You'll have noticed that my rest days come at a price, clerically speaking: the day numbers stop matching the leg numbers because I'm hunkering in place. This makes record-keeping (the "clerical" aspect I'm referring to) a pain in the ass because I now have to keep track of two numbers whose difference will only continue to widen with each rest day. Over the course of this 29-day walk, I've built in six rest days, so on Day 29, that'll be Leg 23.
I'm shuffling around some numbers on my 2020 Walk Route Details chart. I saved a few kilometers yesterday, so I'll do a bit of "make-up" walking today, right around lunchtime, and I've tucked in a second make-up walk later on because, since I'm in a different motel from the one I'd planned to be in, tomorrow's walk is now about 2 km shorter than originally projected.
Today's rest day is significant because it's the moment before the plunge: tomorrow, I embark on a new phase of the trail: the Saejae portion (새재길). This segment of the overall hike will take four days to get through; it's 96.3 km in total, so I'll be averaging almost 25 km per day. The segment includes two huge hills—one on the second day of the Saejae, and one on the third. The first hill is 2 or 3 km in length, but the incline isn't bad. The second hill, which leads up to the Ihwaryeong gate, is 5 km long, but again, the incline isn't impossible. I walked up the hill just fine in 2017 and again last year, so I don't foresee any major difficulties this time. Tomorrow's walk takes me 25 km to the Suanbo area.
I mentioned Leukotape yesterday. It seems the tape protecting the top of my left foot is starting to come undone, and the tape on the bottom of my right foot has migrated to the point where it, too, needs to be replaced, so I'll be taking care of that later today. (Following advice seen on YouTube, I wrapped spare tape around my trekking pole.) I'm loath to put on new Leukotape because, as one YouTube commenter pointed out, the tape's gum layer is so thick that, over time and distance, it pushes through the tape's cloth weave and out the other side, effectively turning the tape into a two-sided adhesive that sticks to your socks and collects all the dust and hair on any floor you're walking on. (I do wish these motels cleaned their floors more scrupulously. They're clean enough, I guess, but when one of your feet has effectively become a lint roller, you pick up every little bit of schmutz on the floor. Disgusting.)
One thing I failed to mention in yesterday's post was my encounter with a plump, friendly Korean guy who offered me a bottle of corn-silk tea (옥수수 수염차, oksusu suyeomcha). He told me that he had biked the Four Rivers trail before, but when he tried to warn me about upcoming difficulties, I told him I'd already walked the route twice before. The guy wished me luck, climbed back into his SUV with whichever buddy was driving the vehicle, and shouted a farewell as the SUV peeled out and away. Random kindnesses.
Here are some foggy-morning photos from yesterday. Enjoy.
ADDENDUM: I'm back from a lunchtime walkabout, and I have a few humble pics, mostly of the lunch I ate at a "Japanese" resto called 동경 일식 ("Tokyo Japanese Food"—already a warning sign regarding the food's authenticity). I ordered the expensive jeongshik meal, which is sort of an omnibus sampler. The food came out in little waves, like a French multi-course menu. The topper at the end was Korean maeuntang, a spicy fish stew that tastes awesome but contains fish with thousands of tiny little pin bones in them. The bones are a real nuisance to dig, pluck, and spit out, so as you can imagine, I didn't quite finish my meal.
2 comments:
Planning on feasting on the local delicacy (pheasant, if memory serves) in Suanbo?
I did it in 2017 and wasn't all that wowed. My entry re: eating pheasant bulgogi doesn't exactly thrum with enthusiasm. The meat wasn't bad at all, but it also wasn't that memorable or revolutionary. I'd rather eat duck, of which there seems to be an overabundance in this country.
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