Tuesday, April 28, 2020

apologies in advance

I'm leaving work early, this evening, so I can train out to Incheon and walk the 3.2 km to the Techno Motel, which is where I stay every time I'm in the Incheon area. Here's your challenge: see if you can find lodging that's closer than 6 km* to the Ara West Sea Lock (아라서해갑문). The Techno is the closest lodging I've found, but I admit I haven't done an absolutely thorough microscopic search for lodging within a 6-km radius of the sea lock.

Tomorrow's walk is a bit of a beast, as you'll recall from last year's hike: I start out by walking a bit more than 3 km to Geoman Station; I then ride the subway one stop to Cheongna International City Rail Station; from that stop to the Four Rivers Trail starting point, it's a bit over 2 km. The main walk, eastward to Gayang Bridge, is almost exactly 30 km, but it's another 2 km (or so) to duck back into town, away from the river, and find a motel. So for Day 1, that's probably around 36-37 km in total. Kinda brutal. The final leg of this trip, from Hanam City to Yangpyeong, is almost exactly 35 km.

A quick review of my upcoming four-day jaunt, then:

Day 1: Incheon to Gayang Bridge; stay overnight in western Seoul. (36-37 km)
Day 2: Gayang Bridge to my place in SE Seoul; overnight in my own apartment. (30 km)
Day 3: My apartment to Hanam City downtown; overnight in Baro Motel. (25-26 km)
Day 4: Hanam City to Yangpyeong City; overnight in riverside motel. (35 km)
Day 5: Train back to Seoul in the late morning. (I don't count this day as part of the walk. It's only 800 meters from the motel to the Yangpyeong City train/subway station, so it's safe to say that not a lot of walking will be done on this day.)

I think I'm going to concentrate on walking, and I'm not sure that I'll be blogging my progress every single day. If there's something to write about, I'll write about it (e.g., spiking pain levels). Otherwise, I plan to set my blog up with some scheduled posts so I can start dumping all the COVID-19-related videos and articles I've been storing up for a month. Many of these things will seem outdated, given the frenetic nature of the ever-churning 24-hour news cycle, but some of you might appreciate getting a refresher regarding what had made the news only a few weeks ago. So: apologies in advance for feeding you a load of pre-scheduled news sludge, but I think scheduled posts are better than no blogging at all. Feel free to leave comments, as always. I'll have time to respond to your comments every night, while I'm in bed and propping my aching feet up. Oh, yeah: I will be taking photos along the way, but I might not be uploading them every day.



*From the sea lock to the motel, it's an 11-km walk. As the crow flies, though, the distance is only 6 km. If you find a motel that's closer than a 6-km radius away from the sea lock, I'll mail you a tee shirt from my ever-growing Teespring collection.



3 comments:

daeguowl said...

No motels close by as far as I can see. There are a couple of guesthouses 4.8km away 올인원, 에쿠). Although farther as the crow flies, in terms of distance to be walked in the morning, there are a bunch of motels very close to Unseo Station, which is two stops past cheongra towards the airport.

Daniel said...

Unseo has lots of accommodation options. Best of luck on day 1.

John Mac said...

Good luck and enjoy the hike! I fancy myself a walker but I can't imagine trying to do 35K in one bite. You have my admiration!