pics from today's walk

I met my buddy JW for a walk along the Han River this morning. JW wanted to meet at 8 a.m., which, for me, meant waking up a bit after 6 and going out the door by 7. We met at the spot that we call the drive-in theater (자동차 극장 jadongcha geukjang), but since the pandemic, that theater has been defunct, and thanks to the recent floods, that entire lot is covered in a thick layer of silt that turns muddy when it rains. JW never just walks to the Jamshil Bridge and back; he always wants to push limits, so we walked a few kilometers past the Jamshil Bridge, rested a bit, then turned around and headed back.

JW plans to visit Jeju during my walk so he can walk one or two segments of the Olle trail with me. This will mean reserving his own pension rooms after figuring out his travel dates, which he hasn't done yet. I'm expecting things not to go smoothly with him; he's a pretty typically nonlinear Korean for whom nothing is ever straightforward, and Murphy's Law is always in operation. We'll see what happens with him.

Anyway, today's jaunt was interesting because JW decided to walk way ahead of me. He's a faster walker by nature, though he usually slows down for my sake. I took my sweet time and caught up eventually. Lots of people on the trail today, and since commenter Curtis complained that my photos don't show people, I went out of my way to photograph some people to give you all an idea of what it's really like when you're out on a biking/walking path on a beautiful day (I mentally call these folks "fair-weather fuckers" because they disappear when it's rainy or cold). And the day was indeed beautiful—cloudy but sunny—but it did start to get a little too hot for my taste, so I had to insist on U-turning back so I could walk to my apartment and be en résidence by noon. 

JW and I will probably go walking somewhere next week. I'm going to suggest a stroll down to Bundang. And JW agreed it'd be better to do our walks in the evening for the time being.

Enjoy the short photo essay.

rose in my neighborhood

and another, with dew

blue? purple? you decide

Joro spider-usurper, getting bigger and bigger

I took this shot specifically to show where all that driftwood from the flood had been piled up. Pile's all gone.

This, however, remains unwalkable, although people have obviously tried.

This bridge is no longer submerged, but it's still covered in silt. Note the driftwood at the bank.

old-school shwimteo along the Han River

heavy equipment

JW was a much faster walker than me today, and he found a new path to walk, away from the sunlight.

humble mugunghwa (rose of Sharon, Korea's national flower) bushes

rose of Sharon, closeup

sign of the Mugunghwa Garden, donated by the Lions Club

You may recall how, on previous trans-Korea walks, I've photographed lion sculptures at the ends of bridges or in parks. Many of those sculptures (here, for example, in 2019) also represent efforts by local branches of the Lions Club.

a mugunghwa bush; the rose of Sharon grows in bushes like regular roses

another white one

mugunghwa, fuchsia-ish edition

well, maybe light fuchsia

where we stopped before turning around

bikers, masked and unmasked

JW plods past a modern shwimteo. Do you see the plastic bottles on the benches? Stupid polluters.

JW staying under the shade as much as possible

Part of me wanted to eat these little berries.

same berries, but unripe

the other side of the Jamshil Bridge, where I stopped to fish a pebble out of my shoe

a rare frontal shot of JW

I thought this could be a thistle at first, but when I looked up thistles... nah.

a local bridge crossing the Tan Creek... plenty of bikers on the path all day

You normally see this footbridge from the opposite angle, but I approached it from the north today.

So that was today's walk. My pedometer tells me it was 282 minutes long. That's 4.7 hours. At 4.8 km/h, that's around 22 kilometers—a decent distance. I'm not breaking any records, but all of this is prep for the upcoming Jeju and Andong walks.

If I have the energy, I'll work on my A/C today, and I need to keep calling pensions and making reservations. Fingers crossed. JW reminded me that I'll be hitting Jeju at the best time of year to be down there, so there'll be tourists aplenty. That's one major aspect of this trip that I'm really not looking forward to.