Day 16, Leg 11

I'm at the Bobos Motel in Sangju. The room is only W45,000 a night. I have three walking days to go: a 36K ass-kicker tomorrow to the Daesun Motel, a 30K segment two days later to the Songhak Motel, then the final 27K segment to the Andong Dam on the 10th, the last day. I won't be lingering in Andong, either; I'll be taking in the dam and the immediate neighborhood, then grabbing a bus and heading back to Seoul right after. Had I done this walk all in one go, I might have stayed a day to savor my victory, but my month-long delay—and subsequent resumption of the walk—doesn't feel like a victory. I'd thought about dedicating this walk to Mom, but this isn't the right walk to do that. Too much dishonor.

Today's route, plotted by Naver (as always), was somewhat new. It included some familiar elements; I'd guess that about 60-70% of the plotted path was in fact on the Four Rivers/Nakdong River trail. But a good chunk was unfamiliar to me, and the last part of the walk to the Sangju Bus Terminal neighborhood, where Bobos is, was totally new. I've had a chance, though, to see Sangju from several different angles over the years, and overall, I think it's a nice city. If Gumi is all about agriculture and livestock, Sangju is all about persimmons, especially got-gam/곶감, i.e., dried persimmons. 

Naver's plotting did cause one major problem, though. I normally plot my courses in "bike mode," which results in longer routes but more time spent alongside rivers. Walking routes are shorter but can lead you along steep mountain trails and/or high-traffic roads. Today, though, it was the bike route that was the problem: I realized too late that Naver was planning to lead me, for a short distance, onto a freeway. I've walked freeways in Korea before and have never been accosted by a cop, but road shoulders vary in width, and I just wasn't in a mood to gamble with my own safety. So for a small part of the final third of today's walk, I switched to "walk mode" to re-plot my course. Once I was safely away from the freeway, I went back to "bike mode." Luckily, I was less than 10K away from my destination when all of this went down, so Naver didn't lead me over any mountaintops or through any dangerously busy streets.

When I was almost at downtown Sangju, I took a pit stop at an athletic center to use its restroom. As I was walking back to the exit, I saw a small, gorgeous woman talking with a female front-desk staffer. She ended her conversation with the staffer right as I reached the sliding door. It was one of those push-button doors, so I hit "open" and gallantly deferred to the lady, bowing and gesturing her through. She smiled sweetly and walked out. What I remember most about her, aside from her lovely face and her "Thank you" in English, was her magnificent head of hair. It was the kind of hair you want to run your fingers through. Slowly. Probably while breathing it in. But the fantasy lasted only a second; she made her feminine way to her car, and I had to follow a different route because of Naver. Unlike the cheerfully perky chick at the Nakdan Dam yesterday, I will remember this lady's face for a while.

Swinging so far west to find a motel close to Sangju Bus Terminal actually took me away from my final goal, but I am now poised to do almost exactly the same route that I did in 2022 after I'd finished the Jeju Olle route. Last time, I arrived in Sangju late and walked barely 10K to an inn that wasn't too far away. This time, I'm doing a 36K route that skips past that inn to go straight to the Daesun Motel, which had been my Day 2 stop last time. 

Actually, this is another area where Naver is again tripping me up. When I'd originally plotted these final three days of walking, the distances were 36K, 30K, and 27K. Now, though, the same routes are showing up as 37K, 31K, and 28K. Why the additional kilometer? No idea. Not that a single kilometer will mean much in the cosmic scheme of things. 

Otherwise, today started off above freezing. An early part of the walk was in the unlighted woods and so dark that I had to use my phone's flashlight app to see the path. I got barked at by a lot of farm dogs, most of them chained up. The one unchained dog was too much of a coward to run right up to me (most farm dogs are literally all bark and no bite).

By the time I got to the Bobos Motel, I was pretty tired, but I summoned the energy to write this post. My Sky Map app is helping me appreciate how people of old might have used the stars to navigate; I've started to think of the triumvirate of Sirius, Betelgeuse, and Jupiter as my early-morning travel companions, floating there in the western sky to show me the way. It's going to be very sad to return to Seoul and all of that light pollution. 

