Here's an updated map that shows the route I'll be taking (same as in 2017), as well as the now-completed east-coast route that I hope one day to walk. That route's official name is the Donghaean Jajeongeo-gil (동해안 자전거길, i.e., the East Sea Coastal Bike Path, found here).
To review: my path will begin in Incheon (인천), pass through Seoul (서울), turn south to follow the South Han River (남한강), continue south along the Saejae Trail (새재길), then go for 300-some kilometers along the Nakdong River Path (낙동강길). If you look closely at the map, you'll see that the Nakdong River portion is labeled as 389 km long, but you can also see that it begins somewhat away from the Saejae Path, i.e., I don't pick up the Nakdong trail at its starting point. This is why I say "300-some kilometers."
ADDENDUM: Paul Carver (Daeguowl) writes in to tell me the above map is out of date, but for my purposes, it shows the completed east-coast trail (finished in 2017, the year of my previous trans-Korea walk), which is what matters. Paul emailed me a slew of PDF maps of all sorts of biking/walking routes, so I now have possible routes coming out of my ears—plenty to occupy me for the rest of my life in Korea, however long that might be.
Always good to play your part in helping ecological culture take root.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I saw that "saengtae munhwa-ga bburi naeridorok" part of the sentence.
ReplyDeletePaul Carver (Daeguowl) just emailed me to say this map is actually out of date. He sent me PDFs to both a more current map and to many, many other walkable routes. I'll never get bored for as long as I have feet.
That East Ocean trail looks nice too. I wonder though how diverse the terrain is? Walking along the beach would get old after a few days.
ReplyDeleteIf it's anything like my walk along the rivers, the coastal trail will probably dodge inland at several points, and there will also be a few challenging hills along the way. These paths usually have a number of twists and chicanes in them, probably because of the need to follow the terrain instead of just carving a straight path out of the earth. I recall that some of the detours I took in 2017 were massive, taking me more than an hour out of my way before I got back to the river again. This is especially true whenever there's an inlet where a tributary meets the larger river: instead of just building a large bridge to span the inlet, the pathbuilders would build a much smaller bridge farther inland. Less effort, less cost, and less future maintenance, I guess.
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