Day 9, Leg 6

It's going to be a beautiful, sunny day in the Daegu area. Temps apparently started out around 10°C (about 50°F) early this morning; as the day goes on, the high will be only 20°C (about 68°F). Cool, pleasant, and perfect for hiking. Tomorrow's looking to be about the same, but partly sunny.

My foot, though, is disagreeing with all of this, and even though I plan to wander over to the pharmacy later this morning to follow my boss's emailed suggestion about buying blood-stopper powder (I also need more gauze and other supplies), I think what my screaming foot really needs is the chance to heal, so I've made my decision: tomorrow morning, I'm stopping the hike and grabbing a bus for Seoul. Today, I'll enjoy a modest lunch at one of the many restaurants in this area, then I'll check out tomorrow and head a few yards over to the intercity bus terminal to buy a ticket for home.

This doesn't mean Kevin's Walk 8 is done, though. I'll do the remaining segments over the final months of this year, possibly two segments per weekend to finish faster. But first: at least two weeks of down time to reset my feet. Here's hoping there's no snow as I do the Sangju-Andong segments. This is a more plausible way to finish the trail as I'll have a week to recuperate between sessions. As I said before, though, I'm not an agony junkie, and while my foot isn't currently in agony, per se, it's not comfortable to walk on. Hell, it's not comfortable now as I lie in bed. The nearest pharmacy is only 700 meters away; I'm not looking forward to doing that walk and might just take a cab. 

My lunch celebrating my defeat might also involve a cab ride out to my favorite Chinese restaurant, 25K away. Or I'll save that meal for when I do that segment later and just have a meal locally.

Yesterday's hike was gorgeous; I'd have enjoyed it more had it not been for the sheer pain. I was limping by the end, barely making 2 kph, I'm sure. I arrived at Hong-C Motel at around 5:20 p.m. after a 3:50 a.m. start: 13 hours and 30 minutes, minus about an hour for rest breaks, to go 39 kilometers. That's an average speed of about 3.12 kph. I guess I was faster at the beginning before slowing by the end.

I'm proud of that Big Dipper shot. I used the phone camera's night mode to get it. Night mode lets in more light by keeping the aperture open longer. This requires you to hold the phone still for a few seconds so as not to blur the shot.

It's obviously grasshopper mating season again. The horny little fuckers do it in the spring and the fall, it seems. And judging by all the ripped-open praying-mantis abdomens I saw, with orange-yellow eggs spilling out of them where they'd been burst by bike tires, it's probably mantis mating season, too. You may recall that female mantises gnaw off the heads of their male counterparts as they mate; this makes the male into a copulation machine, unable to stop until the female is guaranteed pregnant. So as you can imagine, I don't have much sympathy when I see exploded females on the path.

I did finally see a small snake. Caught a quick video of it as it was retreating into the grass on the side of the path. And I have quite a few live-mantis videos to accompany my still pics of both live and dead mantises. There were plenty of Joro spiders as well.

Last year, I avoided the 39-40K trek by following Naver's suggested 25K walking route, but after doing the route, I concluded I'd been playing in traffic too much, which is why I went back to the 40K route this time. If/when I do this segment again, I'll likely divide it into two smaller segments of about 20-ish kilometers each. God help me, there are several glamping grounds along the route I walk, so I might stay at one of them if that's at all possible. How expensive is glamping (glamour + camping)? I don't really want to contribute to the glamping industry, but I also don't want to subject my already-battered feet to the abuse of a 40K trek if I don't have to.

While I think the wetness of that heavy rain a few days ago contributed to my current situation, there were other factors as well. First is the shoes themselves: these Skechers are tighter in the toe box, causing unnecessary pain on longer segments. I also think my body might still be in convalescence mode after two trips to the hospital this year, and that's a delicateness you can't find out via practice walks. I felt ready, but my body has said otherwise. 

So I'll go home and start pic-dumping right away. I might even go right back to work. I can get a head start on Thanksgiving prep, and after my foot heals up, I can start doing the rest of this trail. There's nothing to prove, here: I'd done this length of path already, just never all at once. That will remain true even after I do this weekend-only version of the path, but I'll be sure to try the whole thing at one go later on. At only 403 km, this path, shorter than my average, ought to be doable.

PS: the Hong-C did something dirty in how they charged me: the guy initially said it'd be W60,000 a night, but he said that that's only if I checked out, then checked back in later for my second night. Otherwise, were I to stay continuously in my room for two nights straight, he'd "have" to add an additional W20,000 to the fee. I said I'd never heard of that before; he lamely replied that all the motels do it. This is the foreigner's tax for sure, and he was relying on my being tired and willing to pay whatever for the privilege of flopping down to rest. These days, most motels have some dirty trick up their sleeve, some way to slip in an extra charge. You're here on a Friday or the weekend? Extra charge, I'm afraid. You've arrived too early for check-in? Extra charge. You've come during a town event, and space is at a premium? Extra charge. They'll say anything except: You look like a foreigner, so I'm afraid that's W20,000 extra. 

Anyway, even at W70,000/night, the Hong-C's room is pretty nice, so I'm not having a hissy fit. It's not rape-rape, as Whoopi might say.