Day 19, Leg 13

I'm at the Songhak Motel, the last motel of this walk. It's more of a downscale yeogwan than a motel, really, at only W35,000 a night and with next to nothing in terms of amenities (like little complimentary cans of juice and "sticks" of instant coffee). At the same time, it's got a nice ondol floor along with a heated bed, not to mention a decent bathroom, so I can't complain. I got to the motel a little before 3 in the afternoon and had to phone the manager, whose daughter heard my voice echoing in the hallway. I had to pay the daughter cash for Room 209, but I was flush with cash after having had to deal with the Gangnam Motel in Jibo-myeon.

While it was a decent walk overall, today's segment started off with me taking a fall in the dark, scraping up my exposed right hand (the only way to use the phone is without gloves, which sucks when it's freezing) and right leg. I was walking along a particularly dark part of the road leading out of Jibo-myeon, staring into the glare of my phone, when my foot went off the road's asphalt edge and encountered nothing but empty air for a second—just enough to startle me and to throw me off balance. I tumbled forward with a grunt and ended up injuring my right hand and my right leg. I decided to keep walking until I had found a place where I could sit down, lit by a street lamp. I used wet wipes to clean up my dirt-covered pants and wounds, then spent a few minutes in the flesh-numbing, subzero cold applying bandages everywhere. At least the cold minimized the probability of infection. My cell phone also got damaged; I think the bottom-right corner of the screen might be cracked, so I'll have to take the phone in for repairs. Again. My hand was a lot more damaged than my leg, which had only surface scratches. My hand turns out to have a good chunk of skin torn off, plus some dark spots where pebbles or dirt got under the epidermis. I might have to see the doctor when I get back, but the hand is otherwise functional; I also washed and re-dressed everything once I got to the motel later in the day. 

And that was about it as far as drama goes. I may need to apply a second layer of bandaging before I go to sleep tonight so as not to bleed on my sheets, but aside from that, everything is fine, and I'm ready for tomorrow's walk. 

Good thing I'd bought snacks along the way: there's no convenience store or restaurant in the neighborhood I'm in, so I'm fasting tonight (no, I don't use the Yogiyo app). This sort of imposed fast increases the chance that I'll try that pizza place at the top of Andong Dam before busing back to Seoul. I've eaten a lot of carby stuff during this walk; my blood sugar is probably ruined, anyway, so... in for a penny, in for a pound. 

Since I started from the Gangnam Motel and not from Daesun, today's walk was only 30K in length, not 31K. Tomorrow's walk is still projected to be 27K to the Andong Dam certification center, plus another kilometer to the top of the dam itself. In all, this will have been about a 403K trek, as originally projected, but we all know that measuring distances is an unreliable endeavor at best.

Enjoy the map, stats, and photos below.

30K with the revised distance from the new motel

5280 calories burned, with less than 1000 consumed, so I lost over a pound today.

Sirius, Betelgeuse, and Jupiter, plus Orion and some others

farmland and undeveloped land at sunrise

crossing a bridge

startled burdz

more post-harvest farmland in winter

plinking in Korea... just like in America 

The numbers should add up to 385K, but they don't. Something's wrong. Again.

tough flowers in a neighborhood, enduring the cold

picnic setup?

the heel of my hand at the end of the day, before washing and re-dressing the scrape

PHOTO ESSAY

the triumvirate in the western sky (4:58 a.m.)

6:41 a.m., much later and long after my fall

heading east

dawn's early light

peaceful mountains and farmland

A quiet world settles into winter.

Normally at this peaceful hour, nature talks in whispers, but people came out with chainsaws.

a glove's final victory sign... like the Terminator's thumbs-up in "Terminator 2"

Danger Guy, going all-in

Bike motifs are not just for fences.

"Nakdong River jongju," it says

another watch-out-for-deep-water sign

them frozen fields

baesu-mun

another one of those lovely "false" sunrises

if Yoda lived on Earth

mushroom farm: just look for the dotted logs

our planet

some sort of inn or pension coming up

looks a bit like a chalet

animal asshole (cat?)

Shinpoong 21 Cabin (and the half-bike done up like a hunter's trophy is unique)

I do believe this is garlic in the winter.

See? Gukto Jongju as the label for this path

The term kodari/코다리 looks to me like the portmanteau "nose-leg," but it really means "pollack," pictured above.

crossin' the bridge (9:29 a.m.)

Nakdong River jongju

These days, I often resign myself to catching "scooter people" from behind to avoid their looks.

There's often a church popping up somewhere.

rest spot... eat, drink, breathe, watch stuff

What'd it be like to have a yard and to build one of these?

Thank you, shwimteo.

Oh, that's right.

I took this shot to represent the many, many ginkgo trees ("shitberry trees"—ex-coworker) I've passed along the way. I pretty much hate ginkgo trees now. You can supposedly make certain foods with ginkgo berries during their very narrow window of freshness, but I say Why bother? Yeah, yeah, I've heard all about their medical properties. Phooey.

