Kevin's Walk 8: Day 13, Leg 9

Today was colder than the past two days, and windier. I also lost my right glove; I guess it was just a matter of time. Good thing I brought along two pairs of gloves. The weather forecast shows that Thursday morning, when I leave Libertar Pension, it'll be below freezing, with temps reaching a high of 9°C (48°F, which is practically warm). Thursday's walk will be a fairly easy 23K, putting me officially in Sangju, where I will stay at either the Havana Motel, with its unpleasant idiot of a manager, or somewhere else local. Friday's walk will be similarly easy at 25K; that walk takes me to the Sangju Bus Terminal neighborhood, where I will stay at the unfamiliar Bobos Motel before breaking straight east for the concluding portion of this walk. The Saturday walk from Bobos to Daesun Motel will be the longest segment of this second half of the trek: 36K. Today, I survived 33K just fine, both of my soles intact. I peeled off my bandages and will redo them tomorrow. Tonight, it's enough to have a decent shower and just let my feet breathe. Re-pre-taping will happen tomorrow night.

I'd forgotten what a nice segment today was. The segment between Libertar and Lee Motel (or vice versa, as I did it today) is simple and straightforward; the weather was bright and beautiful. I'm also a big lover of wind, even when the cold and wind together leave me with a runny nose.

Distance markers were all hilariously off; I passed one marker that said Gumi Dam (right next to my destination) was 10.6 kilometers away; almost a kilometer later, a different marker said the dam was 11 km away. Naver Map also gave me a headache when I needed to figure out how to cross the Nakdong while I was in Gumi City. The app referred me to a path across the water that didn't exist, so I just took the bridge that parallelled the nonexistent path.

I also saw a whole mess of Joro spiders, which must not have gotten the memo that winter is upon us. Delighted, I photographed several of them. I didn't think any would still be around, but I saw one the other day and six or seven today.

No idea how long the good weather—and my feet—will last, but when I get back on the trail this coming Thursday, that will be the sixth day out of eleven days on the walk calendar. I'd done nine days of the 20-day walk calendar in October; if all goes well, and I don't get snowed out, I ought to be able to finish this year's walk in style, if not exactly triumphantly. Here's hoping.

note the change from 32K to 33K

so about 5670 calories burned

"Chilgok, city of peace and national defense"

looking backwards and east at dawn... so much for "red sky in morning"

It really was a nice day today.

the geese that didn't fly south

That goose was standing so still that I thought it was a statue at first. Then it moved. It had three companions.

where they hang invisible people

one of many dog statues in a park... heartwarming

is it a contradiction in terms to call this a concrete boardwalk?

last vestiges of the persimmons

Gumi Dam, a few hundred meters before Libertar Pension

I left at 4:45 this morning and got to the destination before 4 p.m. Walking speed was about the same as two days ago, with about the same amount of time spent resting.

Another day of rest tomorrow, then three days in a row of walking.

PHOTO ESSAY

leaving the Lee Motel, with one last glimpse at the crescent-moon-themed Chilgok Dam (Jupiter up top)

breaking left and heading down

"Chilgok, city of peace and national defense"

no "water leisure sports" in this area, by order of Hillary Clinton

glancing left, but not crossing

This is the Ban-gye Bridge.

I remember thinking this would be a nice photo. Great dawn highlights.

Even the apartment complexes, which often remind me of viruses, have their own weird beauty at dawn.

I'm always shaking my head at all the people who are out here this early, in the cold, along with me.

Were I headed south, this stretch would be my final approach to the Lee Motel; only a couple km to go.

one of those trendy barefoot sand/mud paths; no shoes, no pets

7:07 a.m., looking west

What difference when you look back and east. 7:12 a.m.

And then, a feeling of winter bleakness fell.

If I gave in to temptation, I could easily become obsessed with different cities' bike motifs for their fences.

My trust in these numbers was shattered long ago. Just rely on the app.

large, utilitarian, vaguely military-looking structure... or a French barn

the statuesque goose stands at attention

More tower power... or I guess it's a power tower.

The fixation on shwimteo continues.

Maybe it's a portal to another dimension. Or to hell.

Or as I wrote way above, maybe it's for hanging invisible people.

This park, which seems to have been made for regular civvies as well as for office workers, features lots of benches, shwimteo, and statues of dogs in friendly postures.

a husky, not being dramatic for once

I decided to take a rest around here. Again, we've got an abstract sculpture.

And again: disembodied hands.

pergola

another of several shwimteo

imposing, twisted tree across from where I was sitting

He comes to collect your soul. And very likely eat it instead of dropping it off.

Too late. You've already seen his face, so it's off to the scaffold for invisible people!

yet more goddamn park golf

sigh...

I love the old-style, old-school shwimteo.

dilapidation!

Were this area more forested, this could almost be an Arwen/Aragorn scene.

