Because the Jeju walk is going to be so short, I've decided to add another walk to the itinerary: the walk from Sangju east to the Andong Dam. I've been wanting to do this walk forever; I actually had planned the walk out right before my stroke, and when I got back from the hospital and saw the plan, I threw it out because I knew any long-distance walks would have to wait until I'd recovered. So I just finished re-plotting the walk as a four-day affair, with the first day being super-easy at only 10 km. The second, third, and fourth segments are 25 km, 20 km, and 33 km, respectively. If I end a bit late on the fourth day, it's not a big problem: I'll find a place to stay in Andong, then take either the bus or the train back to Seoul the following day. The following names might not mean much to you, but here's the itinerary:
The dam itself is a bit farther down the road, another 2.3 km. The walk back to Andong City (which you pass on the way to the cert center) is about 6 km, so by the end of Day Four, I'll have walked almost 40 km total. Rough day, but from the pictures I've seen of the dam, it'll be worth it, especially in the fall. On the other side of the dam is Andong Lake, but it doesn't look as though there are many walking paths, so I may just have to look at the lake from the vantage of the dam. Alas.
Aside from the fact that the photos of the Andong region look gorgeous, my other motivation for doing this path is that it's the part of the Nakdong River that I never get to walk when I'm doing the Four Rivers path. On the Four Rivers path, I do the Saejae trail, which wends its way southward until it meets up with the Nakdong River at about Sangju, but there's a whole stretch of the Nakdong that I never have a chance to see, going north and east. So this upcoming short walk will go from Sangju City to Andong City, and I'll finally have walked—more or less—the portion of the Nakdong River that goes up to the dam. (The Nakdong actually continues for many miles beyond Andong Lake. I'm not actually sure where the river begins/ends. I tried following it on Naver Map, but the river frays and splits up, and after a time, I didn't see any more labels for the Nakdong on Naver. I'm not sure that that part of the river is walkable, anyway: there are no bike paths beyond the dam.)
So that's my supplementary walk after Jeju. In a couple weeks, I'll be able to firm up my travel dates for the Jeju Olle path, then hit a travel agency and reserve plane tickets to go to the island and back. I plan to take the whole month off as usual, but I'll finish both Jeju and Andong with several days to spare. (21 days' walking total, for a total distance of 341 + 88.5 = 429.5 km. Significantly shorter than previous walks.)
2 comments:
Looking forward to both of these walks (and the photos). I think it is good to change it up now and then.
Truth be told, I miss the Four Rivers path. I'm fine trying new paths, but it's nice to get back to the familiar ones. I'll do the Four Rivers next year, im'sh'Allah.
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