Enjoy the day's map, stats, and photos. 

After veering so far west, I have to double back east.

about 4900 calories burned

the "Welcome!" sign that greeted me as I was leaving

looking back at a bridge after popping out of the dark woods

looking back at the dawn's early light

Vampire-deer roadkill. I slapped a similar image up years ago. These deer, found in East Asia, are a curious branch of the cervid evolutionary tree: they use their fangs the way other deer use their antlers: for fighting, not for sucking blood or ripping at warm flesh. On today's walk, I ended up encountering two deer carcasses. The second one wasn't a vampire deer.

daytime Nakdong

Dilapidation!—the new battle cry

Why so many unfallen persimmons in December?

Ggoggami and Ho (tiger, not whore); ggoggami is a baby-talk way of saying got-gam (dried persimmon).

persimmon lanterns

"Gyeongsang First Gate"...?

Tomorrow is supposed to be partly sunny with a high of only 6°C (43°F). I'd better not lose any more gloves. Wish me luck.

PHOTO ESSAY

leaving Bonghwang and plunging into Sangju City

the celestial triumvirate

the welcome sign

Normally, I'm passing this river-history museum much later in the day while going in the opposite direction.

Four Rivers trail, to Sangju Dam

museum annex, I guess (this was all under construction last year)

This bright star is Polaris, the North Star.

Looking back after having popped out of the woods, where I'd had to use my phone's flashlight to find my way. Lots of darkness and forest sounds. Normally, things aren't this poorly lit, but it was a wooded path with no lighting at all along the way, so I didn't have much choice.

looking ahead again

a bright ad in the darkness for a bike minbak," simple lodging for bikers

Traditionally, a minbak was a humble little rented bedroom in a family's house. The family would make a little money by renting out the extra room on a per-night basis; the guest had the option of eating with the family. These days, I get the impression that the definition of minbak has expanded to include facilities that are no longer family homes but a sort of mini-inn, often with communal bathroom/shower facilities, reminding me a bit of hasuk-jip and goshitel/goshiweon for students. Some minbak, at least from a distance, look rather like motels or even pensions. Normally, you'd think a minbak would be at the lower end of the price range for lodging, but I get the impression that fancier minbak do exist.

Give me your thoughts in the comments.

You can't keep the sun down forever.

Yes, "Riv." is appropriate here. The Nakdong is nobody's creek.

Joongdong-myeon; in other contexts, joongdong normally means "Middle East."

stubborn Jupiter, one of the final lights to disappear as dawn intensifies

Gukto Jongju (see more here)

up we go (but this wasn't a big hill)

(or was it?)

tucked-away myo

...and down we go

more myo in the distance

This part of the path is under construction, so I divert right to the road.

And what's that in my path...?

Why, it's a deer carcass!

Not just any deer, either:

It's one of those "vampire deer" found in East Asia.

See this old walk post from 2020 for when I first photographed this kind of deer.

Part of this structure looks to have collapsed.

Another family plot with a lot of family members... did they finally get 'em all?

I may as well talk about this here since you're gonna see it in the photos, anyway, but I missed a left turn and had to double back. This cost me about a kilometer or two, and it was yet again one of those times that I was glad to be walking alone. I wouldn't want the pressure of a walking partner who's silently irritated at me for not being a perfect navigator.

another tucked-away grave

another solar farm blights a mountain

Solar and other forms of alternative energy probably make more sense in small countries like South Korea, but solar farms (as with wind farms) require a lot of real estate, and real estate is very much at a premium in this country. How economically viable are solar farms here? At what point does a given farm make back the cost of its installation?

still unaware I've missed a turn

Somewhere past the above photo, I finally looked at my map, saw I was way off track, doubled back, and cut through farm roads to get back on the plotted path. Admittedly, Naver Map doesn't care whether you're following the Four Rivers/Nakdong path or not, and as I've repeatedly argued, the "path" isn't just one single path but instead a network of paths all tending in the same direction, which makes it less of a burden on your conscience if you stray from the orthodox path and follow Naver's shortcuts. Later on, while looking over the path I took, I realized that Naver's shortcut probably hadn't saved me even a kilometer. So missing Naver's path, then getting back on it, probably negated the benefit of the shortcut. In other words, I ended up walking the orthodox distance for that segment-within-a-segment.

