Saturday's walk to Bundang

I counted 142 maskless people Saturday evening and night as I walked the 18 kilometers to Bundang's Jeongja Station. This time around, I didn't stop the count when it got too dark; I simply kept counting whenever I had enough electric lighting to do so. Doubtless I missed a few maskless people, so the number 142 is, if anything, a conservative estimate. Sure, there were over ten times as many masked people, but mask-defiance is visible on the trail.

Started the walk at 6:40 p.m. and finished at 10:20 p.m., so that's three hours and forty minutes, I think. Gives me a walking speed of 4.9 or so kph. Not my greatest speed, but better than 4.8 kph, which has been my benchmark for a while.

As for the future: on September 12, as summer finally winds down, I'll be walking 35K with JW from Hanam City to Yangpyeong. This is one of JW's favorite walks, and I wanted to get this in before I left for my big walk on the 18th. JW and I will also do another walk once I'm back. That walk, close to 30K, will be along one of my favorite sections of the Four Rivers trail, going from Yeonpoong-myeon (a village) to the San Gwa Gang Pension. Transportation is going to be a bit awkward, as we start in the middle of nowhere and basically end in the middle of nowhere, but I think a combination of buses/trains and taxis will do the trick. I won't be on my regular early-riser long-walk schedule for that walk, so if we start late and end late, that works for me. I just want JW to do a part of the route that shows off Korea's mountainous beauty as well as the tail end of the harvest season (we'll be doing this in late October). It really is incredible. If you need a reminder of what this section of the walk looks like, click here. If you click on a photo, this brings up all the photos as a slide show.

So—looking forward to a Sunday of rest, shopping, and cooking, with Skyping in the evening. I've got burger buns to bake, burgers to fry up, and sausage to make for keto pizza this coming week (done "flower pepperoni"-style in honor of Randolph Beer). Stay tuned for photos!