Saturday's walk

Welcome to English weather.

I did an 18K walk down to Bundang (a district in Seongnam City) Saturday morning. I started at about 7:45 a.m. and finished at exactly noon: 4.25 hours (I used to take around 3.25 hours). That's a slow pace of 4.23 km/h, but it's all I seem to be capable of these days. It was a cool, gloomy, overcast walk that started at -1ºC (30.2ºF) and ended at around 4ºC (39.2ºF). The weather-service website said the Saturday high, which was reached long after I'd finished my walk, was 9ºC (48.2ºF), which is basically jacket weather. Winter is definitely winding down. Today's high is supposed to be 10ºC.

This time around, I tried to be disciplined in my photo-taking, focusing only on what's new since my previous walk along this path. So this photo essay may seem both haphazard and repetitive since the only theme holding everything together is novelty, and since a lot of the new stuff seems to be the same sort of construction, over and over. 

Crews are working on—have worked on—stretches of ground alongside the Tan Creek, mostly on the west side. New courts have sprung up for tennis and the Korean sport of jokgu, sort of a combination of soccer and volleyball. There's currently an outdoor ice rink along the last half of the path. A lot of the construction work continues to involve the many bridges that span the creek, especially as one gets nearer to Seongnam City. And in a testament to the awful spread of the cancer I've been railing about for years, most of the final several kilometers of the walk have been converted into park-golf terrain, with the sod all laid down and yellow-looking in winter. These park-golf courses were all full of old folks when I walked by them. Sigh.

In sum, what used to be a quiet walk south has become a crowded, noisy, superficial patch of ground buzzing with human activity. I'd have to look this up, but I'm pretty sure I've argued in the past that so much of this creekside and riverside ground ought to be developed. What nonsense. I admit it: I was wrong, and I regret ever saying something so stupid. The Tan Creek has basically been turned into the overdeveloped Jungnang Creek (which stretches roughly from Oksu Station to Uijeongbu up north), uglified forever.

I'll still walk this stretch when I can, but it's going to be much less enjoyable from now on. Part of the price one pays for living in an urban area.

Not all development is bad, of course, and bad or not, much development is necessary as a population burgeons. It's unfortunate, but the two concepts of harmony with nature and quality of life are often opposite poles, requiring the sacrifice of one to improve the other. But I can't help what I feel: what the crews are doing along the Tan Creek just strikes me as crass and unnecessary. Maybe my inner tree-hugger is showing.

Enjoy the photo essay. If you can.

This is the bridge you cross to walk along the creek's east side. They've taken down the chain fences and have placed a safety cover over the gap between what used to be two separate bridges, one for bikes and one for pedestrians. This feels like a weird compromise in terms of safety.

This fencing is definitely new. Go straight if you want to reach Garak Market; otherwise, turn right before the fence to follow the path down to Seongnam City. I turned right.

following the new, red fence or screen or whatever it is

I'd long wondered what the name of this bridge was. It's the 숯내교/Sutnae-gyo. See here.

This certification center under the Sutnae-gyo struck me as new.

a new spot of construction

big bird hunched and frazzled and looking like Bernie Sanders

new tennis court... or renovated court with new fencing

It used to be that you had to detour left to navigate this part of the path. Off to the left, and under the bridge that parallels the creek (ergo, not visible), is the exit road to Taepyeong Station.

a clearer shot of the part of the path leading to that exit road

This patch of ground got developed into a fenced-in field (see it up ahead?).

another Bernie burd

Development up ahead... will it be a bridge crossing the creek, or is this just temporary?

I wonder what this will turn into.

As we head into town (Seongnam City), the development becomes more dense.

a new tennis court

Coming up on the ice rink: "You know... for kids!"

space to play while you await your turn on the ice

"Seongnam City Outdoor Ice-skating Rink"

the rink itself, which won't last as the weather warms

more cross-creek development (which may be only temporary if the real focus is the bridge)

I think this display is talking about the making of a new pedestrian bridge, or a bridge (the Yatap-gyo, or Yatap Bridge) with pedestrian walkways, based on the picture. If that picture is a computer-rendered shot of the future, then the creek-spanning dirt road is only temporary for sure.

I'd photographed some of these supports/tunnels before.

More construction information, this time for the Hatap Bridge.

Hatap Bridge, partially shrouded

under we go

I guess they're working on all the local bridges at once in a paroxysm of construction.

The blue fence says "Safety first." More of an ideal than a reality in South Korea.

Here's the first shot of what turned out to be a long, long stretch of park-golf courses.

more bridgey stuff

a new road/ramp down to the creek

one of several landscaped aeration points

a more elegant big burd (stork? crane? heron? egret? other synonym?)

Sunae Bridge. The sign says the tunnel ahead is for walkers, not bikers. Bikers detour to the right.

It's an ambitious project.

another new ramp near the end of the walk

And I can only hope that this is temporary, too.

final stretch

I don't recall seeing these bleacher-like seats last time.

Upshot: a lot of changes along the Tan Creek, most of them negative in my opinion. But we'll see, in future walks, just how good or bad the changes really are.

This was my first real "long walk" since starting my new exercise program. I was supposed to do a long walk last week, but all the weightlifting and calisthenics and 9K walks had left me pooped. I'm a bit stronger after this week, and as my body gets used to the greater workload, I'll become more consistent with the long weekend walks. If I don't visit the States and France to see friends and family this year, I'll do another cross-country walk either in the early spring or during the fall. I haven't done a spring traverse since 2017; such a walk could be another "full circle" moment for me. And if I do the Four Rivers trail from Incheon to Busan, it would be a milestone: my fifth time along that trail. As a reminder, I've also walked the east-coast trail, part of the Jeju Olle trail (and part of the Jeju Fantasy bike trail), and the Nakdong River trail (which really needs a redo since I got interrupted by injury last year). Commenter Paul suggested walking straight across the peninsula; while I've plotted a possible trail across the country, I'll need to correspond with Paul about what the "official" trail might be since I'm sure he has a better idea of what bike trails and safe roads I can use.