Day 10, Leg 7 (as if nothing happened)

Today's walk went about as well as could be expected, and while I ended up with hot spots and other irritations on my feet that will only worsen over the next few days, I'm not blistered or bleeding. So that's nice. Probably the biggest three causative factors for blisters are pressure, friction, and moisture. They're all interrelated, too. I pre-taped my feet, trying to anticipate where hot spots might appear, and I got most of them but missed one or two. Those will get bandaged tonight. But the pre-taping eliminated much of the friction problem. Until someone invents a diet pill that can make weight instantly disappear, there's little to be done about pressure over the next week and a half. As for moisture: if today was any indication, my walks are going to vary from cool to cold, so my toes won't get too sweaty. My policy for this half or 60% of the walk is to shower only on days when I know I'm resting. That's 3 out of 11 days, so I might be ripe when I bus home on the final day. No matter.

The temperatures today were, as I'd predicted previously, all over the place. I left the Hong C Motel at 4:45 a.m. and headed for the river. It was a bit above freezing, but after a couple hours of walking, my fingertips were icy, so I had to put on one pair of gloves (I'd brought two pairs and will wear both when it's cold enough). As dawn became morning, and the sky lightened, the world began to warm up, so one by one, I had to shed various items and stow them in my backpack: my outer winter hat, my foreskin-shaped neck warmer (I think it's called a gaiter), my scarf, and my winter vest. They'll all be back on tomorrow morning when I leave at 4:30; they did keep me snug and warm while it was dark. The Daegu area is definitely a few degrees warmer than Seoul during the day, though; that became more obvious as the hours rolled on.

In the pre-dawn darkness, the starry sky was a sight to behold. My travel companions in the firmament were Jupiter, Betelgeuse, Sirius, and Orion's belt and sword. They hove in the northwestern sky until the atmosphere lightened, with stubborn Jupiter being the last to disappear. You can't normally see a sky like that when you're in Seoul; the light pollution is too much. But in the rural, river-valley outskirts of Daegu, light pollution is a lot weaker. 

Most of the walk was fairly quiet in the early morning except for two old men who, at different times, marched onto the trail and kept their own cadence. One old man had his radio or cell phone cranked up such that I could hear him coming up behind me when he was way back. As he got closer and eventually passed me, the music got louder and louder. I hate it when people don't keep their music (or talk radio) to themselves. Wear headphones or ear buds, dammit! Both old men turned left to cross a dam that wasn't part of my route, leaving me in blessed silence until after dawn. A bit after 9 a.m., a new scourge arrived in the form of bikers. I'd thought most of these folks would have stopped biking for the year, but I guess these were the really dedicated ones. I bowed in greeting as each biker passed me; most bowed back, but some (especially women) stared stonily ahead, determined not to see me. 

Navigation was easy until it was time to leave the fringes and turn into the city, at which point I had to rely on Naver Map to avoid losing my way. I got to the If Hotel at almost exactly 12:45 p.m. It was a 4:45 a.m. start, so 8 hours of walking if we include rest breaks and photo stops. If we subtract those things, my time for the route was around 7.3 hours, giving me a walking speed of 3.4 kph. Pretty pitiful, and having my ass kicked by faster old men only rubbed salt in the wound. 

Since I arrived so early, I decided to grab lunch at the Chinese place first, then hit the local convenience store to pick up wet and dry tissues for use while on the trail. This is now my third trip to An Shi Seong, and I hit the place during its Saturday lunch rush. I had to wait to be seated, and I ordered my now-usual fried mandu plus gganpoonggi. The mandu was as good as always, and the chicken was back to being its original, super-crunchy self. Service was hectic and hasty, but I nevertheless enjoyed the meal. 

There's little left to do but relax, charge my phone, watch some YouTube, and rest my poor, battered feet, which must endure a 33K walk tomorrow. I'm not bleeding or oozing today, but tomorrow might be another story. 

And here are your ten pics for today (plus a map and stats):

The segment tomorrow is 8 km longer.

Don't trust the distance, but do trust steps and calories.

Dalseong Dam Certification Center

You can see Orion's belt and sword along with Sirius (L), Betelgeuse (top ctr.), and Jupiter (R, above the tree).

lightening sky

goddamn park golf, even when the grass is brown

"I've come to watch your power flowin'."

faux sunrise

flower power

one of several family plots

Daegu is known for frogs called maeng-ggongi.

gganpoonggi: gloriously crispy chicken

The Dalseong region (county?) of Daegu looks to be sunny or partly sunny for the next several days; I don't know whether that will be true as I march farther north, but a man can hope. With no snow or rain in the immediate future, I don't have to worry too much about moisture. At least I've reserved my pension (Libertar), which I'll hit this coming Tuesday.

If Hotel: a cool W70,000, but it's got a smart toilet, thus allowing me to bidet myself. Because you never know whose tongue might come a-calling.

Sickness report: all clear. I was pretty snug and warm all day; I had a sniffle because of the cold temps, but not a cold. If I do catch a cold, I've got medicine for that.

PHOTO ESSAY

leaving Hong-C and looking downhill

Jupiter (called Mokseong—"tree star"—in Korean), floating in the sky

a hotel I passed on my way out of the city

another of the ubiquitous Lions Club statues

barely recognizable as a glove (lunar-looking shot)

the bike path diverts left, away from the main road

bridge and drainage gate

dark and cold, but not as cold as it's going to get in a few days

again with the triumvirate of Sirius (L), Betelgeuse (C), and Jupiter (R) in the western sky

I became better at recognizing celestial bodies in the western sky, but where the western sky was relative to my path would change. The Nakdong River undulates, and there are times when you might find yourself temporarily walking in a direction seemingly contrary to your goal. If I remember correctly, when I took the above photo, I was going along a part of the river that was bending north, so I simply looked left to see the western sky.

