6:42 a.m., a little bit past Neungae Station and not too far from my meeting point with JW. I'll arrive at Yangsu Station around 7:30, which will give me time to take a much-needed 2.5-hour nap: I'm supposed to be meeting JW at 10. Guess I'm a little ahead of schedule.
The walk was fantastic for the first four or so hours: I was between bouts of rain. The rain started up around 2 a.m., but it wasn't much more than a light drizzle. It's still drizzling now, but it's not too cold, so I'm not miserable. I even took a 45-minute nap once I'd crossed the Paldang Bridge, which sits between Hanam City and the Paldang Dam. Found a bridge that shielded me from the drizzle, and a comfortable bench to lie on after I'd popped some pain pills.
Well, it's time to heave myself up and ease on down the road.
Later.
Geez, this was a surprise. I don't recall you mentioning any plans to go crazy like this. As always, I'm impressed. I have never considered (nor would I likely ever) taking an overnight hike like this. Well done!
ReplyDeleteNever done an all-night walk. What was the experience like? Best of luck with the rest of the route. Having a companion will no doubt help.
ReplyDeleteJohn,
ReplyDeleteIt all came together fairly quickly. There was a basic motivation to finish the walk, and I'd been experimenting with my new size 13s to see whether I could make them more comfortable to use. I was also routinely checking the weather, and ultimately, a lot of factors rapidly coalesced, so I decided that a week of convalescence after doing the first half of the walk was enough. Et voilà.
Daniel,
It was fun having JW and his son along for the final 20 km. Night walks at this time of year tend to be cool and quiet, and as I may have remarked last year, there's never any danger of walking in complete darkness: there's ubiquitous lighting, not to mention light pollution in the night sky reflecting downward to the ground. If motels and yeogwans were more flexible about allowing customers to check in at weird hours, I'd do most of my hiking at night, and I'd sleep during the day.