around the world!) and more information about 손성일. However, the page is honestly such an unorganized mess and is all in Korean, you likely won’t find much use out of it.

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Other QR codes will take you directly to the Google Map, explained above. Also, the website says be aware that trail markers in certain areas were lost due to construction or fires, so you will need to rely on the Google Map page in those cases.  

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Here's what the trail markers look like. As noted, red points south, and green points north.