In the photo below, I've doubled back and taken the turn I'd missed previously:

through the farm roads instead of around the long way

I guess this was Take 2.

marshmallows and pre-marshmallows

A far-off building distracts me.

Looks like a prison's guard tower, but more likely the Korean version of a ranger station.

Being in shadow means being cold.

As always, I love these post-harvest shots.

cow house!

ladies

nice pose

She had something to say.

up a short-but-challenging hill

A 17% grade will get your heart pumping for 300 m.

And what have we yet again?

Why, yes, 'tis another deer carcass!

I'd guess, based on the destroyed asshole, that this poor creature got hit by a car, and its guts went flying.

Is that all the result of a car's impact, or is it also a bit of butt-eating scavenger work?

No fangs that I can see but same color patterning as the last carcass, so this could be a vampire deer.

with a grave already close at hand

struggling up to the top

You know it's a painful hill when bikers are graffitiing notes on the concrete walls.

And we're at the top.

By the way, this hill means I'm back on the orthodox path.

See? The sign says: "Gukto Jongju, Nakdong River Bike Path, Gyeongcheon Bridge 12.6 km." Below, the second sign warns of a less steep 7% grade down.

These myo are everywhere, so you better get used to them.

a Building of Some Importance out in the woods

I have no clue, but at a guess, this is something about the recent history of this area. Some of the Chinese in the rightmost column will appear later, on a separate stone.

Maybe 숭조원/soong jo weon, "high ancestor's garden/courtyard"?

On the assumption that that's not a tree scrotum, I'm guessing it's an unfallen, now-droopy persimmon.

un tracteur

I got distracted by this random pile of garbage.

A lot of farm furrows have been dressed up for winter.

Nature overtakes everything.

the revealing crack indicating old-school, shoddy concrete work

It was so, so tempting to reach in and steal some persimmons. But I didn't.

Still on the right path.

Nagam-seoweon (낙암서원): sign for entrance to a (I think) Confucian academy

Up we go again, but gently.

Shipping-container houses are not rare in Korea.

apiary in back

downhill again

a lone myo

"Euiseong (region), Kim Byeong Dae's grave" (I think; it's a bit blurry... could be Kim Byeong Tae)

passing by the archery field (off to the left)

We've got toilets for three sexes, for dwarves, for slobs...

The middle toilet is almost always a stand-up urinal for men.

the long building where the archers stand and lob arrows at their targets

You can barely see the targets through the trees.

Here's a closeup.

And a closer look at the archers' building.

The warning is about the weather: in the event of snow, heavy rain, and typhoons, stay off these paths.

I guess Choong Eui Jeong is the name of the archery field.

WHO DAT??

The one cowardly dog who barked but never approached despite not having a leash.

I do realize, despite my romantic thoughts about rural life, that farming is hard, hard work that never stops.

Still, I do often wonder what life might be like out here. I wouldn't be good about taking care of the land—I know that.

approaching a bridge where I'm going to have to make a choice

Signage can be confusing sometimes. The blue sign's arrow says "go straight," but the red painting on the road says "go left," and Naver says to go left, too.

A sign for Sangju Dam, which I don't think I ever ended up seeing.

Yet gangchang naruteo: old-time blue-water(?) river ferry landing

Now approaching that bridge. Little do I know what's in store.

more chairs being punished

Anything to say for yourselves?

That platform in the distance advertises "Sangju waterskiing, coffee, and drinks."

Could that be another gravesite across the way?

Oh, yes. Many, many graves. I wonder how many of them hated each other.

maeuntang (spicy seafood stew) restaurant

What I'm about to discover is that Naver is leading me to that overpass, where there's a ramp that goes to the right and onto the freeway.

I'm almost at the ramp.

