Day 7, Leg 6

A week into this walk, and I've gone 167 km along the Four Rivers route (I'm not counting the 5 extra kilometers on Day 1), which means I'm 26% of the way through. Today's walk was predictably sunny and beautiful; that's usually how it goes after a rain—the skies are scoured, and gloom turns into radiance. 

Today's walk was also ridiculously short at 16K, so I deliberately started late and took my sweet time. It was a good day for dithering, I must say—bright and clear and windy. I tried napping at one point, but I couldn't shut out the sun or the wind. I did linger, though, whenever I found a reason to. One big thing going on today was some sort of ROK Army operation along the river. I snapped some pics of the op and immediately felt guilty for doing so (spy!), but no one in uniform yelled at me, so that was a plus. 

The highlights of today's walk included Gangcheon Dam/강천보 and Gangcheon Island/강천섬, which now has some new facilities on its grounds, as well as two of those tacky place-name signs that have become so popular in recent years. I saw these all over the place both along the peninsular east coast and along the coast of Jeju Island: when you reach Beach XYZ, there's a huge, plastic sign that is essentially a tacky sculpture, in letters, of the beach's name. I thought this was cute at first, not to mention convenient for newbies to a particular area, but now, I just think the signs are obnoxious and unnecessary. Is it too late to go back to the old way of doing things?

Now that I'm beyond the Seoul-Yangpyeong-Yeoju axis, there's finally some real farmland and real crops to look at. Overall, I was expecting more progress: I thought the fields would be mostly harvested by now, given my three-week-late start. Instead, as I'm discovering, crops all mature at different rates (maybe some sort of terroir dynamic at work), so I'll pass some fields that are fully harvested, others that are partly harvested, and still others that aren't harvested at all. Part of the issue might be the presence of so many mountains, which means so many valleys, which means so many separate biomes.

Saw a lot of little fellow travelers, including the usual complement of grasshoppers, praying mantises, and dead snakes. Strangely, I didn't see a single Joro spider today. I did, however, see some lizards as well as a grasshopper-like insect that has barely any head. I call it a retarded grasshopper. 

Good weather meant losing the advantage of privacy I'd enjoyed yesterday. Yesterday, with almost no one on the bike path, I could freely take a piss whenever and wherever I wanted. Today, that wasn't possible, even with walkers and bikers still being sparse. Too much exposure when the weather is clear and bright. So today, when I had to piss, I had to hold it in and wait until I found a restroom somewhere. It wasn't as awful as I'm making it sound.

I arrived at Jangsu Pension at around 3:45 in the afternoon. The owner greeted me heartily; I paid W30,000 for a different room this time—not my usual one. I'm not even bothering to wash clothes or shower tonight; conditions here are primitive, so I'm simply leaving in the morning. I unpacked minimally; in the morning, I'll pack minimally. There was a long centipede curled around the shower hose in my bathroom. Centipedes are mean little bastards, so I rolled up some toilet paper and killed it. Can't have it attacking my scrotum or brutally trying to force its way into my dickhole while I'm sitting on the toilet, right? Anyway, I crushed it and flushed it.

Tomorrow's walk is 22K. I don't think I need to wake up at 4 a.m. for such a short walk; I think I'll reserve the 4 a.m. wakeups for when I have a more-than-30K trek ahead of me. Tomorrow's segment takes me out of Yeoju and to the outskirts of Choongju, supposedly the martial-arts capital of Korea. The next day takes me into downtown Choongju, putting me on top of the next major portion of the Four Rivers trail: the Saejae path.

Here's hoping the nice weather holds up. Meanwhile, your daily dose of info, stats, and visuals is here:

the route from Hotel J to Jangsu Pension

Stats are much reduced when you walk only 16K.

another bridge under construction

krazee kow

"Meet me at the Prancing Pony."

A copter was part of the military operation.

fat, squishy little guy

Gangcheon Dam

the retarded grasshopper (a.k.a. the Chinese grasshopper)

harvested rice

Jangsu Pension

I killed my roommate.

PHOTO ESSAY 

The weather's much nicer today.