But what do the dolphins have to do with fresh water? Are they Arwen and Aragorn?

glimpses of an older Korea

The kid is drowning, and the turtle is mighty blithe about it. (In red, the sign screams, "Danger!")

that "bell" I've photographed before

windmill obscured by branches

Gumi Science Building

hard to find a clear angle to photograph the windmill

best I could do

about to enter this southern part of Gumi City

the Asian squat is everywhere... I need to practice mine

I hate the parenthetical "Riv." that they always put up on signs for creeks or streams.

Shots like this are more about colors, shapes, and reflections than about anything concrete.

Lined up and ready to go... I wonder if these are rentable.

hand condom... when one finger simply isn't enough

"Eastern River Garden (동낙원)"...? Someone help me out, here.

The big sign is advertising traditional wedding receptions.

Indong Village School (인동향교)

Gonna cross the big bridge, not the nonexistent bridge that Naver was showing me at this point.

Gumi Bridge (구미대교, Gumi Daegyo)

Looking over the edge of "my" bridge to the secondary bridge below, the one with no road shoulder and still not matching the position of the nonexistent bridge that Naver insisted I take.

looking left and south

looking right and north

more berry bushes with inedible berries (Pyracantha)

a rare street-level bunker

The one lone rose... so of course I photographed it because it represented a romantic notion: stubborn beauty.

Digital zoom creates weird edge effects.

Now, because I had chosen not to take the nonexistent bridge, taking the Gumi Bridge meant going about 500 m too far west before I had a chance to double back toward the river along a side/access road. This was inconvenient, but little detours and false starts like this are part of the distance-walking experience. You can be only so annoyed when you're out on an adventure and enjoying yourself. Just try not to get crushed by any trucks when you're on one of those narrow side/access roads.

looking back at the bridges

I guess I'm on the right track again.

the first of several Joro spiders in a row along this railing

seven-legger

different spider, eight legs

same spider as the previous shot, but zoomed out a bit

another seven-legger

same spider as the previous shot (in many cases, I took 2 shots of each spider)

treez

I believe I'll be crossing up ahead. I think that's the Sanho Bridge.

chilies (고추/gochu)

another modern shwimteo

Is this a glorified closet, or does somebody work there? Why's it fenced off?

bridge, ribbed for her pleasure

You have to love the open-air couches.

a closer look at the base of Pylon 1

The lone chair ponders its many sins.

I really do admire the effort that went into making these bike paths.

family plot, partially obscured

"...qu'un sang impur / abreuve nos sillons"

one glove got its soul sucked out

the almost brainy texture of the plants here was fascinating

beautiful day

At last: a nice, wide pedestrian lane.

stacks of giant marshmallows (see videos of bale wrappers here)

I did kind of want to eat some marshmallows at the end of the day.

cow house with solar roof

Hello, ladies. I love your deep, deep voices.

As good as my shoes were this trip, I really disliked their color.

the thousand-yard stare

back to no pedestrian path for Kevin

water-resource protection area (with ducks!)

There's always construction going on somewhere.

"Under construction! No vehicles!"

Scribblings (leftmost slat) about No smoking and Don't throw your cigarette butts away, etc. One slat over, I think someone else (different handwriting...?) wrote, "My conscience is clear."

I think this other bench just gives the do-nots with no smart-ass reply.

I didn't notice the "flattening" effect of 0.5X zoom until I looked at this photo again.

across we go

This looks like a covered-over aqueduct.

still a nice day... cold, bright, and windy

Here, at least, the numbers add up to 385 km. 129K more to go seems plausible.

Another abandoned performance space... reclaim it for Shakespeare in the park!

abandoned shwimteo... kinda sad

signs, signs, signs: up top, a dark-blue street sign for Haepyeong 4th Street; a tall, green sign for the Gumi Haepyeong Youth Training Center (training in what?); a stone sign for a Daehan Buddhism temple called Bocheon-sa (maybe "Jewel Heaven Temple"...?); and the standard, blue Four Rivers/Nakdong River bike-path sign, with the curving-left arrow

a sign enjoining you to be careful because the route is shared by bikes and farm equipment

a closer look (and it's signed by the Gumi City mayor)

Another bike motif on a fence; I failed to photograph most of these and caught only a few.

A shack or a castle?

I think the yellow sign is warning about merging roads.

myo in the distance

zooming in

The sun's at the wrong angle for a resting person to benefit from any shade.

about as straight as a straightaway can get

drowning boy and blasé turtle again (smaller print warns of water's depth)

With the sign above saying it's 127 km to the Andong Dam, it occurred to me that the final stretch from Sangju to Andong is less than 100 km—barely 90 km, in fact, if you stick to the path and don't count diversions to motels. In other words, I ought to be in Sangju after only about another day's walk. December 4 is a rest day, so this means I ought to hit Sangju on December 5. (I do end up in technical Sangju, but the very southern end of it, by the Nakdan Dam. See later posts.)