I'm looking down at the farm roads and feeling smug. But not for much longer (note the persimmons).

I didn't take photos of my going partway up the ramp, seeing the traffic, wavering a bit as I saw that I really wouldn't be on the freeway that long, so maybe it wouldn't be so bad... then deciding against the freeway altogether, walking back to the bottom of the ramp, recalculating my route using the "walk route" function, and resuming the journey along the farm roads I'd just sneered at before switching back to "bike route" mode.

There was, of course, a barking dog, warning me to stay the fuck off his property.

farm road

I initially wondered whether this new path led to a dead end. This felt risky for some reason.

more stubbornly unfallen persimmons

Dilapidation!

There'd seem to be no more path, but Naver insisted.

Ah. We divert under the freeway and out the other side.

a humble crick

nice scenery if nothing else

again: cracks in old-school concrete

another crack house

I wonder whether that's a ggachi (Korean magpie) nest way up top.

Seongdong 3rd Bridge

I pop out onto a quiet neighborhood road.

for you geolocators: this is the Shinsang-ni (신상리) bus stop; Yeongnam Jeil-ro (영남제일로)

Bringing in the Sheaves

I vaguely remember walking this road. Was it years ago? Was it just last year? I need to check my archives.

Ah, the Yes Motel, where everyone is screaming, "Yes! Yes!" I've never stayed there.

How'd you like this for a bus stop?

another punished chair

gloves becoming one with the concrete

up we go

It's a gentle hill, though—not bad at all.

So many unfallen persimmons!

I had to wonder whether these more stubborn persimmons were the ones eventually used to make got-gam.

Surely, they can't all be going to waste, but I guess they could serve as nature's fertilizer.

I'm technically in Sangju already, so maybe this is referring to downtown Sangju.

Holy Spirit Church (성신교회/Seongshin-gyohoe)

I don't know it yet, but as I learned upon review, this is about where downtown/urbanized Sangju starts.

And as I will be constantly reminded, Sangju is famous for got-gam, dried persimmons.

Ggoggomi and Ho, the got-gam and tiger mascots

I wish there were more shwimteo like these out in the boonies.

Geolocators! The Hyeonshin-dong bus stop in Sangju!

My first-ever look at an urban cairn (tap/탑 in Korean).

You will never be allowed to forget this is the city of persimmons.

A bit of trivia: when I normally hit Sangju after walking south and east from Incheon on my way to Busan, I enter the city very briefly at a different point, and I don't recall ever seeing, in that part of the city, so much emphasis on persimmons. So while the city as a whole might be known for its persimmons, it's not the entire city that's decked out in persimmon motifs. Frankly, though, this part of the walk felt a little like persimmon overload.

Tires, not persimmons. Thank God.

a shrine to someone famous

And it starts all over again.

Agricultural/Rural theme park ("theme" is thema/테마 in Korean, following Romance languages)

"Gyeongsang First Gate"...?

I cropped this wrong. It's basically Gyeongsang Number and that's it. I should've included the one.

drying persimmons, vaguely reminding me of the genesis chamber in "Man of Steel"

This turned out to be a nice stretch along the Bukcheon, a local creek.

Do these burdz even realize they're of different species?

Just like it is along the Seoul/Seongnam axis, there's plenty of in-creek construction happening.

jinggeom-dari, a rock stepping-stone bridge

I saw this statue again on my way out the following day. I like it. It's dynamic and hopeful.

I bet the effect is funkier at night.

a bridge I would not need to cross

We're away from the creek, now, and bearing down on my upcoming motel, the Bobos.

Sangju does seem like a nice, peaceful little town.

The motel was close. I checked in, gratefully dropped off my stuff, did some business, then stepped out to find some grub. The next shot is of the room's interior, and the final shot is from when I stepped out again to get a meal. There was a Paris Baguette nearby, but it didn't have the salads I'd normally get, so I got some salad-y sandwiches and snacks.

What hat head looks like after walking all day with the head covered.

Last shot: the motel. I couldn't help noticing that Bobos is an anagram for Boobs.