today's Yangpyeong-to-Yeoju walk

My buddy JW has now popped his 30-kilometer cherry.  We met—surprisingly early (JW took a KTX express train to be able to meet me on time; he arrived ten minutes earlier than expected)—at Yangpyeong Station and immediately marched out to the riverside trail, a segment of the famous Four Rivers bike trail that connects Incheon to Busan.

We kept up an excellent pace and ended up finishing the day ahead of my projected arrival time of 5 p.m.  We did 30 kilometers in about 7.5 hours, arriving in Yeoju City around 4:30 p.m.  That's a rate of 4 km/h, and that also includes a few rest breaks.  Take those breaks out (they totaled about an hour), and our actual speed was closer to 4.6 km/h.

The one nasty hill on the way to Yeoju proved to be quite nasty even without a backpack on my back.  But neither JW nor I stopped while walking it; we actually kept up with a trio of high-school-aged bikers who saw the hill, cried out in humorous dismay, dismounted their bikes, and elected to hoof it up the incline, pushing their bikes along with them.  I was puffing and wheezing by the time we reached the top; my heart was pounding hard enough to burst out of my chest, but while the kids elected to pause and take a break at the top of the hill, JW and I simply kept going, grateful to be walking downhill after nearly a kilometer of steepness.

Late in the walk, JW confessed he was getting tired, losing energy, and even becoming a bit dizzy.  He said he hadn't eaten anything all day (we took two convenience-store stops during which I fueled up on Coke and candy), which startled me because I was sure he'd said that he'd brought snacks for himself and me.  (In fact, JW gave me some Japanese cookies to eat during one of our rest breaks... but now that I think about it, I don't recall seeing him eat anything.)  Anyway, the idea that JW might be feeling even a little faint was somewhat alarming to me, so I remained watchful for the rest of our walk.  JW ended up doing just fine, but he now knows better than to ever do that again.  I suggested that he bring along some beef jerky and some gorp next time.

One thing we talked about (and I think I've written on this topic in my walk blogs) is the physical and psychological difference between walking 25 kilometers and walking 30 kilometers.  In my mind, 25 kilometers is a pleasant and not-very-tiring hike from Seoul to Hanam City, but when the distance is pushed to 30 kilometers, the pleasant stroll becomes something of a long slog.  My hypothesis is that my energy levels remain steady for the first few hours of a given walk, but during the final few hours, there's an ever steeper falloff as fatigue sets in.  This is why the addition of a mere five kilometers can make a world of difference in a distance-walker's experience of the path.

Anyway, I did end up taking a few pics, and JW did as well.  Below, the first four photos are mine, and the final two are JW's.

JW didn't want to say anything, but I could see that his feet were killing him.  Here he is during one of our several breaks, resting his feet and using his phone to figure out bus schedules in Yeoju City:

Next up:  yours truly, doing my best terrorist impression:

At this point, the day is over, and we're both utterly pooped.  I treated us both to dinner at the first restaurant we stumbled upon once we got into town, and JW treated us to bus tickets back to Seoul.  So here's JW, exhausted after his 30K trek, staring blankly at a TV monitor that was showing a news broadcast:

And here I am, masked up because we're indoors, waiting for our bus:

This is a shot that JW took of me at the Yeoju Dam:

Another shot by JW as I lumbered along, surveying my domain:

I don't think JW enjoyed this walk as much as I'd hoped he might.  I find it to be a gorgeous segment of the Four Rivers path, but JW talked about how he liked the Hanam-to-Yangpyeong segment more.  He's been hard to please ever since he came back from his life-changing trip to Jeju Island.  According to him, Jeju's trails blow away anything he and I have ever done locally.  I think he's been hypnotized by over-romanticized postcard imagery.  Then again, I might find myself in Jeju someday, agreeing with his assessment.  We'll see.

So that's a little glimpse of today's walk.  I found it gorgeous but tiring; JW found it exhausting, but that was mainly because he'd chosen not to consume anything other than two tiny cartons of soy milk.  He did say that he'd learned a lot (about himself, presumably) during today's walk, so I guess that's something.