Gukto Jongju

What sort of mutant cat was this?

Seriously, how many paw pads do you need?

The numbers total up to 318 km, not 385 km.

Wrong.

glamping at the end of the grove

yeesh

I thought I'd recorded the name of this bridge coming up, but I guess at some point, you pass so many bridges that you just stop taking notes.

the startled burdz

live long and prosper

a club-footed hand

unmarked myo

I felt a vague urge to go to the bathroom right about here, but I didn't find the toilet that was supposedly 80 meters away. So after a brief turn left, I headed right along the trail.

I feel right at home: this is the Nonghyeop bus stop, and the next stop is Beotigogae, which is the same name as a subway stop in Seoul where I get out to do walks up Namsan.

Note, though, that this next stop isn't labeled "Beotigogae"; it says "Bitigogae," a change of one vowel sound. It's constant mistakes like this that reinforce the idea that navigating in Asia requires you to fuzz your brain out and to think in vague, malleable terms without ever arriving at truth. In this case, truth would be the answer to the question: is it Bitigogae or Beotigogae? I'll never know, and it doesn't matter.

This scooter lady passed me several times as she ferried things back and forth. Cue "wicked Witch of the West" music from "The Wizard of Oz."

still on course

Straight on to Andong! (Actually, I'm stopping for the day in Poongsan.)

We don' need no stinkin' banisters!

another arfer tries his hand at guard duty

See the hidden dog?

a caution about slippage due to snow and/or ice

Hotel! 3K thataway. No, thanks.

a very deliberate, contrived-looking pine grove

Korean War veterans' memorial

a distant sign for Korean beef and doenjang (soy-bean paste, a bit like miso)

Hanu and Doenjang (Korean beef and soybean paste), zoomed in

"Meat Restaurant: Hanu and Doenjang"

more sheaves

Don't you love how Koreans divide up English words like "royal"?

We're swinging left, just following where Naver leads.

them goatses

Hahoe #3 Bridge (pronounced "hah-hweh")

We loves da plinkin'.

Bangsan Confucian Academy ahead

Geolocators! A bus stop for Bangsan Village!

I saw signs for a restroom around here and diverted, but...

...the restrooms were locked up for the season, so I snapped some pics and trudged on.

another shroom farm (normally edible shrooms, not psychedelic shrooms)

I'm swinging left, but the Confucian academy is straight on.

Rural Development Admin Drainage Station

Gukto Jongju

This adds up to 385 km. And tomorrow's walk is less than 30K.

"Nakdong River jongju bike path"

swinging right and crossing a small stream ahead

looking across and seeing the ramp I'll be ascending

bridge and ramp

crossing

up the ramp

See how the numbers add up to only 319K? What's up with all of the poor numbering?

Looks like a bus stop, but there are no buses here. I rested, anyway.

Not pictured: I ended up taking a piss in this location.

And I'm not hiding my face in shame after doing that.

I still don't know the proper name for these structures in either English or Korean. Flimsy cousin of Quonset huts?

We're nearing Poongsan-eup, the town where I'll be stopping.

Build in your aeration wherever you can.

I'll try not to fixate too furiously on this foul instance of park golf.

another cross-the-stream-and-climb-the-ramp situation

I swear, that shadow in the lower-left corner is not me flexing.

What gesture was I trying to make as Danger Guy plunges into the drink?

looking back at the crick crossing

Down the road to the town... I think were off the Gukto Jongju now.

The Hari bus stop, between Poongsan-eup up ahead and Namhu-myeon behind.

the Hari Bridge (Hari = Ha Village; ri/li, eup, and myeon all denote villages and small towns)

This poor glove looks as though it had gone on a massive bender. I've seen drunk people and cats in folded sleeping postures like that.

These bikes and scooters, etc., aren't really abandoned, per se; I use that adjective because I'm lazy. They're just left here because people trust each other not to be fucking thieves. Try that in a big American city.

entering town now

Naver led me down this alleyway, but the building ahead was not my goal.

stubborn

hardy

flowers

And if the real flowers wither, they've been painted and/or stuck onto a wall.

I think I'm about a kilometer away from my goal.

a definite scarcity of restaurants and shops in this part of town

a temporary shwimteo, probably not for picnics

just glancing over—not actually going this way

Ah—but I am crossing this bridge. Final few hundred meters.

A couple back streets and... voilà! Motel in sight.

the Songhak Motel

The chart says W40,000 a night, but I was charged only W35,000.

If I ever use this motel again, I'll be sure to pack along some food. I ended up fasting.

my scraped-up legs

My knee lost a bit of skin.

My right shin got scraped up a bit, too. Nothing major.

my poor palm, though

And the black spots are bits of dirt and grit that worked their way under my skin.

The cold weather definitely helped with preventing infection and profuse bleeding; I assume my capillaries mostly contracted from the cold.