Day 2, Leg 2

Today's walk went surprisingly well, partly thanks to the lovely weather and partly thanks to the shorter distance—only 20K today. I walked at a slow, steady pace of about 3.2 kph, and since I felt better today, I took fewer rest breaks than I'd taken yesterday. I got to my destination before noon and dithered at the local convenience store to pick up lunch: three small cans of tuna and two diet sodas—mojito-flavored Pepsi, which turned out to be as awful as it sounds. My motel room was again W60,000 with no mention of an "early fee." In this case, I think it's because the (relatively) new owners realize how strategically located this yeogwan is.

I'm still not wearing my wide-brimmed hat yet, and I may have sunburned my neck a bit as a result. No matter. More important is that my feet survived today's 20K intact, and I'm quietly hoping that the miles are adding up to a kind of gentle conditioning, toughening my feet up for the rest of the journey. Tomorrow's leg is another 20K, but a bit hillier. Today's leg, one of my favorites, was largely flat and straightforward, hanging close to the river's edge the entire time except for that weird, twisty path I had to take at the beginning when leaving Yangsan. 

So—20 kilometers from the Bliss Hotel in Yangsan to the Nakdong-jang Motel in Miryang City. I left at 5 a.m., an hour later than on Day 1, and I got here around 11:30 a.m. As mentioned above, my pace was about 3.2 kph, which is painfully slow if you're anywhere from normal to athletic. But I walked steadily, enjoyed the cool, and experienced only a small amount of under-toe irritation, which I took care of with an ibuprofen tablet. 

Unfortunately, the Bliss Hotel in Yangsan seems to be going downhill. As I've experienced in a lot of other motels, the electricity for charging my devices seemed to be coming in at a trickle, so in the morning, my phone was only 45% charged, and my power pack was barely charged at all. I shrugged and didn't bother waiting for a full charge; it would've taken hours. But the next time I'm in Yangsan, I'll consider trying a different motel. And no, it's not that my cord's damaged; I use the same cord to charge devices at my place, and everything charges up fast.

The one major consequence of leaving while under-charged was that I ran out of all power (cell + power pack) a little past halfway through the walk. I have more than enough photos to give you your daily ten, Dear Reader, but only about 90 pics in total for the day instead of my usual 200-700. Luckily, my final photos were of the "swimming dragons" in that one park. Nice way to end, and it actually felt liberating not to have to shutterbug every twenty meters. 

I tried to take pics of the mist rising off the river as the sun began to burn through the morning coolness (it was 4.3°C/39.7°F this morning; my fingertips started to freeze); I'll put up one image two images of that, and you can tell me whether I succeeded in capturing it. The Nakdong looks pleasantly ghostly when that happens, and it's one of the reasons why I like starting each segment of these long walks early in the morning. 

So unlike yesterday, when I walked 29K after barely sleeping and was utterly exhausted at the end of the day, I started today well rested, arrived at my destination before noon, and still feel awake and full of energy (albeit a little stiff). As I walked today, I was amused by my shadow during some stretches: with my bandanna pulled tight against my skull and my large jacket loose around me, my shadow looked rather monkish, which may be apropos since this walk will be more monkish in nature than previous ones: very few food indulgences, absolutely no snacks while hiking (angina), and greater single-mindedness of purpose.

I think my phone reached 0% battery power with only a few kilometers to go because my step count for today is only a couple thousand lower than my step count from last year. So I'm simply putting up today's stats, truncated though they be. Enjoy the day's images. 

today's stats before I lost power

today's route north and west

So much electricity. Poor North Korea.

Jupiter up top, Sirius at bottom, and maybe Procyon in the middle.

The camera's night setting makes everything brighter.

33K was how far I'd walked at that point. The 2-day total is about 50K.

cold enough for frost

I guess the tree really wanted to get out. 

WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED HERE???

nearly monkish shadow

squished mama mantis, eggs splattered and exposed

swimming dragon

Two bonus pics—attempting to capture the river mist:

Play Misty for me.