Trail sign points the way as we leave Yeoju proper.

optimistic beginnings as the bridge is under construction

le bord de l'eau = the edge of the water

what appears to be a bike ramp

bridge construction: a closer look

yet another type of aster (Symphyotrichum)

Sun Valley Hotel... and that's a really nice location

where a tributary meets the river

There were a few campers along this stretch. Do they pay, or is all of this informal?

These parceled-out campsites are almost certainly paid for. But where's the fun in camping on a deck?

workers gabbing

some kind of shop behind the tents

Now, there's an ambitious tent.

I go down toward the water.

This paths runs parallel to the higher path on the right (the one you can't see).

basketball for kids or midgets

Military tents and vehicles—this would become a trope along the walk.

bunker

The shwimteo stands alone.

The military (US-ROK) made a bridge, and they're using it.

mission in progress

another big caterpillar

I watched the helo land. In Korean, "helo" is abbreviated helgi/헬기, short for helicopter-gi (gi = machine).

What's the point of having a fence, then?

Life is art, says the half-dead man.

It's a beautiful walk on a beautiful day.

Danger: riverbank flood! No fishing or swimming.

a tributary's drain gate, sort of a mini-dam

Han River Cultural Center

more abstract sculpture

Gangcheon Dam from a distance

crossing Gangcheon Dam

another fish ladder

I think, technically, all of these dams are weirs because they're small.

curve around to the left and down

another mantis, ready to fight me

starting down (if you're biking, you get off and walk down)

down to the fish ladder

not so lucky

chili peppers (gochu)

more!

lanceleaf coreopsis

dramatically dried snake carcass

aerodynamic lizard—one of several seen on this walk

red clover

sheaves waiting to be picked up

farmland to the left of the berm I'm walking on

parkland to the right

a sign for the Yeo River path (Yeogang-gil/여강길)

another tiny-headed Chinese grasshopper

partial harvest

peloton!

At least one friendly waver, but I've got bikers in the walking zone, dammit.

The yellow sign shows some kind of "national branch number" plus emergency numbers.

more isolated shwimteo

a far-off neighborhood, construction in progress

closeup of the neighborhood

A lizard lost its tail.

five giant marshmallows

Route signs... Gangcheon Island, 300 m, and the Four Rivers path, too, goes that way.

in red: "You are here." (lit. "present location")

entering the island

bird's-eye view of Gangcheon Island

relaxing ambiance

one of those obnoxious white signs in the distance

digitally zoomed

crabapples?

No, no, no: motorbikes, littering, fishing, making fires, waterskiing.

again with the informal camping

This is totally new to me.

Yeoju City Healing Center

prepping for some event

Yeoju, Gangcheon Island

Often when I pass this way, there are sculptures on display:

Lee Ho-cheol, "Catching a Dream"

Joen Shin-deok, "Dog Dream"

Na In-seong, "Personal Space Movement: Turtle"

Kang Shin-yeong, title unclear

Lee Hyeok-gyo, "Concentric"

A spooky one. Jeong Weon-gyeong, title unclear. A cow's head comes out of a magic portal.

Jeong Choon-il, "Racehorse"

Noh Joon-jin, "Moving Tree"

We're leaving the island now.

animal assholes, leaving their prints in the concrete

Gangcheon-ri Bridge

Celosia cristata. A purple version is called a purple cockscomb.

We'll be seeing a lot of dramatic snake carcasses all the way to Busan.

arfer

see?

to Ganmaeri and Buron

right turn, Clyde

a village full of affection: Gangcheon First Village

I think I smelled these, and they were perilla plants.

chilies

This path leads to an ecological trail. I won't be going that way.

Up the hill, then down, and Jangsu Pension is where I'll be stopping.

the pension in the distance

Chained-up dogs always greet me harshly with their angry barks. I walk all the way down that steep, curvy road, then up a steep flight of stairs to the pension.

As usual, no one is visible even though I've texted to announce my arrival.

the time, and a rate chart

Unwelcome fellow guest. I didn't kill it for fear of spreading death pheromones.

outdoor cooking

The people were there, just not visible. I eventually got let into my room for the day, and when I went inside, I saw the centipede that had taken up residence in the bathroom:

longshanks

It was him or me, so I killed him. Crushed and flushed.

Where I slept. Quiet. Sounds of nature.