I had a dream early this morning.
I was traveling somewhere with a group of friends, and we were staying at a hotel that looked pretty luxurious. We had one particular plan for the trip: hiking up a mountain. We would set out in the evening and hike at night.
We all left together, but somehow the friend leading the way walked too fast while the main group moved too slowly. When I reached a fork, I took a different path and ended up separated from everyone.
There was no signal in the mountains, so I couldn't reach anyone. All I could do was follow the flow of people ahead. "Flow" might be overstating it... there weren't many people, just a few every now and then.
The path I took led to an extremely challenging route. By the time I struggled—really, really struggled, because uphill climbs are my least favorite part of hiking—to the summit, I was unbelievably sleepy. I also realized that I couldn't see the way I had come at all, and I had no idea which way led down, because there were several different routes off the mountain. Different people were heading in different directions.
I don't know how long I rested. I saw a few people around my age and asked where the different paths led. I've forgotten what they said. I only remember that I had planned to go with them, but in the end I let them leave first while I kept resting.
Later, I chose the path that looked more open because I could see farther along it and it seemed brighter. It must have been close to dawn by then.
Near the foot of the mountain, I found a small house. There was a slogan on the outside wall, and it turned out to be the exact place shown in a photo I had kept in my camera roll for a long time. I was so surprised and delighted that I immediately pulled out my phone to take a picture.
I hate that I can't remember now what the line said.
I went inside and found that the person running the place was getting ready to hold an event there. I asked to borrow a charger and for the Wi-Fi password so I could contact my group of friends.
And then... that was the end of it.
It reminded me of hiking Hallasan. I had thought there would be many paths once I reached the mountain, but there weren't. There was only one path both up and down, with people walking in both directions. So even someone with a poor sense of direction could set out alone without worrying about getting lost in the mountains.
Even the phone signal at the summit was pretty good, which surprised me.
More importantly, there were local guides at the summit—I think "guides" is what they were called. At a certain time, everyone still at the summit had to head down. They walked behind everyone else and were responsible for keeping us moving. Yes, they hurried everyone along so that no one would stay behind in the mountains.