a few shots from today's walk

Did an 18K walk down to Bundang his morning from roughly 5:40 a.m. to 9:30-ish a.m. Construction along the final approach to Bundang is getting serious, as you'll see in the pics below. I'm curious to know what the result of all this landscaping will be. More footbridges? There are plenty of those already. Better landscaping for the creek itself? Don't know. New spaces for benches and park-like areas? I have no idea.

The early-morning part of the walk was nice with the sun so low in the sky, but as the sun rose, temps went up, and I began to appreciate the shade every time I walked into it. It's about the time of year where I switch from mostly daytime walking, on weekends, to nighttime walking. Right now, when I walk at night on weekdays, the weather is super-pleasant. Alas, summer is coming, and in Korea, summer and winter are both four months long, leaving us with short-but-beautiful springs and autumns. When summer comes, even nighttime walking will be warm and humid. I'm not looking forward to that.

That said, today's walk was beautiful. It's disappointing to see so many people outdoors with their masks still on, but here's hoping that the conditioning will wear off in due time.

Enjoy the pics.

seen early in the walk

I normally use digital zoom to capture birds now that I understand how skittish they are.

This is a ggachi (magpie).

loud, squawky fellow

peck, peck, peck

plenty of flora

I've crossed over to the west side of the Tan Creek, alongside the air base.

Walls are necessary, people, and they work.

There were a few people on this side of the creek, but this side is generally quieter than the eastern side.

a "No Drones!" sign in the distance

The end of the dirt path coincides with the end of the air base.

a tributary

This is about where I have to jog left, then right, to continue along the creekside. (I don't cross the bridge.)

"Sharp turn—SLOW," says the sign.

Back to a normal bike path.

one of several jinggeom-dari (stone footbridges)

"Bike, Pedestrian Combined-use Path"

Guys, I found Derrick!

Here is that point where the trail finally splits into dedicated paths—one of pedestrians, one for bikers.
The sign bohaeng-no (보행로) means "pedestrian path" or "footpath."

Curious, I popped up to street level in search of shade, but the constant traffic drove me back down creekside.

Here I am going back down to the creek.

It's a nice, placid path, overall.

some sort of springtime veggie-garden thing happening here

with flowers between veggie gardens

onions?

The sign's top says, "Yatap 2nd District, Seongnam City Village-making Public Offering."
The second and third lines (large font) say, "Arongi Darongi City Farm." Near as I can figure, "Arongi Darongi" refers to two things that are similar but not the same, and they often appear in pairs.

These perspective paintings have been here forever, but this is my first time photographing them.

The walk to Bundang takes you under a lot of bridges. Again, I appreciated the shade.

Top line: "Walk right."
Bottom line: "(Take) long strides."
보 (bo) = step
폭 (pok) = length
넓 (neolp) = wide
게 (gae) = -ly

Way in the distance up ahead, there's an apartment complex named "Park View" in English. When that complex comes into view, I know I have only three or so kilometers to go in my walk.

digital-zoom closeup of Park View

These little manmade falls are important for aeration of the water.

This may be the first time I've seen this pond in its full glory. Lilypads!

More lilypads!

A jinggeom-dari barely above water.

I guess that's about 50 calories per kilometer walked. I still don't know where these distance markers start.
The Korean says 빠른걸음/bbareun-georeum, or "quick steps."

Here, we start to see the construction going on (up ahead).

It doesn't look very nice now.

This sign may partially explain what's going on. The text inside the blue field identifies the work as being done on behalf of the aquatic ecosystem. The red-font words say that the construction company is sorry for the inconvenience they're causing, and they'll do their best to finish as soon as possible. Looks to me as if they'll be working through the summer.

close to the final stretch

The writing on the right side says, top line, "Walk right."
Bottom line: "Look straight ahead."
So as you see, the path has been offering you tips on good walking:
look straight ahead, walk rapidly, and use long strides.

My favorite bridge along the way. You'll see why.

This bridge is called Baek Gung Gyo, or White Castle Bridge. So I think of burgers.

construction

more construction

yet more construction

I guess the construction includes the stripping-away of the green-surfaced path I'm used to.

feels weird not to have pavement here

All things end, and my path ends at the 18K mark, right here at Jeongja Station.

Exit 6 is where I enter the station.

your final shot for the day

A good walk, all in all. I'm glad I got my ass up early and did it. I really need to get in the habit of waking up this early every day, but the dark side of the Force is strong, and I'm not habitually a morning person unless I'm walking across the country. Usually, during the week, I don't get to work until sometime around 12:30 or 1 p.m.—even later, these days. I need to straighten up and get back to a more normal work schedule, I think.

Hope you enjoyed the pics. Spring is beautiful in Korea.