Kevin's Walk 9: Day 14, Leg 9

And do you know what happened? A miracle!

—Salieri

After I had worried for days about an unchanging forecast of rain for today, the gods decided not to make life any more difficult for me, and they made it rain from Saturday night until about 3:30 a.m. this morning, stopping the rain about an hour before I left the Lee Motel. I felt only a few stray, half-hearted drops, and that was it. So: no wet clothes, no wet shoes, nothing. Just wet asphalt. It was once again a great day for walking. And the weather is supposed to be clear through the 15th, which is my final day.

If you look at the map below, you'll see that Naver again changed the distance on me, increasing the length of today's segment from 32K to 33K. This seems apropos: Naver had asked me to perform an impossible bridge crossing in Gumi City using a bridge with no bike lane or shoulder. Fuck that. I crossed the river via the main bridge, which paralleled the bridge that Naver had suggested. Unfortunately, my chosen bridge had no easy exit, so I had to walk a bit farther, then double back to return to the river, which cost me about a kilometer. So I'd agree that today ended up being closer to 33K than 32K.

Once the morning darkness had lifted, the day became bright and beautiful, with pleasant temperatures and partly cloudy skies. The final part of the walk was sunny and featured a strong, gusty breeze—my favorite type of weather, i.e., sunny and gently windy. My feet hurt again by the end, but this is the walk's final week, so there's no use bellyaching: this is what I'd signed up for.

No one stopped and talked with me today, and I didn't see a single shaman spider. I got a few friendly thumbs-up from some passing bikers, and I saw quite a few Westerners on bikes, including one entire family. They pretty much all confirmed my forming stereotype that most Westerners pack too much for long bike trips, probably because they can't speak or read Korean and therefore feel they have to do everything themselves, including camping and cooking. I only rarely see Korean bikers weighed down by heavy saddlebags full of supplies: they know how to find restaurants and lodging just by reading the various advertisements all over the trails. And Korean-fluent Westerners are in the same boat, not burdened by a pile of unnecessary supplies while traversing a small country. To me, the saddlebags look increasingly ridiculous. Unless this represents a conscious choice to rough it, which is possible (but in my opinion unlikely).

I'll be washing my clothes tonight, stripping the dressings off my feet, checking my feet for irritations and blisters, then showering and sleeping before leaving around 5:30 tomorrow morning. Luckily, the Libertar Pension has an electric fan, so my clothes will be guaranteed dry by morning.

I did see another snake today, and while I snapped two shots of it, I didn't get any video this time. Maybe the third time will be a charm. I also saw two more of the same species of brown-bodied, black-eyestalked slug I've been seeing nearly every day. And all the cows I've seen on this walk—as on every such walk—have been light brown. Just how many species of cattle exist on the peninsula? One?

Fall colors seem more prevalent the farther north I go, but once I hit eastern Sangju, I'm heading almost due east to Andong, so I won't be going any farther north. Tomorrow's walk is short at only 23K; that'll take me to south Sangju and the Bonghwang Motel. Tuesday's walk will also be short at 25K; that will take me to eastern Sangju. Wednesday's walk, though, will be a punishing 36K to Jibo-myeon, the town right next to Andong. I'll be staying in Jibo-myeon for two nights—the final time I take advantage of that luxury. The next-to-last day of the walk will be 30K to western Andong and the Songhak Motel, and the final day will be a 28K trek to the Andong Dam, after which I will grab a cab to the Andong bus terminal, buy a ticket to Seoul, and return to my mundane existence, a creature of the city once again.

But it won't be over for this blog: I'll still have to upload all of the photos I'd taken each day; the photos will need to be enlarged and captioned, and before all of that, I'll need to write up my trip's postmortem. Along with all of the pic-related material, I'll also need to add more commentary to every post. So there'll be a lot for me to do and a lot for you still to see. I urge you, therefore, to sit tight. Even once I'm back at my place, the show won't be over.

Meanwhile, enjoy today's images.