Thursday, September 20, 2018

staring down the barrel of a 120-kilometer walk

It's almost that time again: starting on Saturday morning, I'll be walking out to Incheon once more. If you've followed my Seoul-Incheon-Seoul walks, you know that each day is almost exactly 30 kilometers of walking except for Day 3—because of a taxi cheat that I do on Day 2, the Day 3 walk is only about 22 km. Tonight, I'm doing one last, brutal practice walk of around 30,000 steps, then I'm resting on Friday so that my feet will be nice and fresh and ready for abuse on Saturday morning. From Saturday to Tuesday, it'll be over 40,000 steps per day... except for Day 3, of course.

This will be my third trek out to Incheon and back. I'm beginning to think it may be time for a change, so the next time I have four days during which to walk, I might either go in the other direction, toward and past Paldang Dam, or pick an entirely different path, e.g., a section of the ambitious coastal path that stretches 720 km from about Gangneung all the way down to Busan. I am, in fact, itching to walk that path, and I might do it next year, depending on my job situation (i.e., depending on whether my new bosses will be amenable to such a project).

As I may have mentioned before, I'm also impatient to do this current walk because it'll be a chance to test out my new Gregory backpack. It's going to be nearly empty while it sits on my back, but I want to know how it rides, so I'll be filling it with light things like my rolled-up foam mat and some random, poofy articles of clothing, just to fill out the empty spaces so that the pack doesn't look utterly deflated while I walk.

So: big walk tonight, rest tomorrow, then trekking on Saturday. That seems to be the plan.



12 comments:

motorrad said...

Walk to Chuncheon. It's about the same distance from Seoul and much prettier.

Kevin Kim said...

Thanks. I'll put it on the list.

Kevin Kim said...

I just looked up the distance from my apartment to Chuncheon's city hall, and it's around 105 km one way. I wouldn't be able to do a round trip unless I had 7 or 8 days. Ah, well. Then again, if I did the coastal walk, that would be a one-way walk, too, so why not do a one-way walk to Chuncheon, eh?

John Mac said...

Good luck! I'll look forward to following along.

And yes, one way gives you so many more options. I personally dislike coming back the way I went anyway...

motorrad said...

I ride my bike out then take the ITX back. So one way is the same as seoul incheon seoul. Sorry, I should have been clearer in my description.

Charles said...

Good luck!

Kevin Kim said...

Charles,

Thanks.

Motorrad,

No problem. Can I assume that, along with a regular bike, you also have a motorcycle—given your screen name—and that you use it to ride all over Korea?

motorrad said...

I have a BMW back in the states but I had issues with my company's import broker and ended up not bringing it. It's a shame as I have ridden it all over North America and was looking forward to doing the same here. Big bikes are just too expensive here and I can't justify pulling the trigger. So, I've taken up bicycling.

Kevin Kim said...

M,

And a world of bike trails was opened unto you.

I don't recall whether you followed my walk blogging from last year, but I ended up really admiring the network of paths that Korea has put in place for bikers and walkers. There's a guy in my office who is contemplating riding his bike down to Chuncheon and back; your suggestion to walk to Chuncheon produced a bizarre little déjà vu echo in my mind. You're not that same guy, are you? That you, Tim? Nah, can't be: Tim's an Aussie.

motorrad said...

I'm Scott from Illinois. And i did follow your walk last year. Your blog is on my daily must read list along with John's. I'm very impressed with the bicycle infrastructure here. Hopefully my bicycle trip will be as fun and enlightening as your walking trip.

Kevin Kim said...

Good God—another Scott! Christ, how many of you are there in the world? Anyway, kidding aside, it's nice to make your e-cquaintance. If you're planning a bike trip for Chuseok, and it sounds as if you are, I wish you a beautiful, healthy ride. Happy Chuseok!

Kevin Kim said...

Oh, and: thanks for your readership, Scott.