Right around here is where I started to encounter the old men who were up early because they couldn't sleep. It's almost always old people out on the paths at all hours.

I believe this is the Dalseong Dam's admin building.

"Dalseong Sunset Park"

in blue on the side of the building: "Dalseong Dam"; (smaller print) "Toward a bright future! Dalseong Dam leads the way!"

most dams also function as bridges; the bridges often have separate names from the dam's name

but this bridge is simply called the Dalseong Bridge

I will be going in the direction of the Gangjeong-goryeong Dam.

Dalseong Dam's certification center

onward and outward into the darkness

24K (supposedly) to the Gangjeong-goryeong Dam cert center

the triumvirate of celestial bodies plus Orion's belt and sword

People say Orion's belt points toward Sirius. It kind of does, but it seems to point a bit above it.

I think I had to look back a bit to get this shot.

stars and the tree

We've moved on to daylight now.

cursèd park golf, of course

may they all burn

The more I think about it, the more I think my problem with park golf mainly comes down to how it's gobbling up all the riverfront property. I don't mind that it gets the old people out to move around and socialize (I've called this "secular church" before), and while I've never been a fan of regular golf or its variant forms (except maybe putt-putt, way back in my childhood), my attitude toward the game has softened somewhat, and I no longer see the game as evil. I do still agree with George Carlin that it "takes up entirely too much room" in the country, and I don't like how it's seen in Korea (and in the States as well) as some sort of status-conferring "sport." I'm still wrestling with park golf. With its big, undignified, fluorescent balls and clubs that are more like croquet mallets, it obviously doesn't have the same cachet as regular golf (it's generally a game for retirees), but I just wish it were less of an infestation. The number of park-golf courses really has increased over the years I've been doing these riverside walks. It's very hard for me not to see the game as invasive, intrusive, and inimical.

By contrast, I love these under-the-bridge scenes. There's something of an "underbridge" subculture here in Korea, what with miniature parks and benches and whatnot, not to mention the chance to sit down, out of the rain, and rest while watching the river flow past.

What am I looking at?

looking off to the side

the Goryeong Bridge

There's the bridge's name, spray-painted onto a column/pylon (gidoong in Korean).

Untrustworthy numbers, but at least they add up to 385K (201K to Andong Dam + 184K back to the Nakdong River Estuary Barrage, the beginning of this path and the Four Rivers if you're heading north).

the 88 Nakdong River Bridge (a lot of places have "88" in the name because of the 1988 Olympics)

bunker

I took to photographing a lot of towers this time around.

And we can't forget my fetish.

Just a reminder that shitheads litter, here as elsewhere. Where is Mr. Fusion?

vehicle approaching on the bike path, using the path as a side/access road

scarecrow in the distance

zooming in closer

towers, towers, towers

So much electricity. What a contrast with North Korea.

Ick. Tattered plastic. Maybe washed up by a flooding river?

colorful if nothing else

I can't seem to stop photographing farm equipment, either. It's part of why I'm out here.

animal assholes

The sun's about to pop up and warm the place. I hope. Temps usually get colder before they get warmer.

But direct sunlight is always a good thing. Warm.

More Daegu in the distance. It's the third-biggest city in South Korea (pop. approx. 2.4 million).

more animal assholes

Some of these look vaguely like cat's paws, but the spacing makes me wonder if this was a deer.

The chair obviously got what it deserved.

about to cross a bridge

the Geumpo Creek

looking back

makes me think of a robot dog

What a place to sleep.

It was tempting to use the wrapped hay as punching and kicking bags.

Lots of family plots (tumuli = myo) along the route. You will see many, many more over this whole trek.

zooming back for context

sun-battered sign for Okpo Ecological Park

guess we're going left (till you lead me to the right)

A major trope along these paths is the abandoned(?) scooter.

Seemingly abandoned (or just parked) bikes aren't far behind.

Ugh... more park golf.

A cheon (from hacheon) is a watercourse, anything from a creek to a river. But Koreans, in making these signs, often label smaller watercourses as rivers when they'd be better labeled as creeks or streams. 

That look like a river to you?

ducks

ducks all frustratingly taking a dip, and therefore hiding from my camera

I barely caught them.

It felt weird to approach this tunnel from the opposite direction. But I knew what I'd see next.

Dad and boy, eternally on their way somewhere.

up a smallish hill

When I describe a part of the path as having no hills, I usually ignore rises like the one shown above. It goes on for only a couple hundred meters, so it's short and unmemorable. Such rises don't sear themselves into my brain as traumatic experiences. Are these rises easier or harder for you if you're a biker? I have no idea. At a guess, it depends on what condition you're in. For me, walking up such a rise is definitely easier than trying to bike up it. But experienced bikers might say differently.

big, rich family... all dead now (or are there more destined to be here?)

heading downhill now

garbage area

stairs to a more private, intimate myo

another big, rich plot

through a park and out the other side

approaching one downtown area as I near my destination, the If Hotel

See the boardwalk in the distance?

maeng-ggongi frogs

the loooooong bench

feels almost like fall

my favorite Chinese resto in Daegu: An Shi Seong (Peaceful City Fortress?)

their crunchy, delicious mandu

their crunchy, delicious gganpoonggi (fried chicken chunks in spicy sauce)

The sign in the foreground that says, in Konglish, "Grand Open" (i.e., grand opening) also says the If Hotel is a "boutique hotel." The If, in reality, is just a motel, but it's nice.