Day 1, Leg 1

I survived today's roughly 35-kilometer walk, but I did need several rest breaks.  It was tough going in the bright sun; like last year, the weather was warm today.  It was cool in the shade, to be sure, but there just wasn't enough shade. 

My Korean buddy JW joined me for less than half of today's walk after having initially told me that he'd wanted to meet up after Chuseok.  JW is nothing if not random, often changing plans on the fly.  I don't mind, but only as long as he doesn't mess up my plans, which are the result of careful cogitation and the trial-and-error experience of two previous walks. 

JW's accompanying me for Days 2 and 3, and on Day 3, he's bringing his son along.  The boy's attitude and behavior have improved over time:  there's no more of the whininess that characterized his pre-teen years, but it's not obvious to me that he actually enjoys these walks.  In fact, JW tells me that it's the boy's younger sister who has become an avid distance walker. 

JW thinks, however, that the boy needs to get out of the house more often; he's generally stuck at home, taking remote classes and not doing any of the outside activities that used to be a normal part of his school life.

JW says he still wants to do a post-Chuseok walk with me and his son, but we need to discuss the particulars.

Today's walk was around 52,000 steps. My pedometer and my My Fitness Pal apps have radically different ways of calculating the gross total of my calorie burn; the pedometer's assessment is more conservative and therefore, to my mind, more trustworthy. 

I started out the door right on schedule at 4:30 a.m.  We arrived at Gayang Station a bit behind schedule, at about 2:55 p.m.  For me, that was about eleven hours of walking:  a hell of a way to start the trek.  JW met me under the Gyeyang Bridge, near the east end of the Ara Canal and not far from the Han River.  JW and I parted ways right around Gayang Station; I was too tired to search carefully for a restaurant, so I stumbled into a local Chinese place and ordered jjambbong and fried mandu. The lady did the typical "Wow, so you can eat spicy food!" thing that many Koreans do when encountering a foreigner. I'm surprised she didn't marvel at my ability to use chopsticks or to speak Korean. 

I found a back-alley motel with the modest-sounding name of Dean. Again, W50,000 for a night, but the room seems okay for that price. Washed my filthy clothes, drank a lot of juice, showered away the day's grit and grime, and here we are. I'm sure you care nothing for the prose and only want to see the pictures, ja?  Well, your wish is my command.

My pedometer:

 

4:30 a.m., just outside the motel:

A street in Incheon, super-early in the morning:

Geomam Station:

I guess we know what time it is:

The empty subway train that took me a single stop:

Abandoned gloves always tell a story:

Last stretch of road before trail's starting point:

One of the most distinguishing features of the Four Rivers Trail is the pair of windmills:

Only one of the two windmills was moving... but why?

Is this, by chance, a better angle?

How about this?

Had to angle the camera to catch both:

The famous arch at the starting point:

Selfie from the other side of the arch:

Busan: 633 kilometers away.

I don't think I've ever photographed this plaque:

As you know from following my previous blogs, I'm a fan of shwimteo, and I photograph then obsessively. Here's an unusual one:

Looking north across the canal:

Spider pic 1:

Spider pic 2 (Korean orb-weavers are out in force this time of year):

Spiderweb pic: gossamer glow:

Let's leave it at Spider pic 3:

Farther along the path, a flower:

The road goes ever on and on:

A sculpture of kids doing something:

Closer shot:

A different sculpture:

The Ara Canal stretches 15 km:

Oh, how it stretches:

I met JW here, under the Gyeyang Bridge.  This is a shot I took while lying down, resting my feet, enjoying the shade, and letting the ibuprofen course through my veins, keeping the foot pain at a tolerable level:

Here's a creepy selfie. I've heard it said that, if you want to imagine what you'd look like after plastic surgery, lie back and hold a mirror over your face. Gravity does the rest with your flesh:

I had to turn around to catch this loose peloton as it receded:

JW walks ahead of me as usual:

The distinctive sculpture/tower thingie that marks the end of the Ara Canal:

A shot of JW taking a shot.  Metashot?

Cosmos flowers: Mom's favorite:

Cosmos were a big part of my journey last year:

Is this some type of daisy? I know nothing about flowers:

A weird shwimteo:

JW passes the weirdness:

Resting under one of the final bridges of the Ara Canal:

JW, on his phone and up to no good:

Final stretch before Gayang Bridge:

The seating arrangement of this shwimteo was interesting, as was the table at its center:

JW way ahead of me during the final stretch:

By this point, JW and I have separated. He saw no reason to rest all afternoon and evening while also paying for a motel when he could just train home and do something constructive. So he and I parted ways, and I found myself in a Korean-style Chinese resto. Here's my order:

It's way past my bedtime, so I'll leave off here. Day 2 takes me 30 km back to my place. It'll be another long walk, but not as long as today's.

at the Hotel Grand

I've broken with tradition to get a room at a slightly easier-to-find motel called the Hotel Grand.  (It bills itself as a hotel, but trust me: it's just a motel.)  Gotta say, I like my room's bed, which has a nice, firm mattress.  The place is slightly more expensive than the Techno at W50,000 for a single night, but I don't mind paying a bit more for decent accommodations.

I'll be sleeping in about an hour, then waking up around 4 a.m. so I can be out the door by 4:30 and subway-ing out to the coast by 5. It's a 2.2-km walk from where I get off the subway to the west coast, where sits the official beginning of the Four Rivers trail. Before that, it's a 3-km walk from my hotel to Geomam Station down the street. That makes tomorrow a bit of a brutal day at 35 km, but I'll survive. 

I didn't eat anything today except for a bit of ice cream. I'm sure to be ravenous tomorrow, when the day's walk is done, but I'm going to try to hold back on soda and snacks. 

No video recording tonight, but I'll bid you adieu and hope you're there in the morning to follow my misadventures.

exactly 11 kg

Avengers, partially assembled:

Fully assembled:
 

The bag is packed, and I'm just about ready to shove off.  I weighed the bag, and it came out to about the same weight as last year:  11 kilograms.  Assuming I lose 10 kg along the way, the weight loss ought to counteract the pack weight—eventually.  (I won't be losing 10 kg within the first day or two.)  This, by the way, is what pro hikers call the pack's base weight, i.e., the weight of all the items whose weight doesn't change throughout the day.  Knowing the base weight of your pack gives you a rough idea of what strain you'll be under.  This measure doesn't include food or drink because those weights vary throughout the day.  

Except for one brutal day along the trail—October 18, I believe—I'll be carrying only 1.5 liters of water per day with me.  Last year, I got into a rhythm in which I'd walk 12K to 15K steps, then stop, pop some ibuprofen, and rest thirty minutes before trudging onward.  1.5 liters of water—i.e., three 500-ml bottles—means I'll rest three times throughout the day for a total of 90 minutes.  That's enough water to get me through a 9- or 10-hour walk.  On October 18, I'll be walking a nasty 42 km, so I'll start the day off with 2.5 liters of water, then drink my way down to zero.  Am not looking forward to that day.

Righto—launching soon.  Will write again when I'm at the motel in Incheon.