Kevin's Walk 9: Day 12, Leg 8

Man, my feet hurt. 33K today, from the Hotel If in Daegu to the Lee Motel in Chilgok County (Chilgok-gun). Once again, I took it slowly, waking up at 3:45 a.m. and leaving by 4:20, then arriving at the Lee Motel by late afternoon. I'd started strong, walking vigorously, but by this afternoon, my feet were an aching mess. I had also eaten nothing the previous day, having gorged myself at that Chinese restaurant on Wednesday, so while I had begun this morning full of energy, I didn't have much energy in reserve by the afternoon.

I also walked past a long parade of large, dead praying mantises, all moms, and all killed by bikes while attempting to cross the path. I had seriously considered documenting every single death I encountered, but I decided that that could be a little numbing. There were at least a dozen forlorn carcasses.

Otherwise, the day started off well above freezing, so I removed my outer jacket after an hour and, with the arrival of the bright sun, I took off my winter vest not long after. Another beautiful day, but they're still forecasting light rain for several hours the morning I leave for Libertar Pension in Gumi (Sunday morning). That's a 32K trek, and I'm at Libertar for only a single night. Luckily, the next day's walk is only 23K to Sangju and the Nakdan Dam neighborhood, where I'll be staying at the Bonghwang Motel, a much nicer motel than the Havana, with its surly witch of a manager. (Some brave soul needs to pull the shit-covered stick out of her ass.)

As I've noted before, the Bonghwang marks my first night in Sangju; Sangju is big, so I'll walk 25K to the Bobos Motel (also in Sangju, but on/near the east side), then turn east and do the final big leg: 36K to the Gangnam Motel in Jibo-myeon, next to Andong. The stay at the Gangnam will be my final two-nighter; after that, it's 30K to the Songhak Motel in western Andong for one night, then 28K the following day to the Andong Dam to finish the walk.

But first, I think my feet need tonight and tomorrow to recover from the day's abuse. 33K is definitely easier than doing 39K, but it's still no picnic, and at this stage of the walk, the damage is going to start to accumulate. I may have to slap on a few extra bandages—not for bleeding or oozing, but to give some extra padding to the raw, sensitive areas on my feet that are currently screaming. Tomorrow, I will again be fasting, but I might buy some food to snack on while I'm walking on Sunday.

The saddest news I got today came from the old couple who run the Lee Motel: the restaurant in the back of the building is still not operating. I'd thought it had come back after the COVID scare, but no: it's apparently defunct. I had been imagining having some kind of hot dinner there (an old sign still advertised an LA galbi rice dish), but no dice, so after getting my room, I went back across the way to the convenience store in the Chilgok Dam admin building and grabbed a simple, single-man's dinner of ramyeon and cans of tuna. Joy. What a letdown after that awesome mandu/gganpoonggi dinner in Daegu. But this is what I'd signed up for, so I can't say I didn't know that this—i.e., culinary disappointment—was coming.

I saw two feral but well-fed-looking cats as I was leaving Daegu this morning. I also heard the sound of American soldiers running in formation and chanting some silly song in English for cadence. In fact, I heard the soldiers twice—once while they were running across a dam (Gangjeong-goryeong Dam/강정고령보) and once while they were running back across it. Daegu has infamously hot and humid summers, so running in this relatively cool weather must be a relief. Me, after a stroke and a heart attack, I can't imagine running at all.

Pain aside, today's walk was another beautiful one. I didn't see many shaman spiders, and the long parade of dead mantises was depressing, but I did encounter a tiny, wriggling snake and a live mantis, and I even managed to capture a few seconds of the snake on video. Here's the link (I can't embed YouTube vids via my cell phone).

Enjoy the stats, map, and pics.