I'm not really sure how far I walked today. It was somewhere between 20 and 30 kilometers: I did a combination of the bike route and the walking route from northern Choongju to southern Choongju, so maybe we should split the difference and say it was about 25K, with 1 or 2 km extra as I meandered around while looking for a motel. I found one close to Choongju Station: the G Motel, only W40,000 a night for decent WiFi and accommodations. I'm here for two nights, taking another scheduled break even though I don't feel I deserve it. Today was another bright, beautiful, magnificent fall day. I hope there are more of these and no more fucking rainy days, but with my luck, there's almost certainly more rain in my future.
Having learned a valuable lesson yesterday, I remained in my hotel room, this morning, until I'd had a proper shit. This meant starting today's walk at 5:35 despite a 4:45 wakeup time, but it was worth it not to have to deal with intestinal distress. I now recognize that my guts rule me, not the other way around. The result, though, was a cold morning that turned into a bright, sunny late morning and afternoon. The entire walk to downtown Choongju was great. I took another half-dose of ibuprofen, and that did the trick for the entire walk. Either my diabetic neuropathy is getting worse, or my feet—battered as they are—are toughening up. The Skechers also still seem to be holding up just fine. As we near the halfway point of this trek, I'm thinking the Skechers might just make it all the way to Busan. They'd better: I didn't bring any spare shoes.
Today's highlights include more military activity. I saw a very cute female soldier when I was at a 휴게소/hyugeso (rest stop). At that same place, a bunch of young soldiers entered the main building as a group. One of the youngest soldiers saw me with my buzzed haircut, smiled shyly, and gave me a hesitant salute. My dad was military, so I know the protocol: generally, if you're not in uniform, you don't salute back. I'm not military anyway, so there'd have been no use in pretending to be an officer. Besides, I hate those "stolen valor" guys who pretend to have awards they never got and never deserved. I'd never impersonate an officer. Sure, I've saluted people in jest before, but we all knew it was a joke, and when I jokingly salute, I always make sure to do so in a deliberately sloppy way. Still, the young guy's salute was a cute moment that gave me a grin.
I also encountered a ton of abandoned gloves. The full photo essay will show just how many. Only one Joro spider today. I think they're all about to disappear as fall turns into winter.
I got lost several times and had to use Naver Map to unfuck myself. This particular segment always confuses me. There are turns that I miss every time I come this way, and the first time I did this segment, I mistakenly took the walking route while thinking it was the bike route. The second time, in 2019, I think I did the full 30K bike route. As a result, I have very confused memories about which route is which. Today, I deliberately eschewed the bike route, for the most part, in favor of what was largely the walking route, but this time, there was a part of the route that I didn't remember, and it took me through a high-traffic area where I had to dodge cars and trucks with some frequency. I ended up on a familiar path eventually. At a guess, today's route was 75% walking path and only 25% Four Rivers. I'm still shaking my head about some of the turns I missed. It was like navigating the Bermuda Triangle.
By the end of the day, though, my feet felt fine, and I wasn't all that tired. I'm also down to the sixth hole in my belt, which means there's only one more hole to go, and if I keep losing weight, I'm going to have to punch a new hole or two. I've got a multitool with me, so punching holes is possible, but it's going to be some ugly field surgery.
The G Motel was the choice I eventually arrived at once I got to the downtown area. I had stayed at the Motel Soo three years ago, but I have bad memories of my room being full of mosquitoes. Other hotels/motels in the area were either abandoned-looking or expensive-looking. The friendly lady running the G Motel speaks a tiny bit of English. When I replied to her in Korean, she said, "Oh, you—Korean—very nice!" I'll take that over questions and comments about my weight.
On Tuesday, I'll begin the Saejae portion of the Four Rivers trail. This portion takes me through the Baekdu Daegan mountain range. As I've noted before, people warned me about how difficult this portion of the route was, but as I discovered, it's not bad at all, and the worst hills are in the final phase of the walk, along the Nakdong River portion of the trail.
Below are the images you crave.
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| what the cycling route looks like |
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| what the walking route looks like |
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disappointingly few calories burned |
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| Venus (Jupiter was on the other side of the sky) |
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getting a Misty Mountains vibe
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| sheaves of harvested rice |
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| the sun and the fog |
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one of many arfers
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| Dick and Peter, hanging out |
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| Jo Jeong Ji Dam, which I didn't cross |
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| the same pic that I shot years ago |
The above pic is the wallpaper on my right-side monitor at the office. I stare at it all the time and imagine myself on the trail. If I could figure out how to monetize my distance walking and make good money with it, I'd leave my current job in an instant.
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| the approach to Choongju takes you by these neat bridges |
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| water skiing on the river |
And here are two bonus videos.
The first is about not trusting what you see:
The second is about the happiest sound of autumn:
ADDENDUM: miscounted again! I have five rest days on the calendar (I'm sure this time), which means there are only twenty-four walking days—fewer days than I thought.
PHOTO ESSAY
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| Going from northwestern Choongju to southeastern Choongju. |
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| Going the right way. |
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| Jupiter |
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| Venus |
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| The first part of the walk is fairly rural. |
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| stylistically different jangseung |
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| Still on the right track. |
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| fast-walking couple |
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| tap (Korean-style cairns or mini-pagodas) |
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| dangling cans |
Right around here, I realized I was going down the wrong path, and that I had to double back. Because I was 2K off course, it was, in total, a 4K waste of time. What's interesting, though, is that I'd actually been down this way before on previous walks, so I wasn't exactly on the wrong path. I was simply not on the path that Naver had recommended to me this time around—a slightly shorter path. Well, it would've been slightly shorter had I not wandered off in the wrong direction by ignoring Naver. Never ignore Naver.
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| funky tree |
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| sun trying to burn through clouds |
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| Whooooooooooo are you? demands the dog. |
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| 石友堂/석우당 = stone-friend-hall |
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| a Jesus-y touch of the West |
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| Zodiac statues |
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| I'd love to own this one. |
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| Gaheung Church |
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| a sign at the beginning of Gaheung Church's driveway |
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| new walkway being built |
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| a more official-looking tap (pagoda), with temple guardians |
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| Note the lack of a road shoulder. This was not a good route. |
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| The sign says "Danger: Gas Station." |
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| Dem sum bag-ass dangalangs! |
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| when your stones have crabs |
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| Podae—a Buddha, not the Buddha |
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| more haetae |
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| distant dingalings |
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| Pollution. Sad! |
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| the incongruous rectangle |
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| Don't do it, kid! Once you start, you can't stop! |
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| incestuous tongues? |
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| Do you see the other glove in the upper third of the image? |
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| foreground glove |
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| that other glove |
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| more gloves... there were gloves everywhere |
Right around this time, a very cute female soldier walked saucily by. I was intrigued.
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| Instead, here's a real katydid, not one of those near-headless mutants. |
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| 충주조정지댐/Choongju Jojeongji Dam |
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| dam guardian |
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| 충주조정지댐/Choongju Jojeongji Dam, which I didn't cross |
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| 충주조정지댐/Choongju Jojeongji Dam, a warning sign about "no trespassing" areas |
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| (1) No photos of facilities; (2) safe, slow passage; (3) no parking during floods; (4) no vehicles over 5 tons. |
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blue sign: Han River
banner: weekend rest area, Jangyeon Healing Town |
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| zinnia |
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| also a zinnia |
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| contrail... or chem-trail?? |
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| Almost the same as a pic I'd taken some years back. This is my new wallpaper, now, on my office computer. |
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| By this point, we're back on the standard, familiar trail. |
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| the big, lumpy shadow |
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| I've never been a fan of structurally useless architecture like the empty rectangle you see here. |
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| hydrangea |
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| gochu/고추/chilies |
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| I wouldn't mind living in this suburb. If that's what this is. |
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| 10X digital zoom of the sculling team |
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| "camping" |
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| Central Pagoda Park |
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| now entering the precincts of the heavily Buddhism-inflected Choongju Museum |
So you get the feeling that this area has a long and Buddhism-drenched history.
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| the biggest pagoda in the area |
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| destroyed burd... or biblical angel |
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| a sign about the jangseung |
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| in honor of Georgetown U., my alma mater, a little rearrangement |
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| Watch where you sit! |
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| the wild beard, the flaking nose |
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| 바른 국밥/bareun gukbap = (lit.) Correct Soup & Rice... more colloquially, Soup & Rice Done Right |
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| "Danger: Unrelated People May Not Enter—Watch for Slippage" (with Danger Guy) |
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| a relatively new glove |
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| the bridges marking the approach to southeast Choongju |
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| persimmon tree |
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| nicely manicured—probably by The Help (you're rich if you live in a suburb) |
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| arfer, stopped by his chain from running at me |
Another good day on trail and not knowing for sure where you are just adds to the adventure. You got to where you were going, and that's all that matters.
ReplyDeleteWhat's up with Peter and Dick? Who erects something like that, and why? It must be hard on some passersby to see such a thing.
Waterskiing this time of year seems unusual, but I respect the participants' passion.
Enjoy your day of rest; you've earned it.