Day 7, Leg 5

In which I talk about Day 6, Leg 5.

Happy November, by the way. I forgot to say that yesterday. 

Yesterday's walk took a lot out of me, but the thought of a huge dinner spurred me to walk faster at the end, despite the recurring pain/irritation in my left big toe (which again turned out to be nothing). I started yesterday's walk at around 5:10 and didn't arrive in town until about 6:30 p.m., i.e., I trekked from before sunrise until after sunset. It was a surpassingly beautiful walk, once again with perfect weather, but that hill, which sits at almost exactly the halfway point along my chosen segment (about Kilometer 17 going Andong-ward), was draining, and my real fear of overdoing things and dying had me talking aloud to myself. So by the time I pulled impatiently into town with expectations of a hot dinner and friendly service, I was gassed out.

A couple of notable encounters yesterday: at the bottom of the mean hill, before I ascended it, I sat down at a shwimteo (pavilion for resting), and three bikers pulled up and sat down with me. At first, there was the usual "Is he a foreigner?" murmuring, but when I smiled and forced out a tired, "Yes, I'm a foreigner," the guys addressed me directly and proved to be friendly enough. They were a group of three friends from Daegu (my next two stops) coming back from a 50K jaunt out. As part of their overall 100K journey, they now had to tackle the same hill I was about to face. I got interested in the notion of a detour, which the guys had taken when coming down this way, and one guy vaguely pointed thataway to show where he meant. He warned, though, that the detour would lengthen my trip. The three guys got up before I did; as they left, I said goodbye and good luck before starting up myself a few minutes later.

The second encounter was even more random. An old farming couple in a truck drove up to me. I heard a shout, and the grandmotherly wife was straining out her window, reaching out to give me a 감/gam, i.e., a persimmon. It was big, fat, and juicy—at the perfect stage of ripeness. It took some doing as I comically stretched my own arm out to receive her gift, but the reward was worth it. As I wrote elsewhere, persimmons come in several varieties. Some, like the one I'd been given, are cardioid-shaped (like a heart); others are round and have a tucked-up bottom that makes them look more like a tomato. When ripe, some persimmons become hard and crunchy like an apple while others become soft and fleshy and juicy, like an overripe peach. That latter kind was the flavor bomb I held in my hand, and after the farm truck had driven off, I dug in to my treasure with gusto, happily spitting seeds off the trail and into an unknown future. 

The climb up the mean hill didn't kill me, as it turned out. I settled on a pace where I would do forty steps (right-left = 1 step), then take fifteen breaths as a way to pause and calm my heart. This formula took me slowly but surely up the mountain. All I had to do was have faith that I'd make it eventually, and that the trial would be over soon enough. At times like that, I'm usually glad I walk alone: any partner would've been driven crazy by my slow pace uphill. The hill itself had no mercy: at three distinct points, the hill's incline steepened. I grumbled to myself that coming up the other side was easier. Complaints aside, the hill proved surmountable. And I'm still here.

I did, however, start yesterday morning with a sense of betrayal: the National Weather Service had recanted its forecast of rain, but when I stepped outside at 5:10 a.m., I saw clear evidence that it had, in fact, rained during the night. Wet asphalt, pools wherever the drainage was bad, mist everywhere. As I began walking in the dark, my feet would occasionally encounter mud patches (farm trucks drop clods of earth all the time), so I had to worry about slipping and falling on my ass.

My other worry was the returning pain where my left big toe connected with my foot. This had bothered me on previous days, and I was worried that the pain might indicate irritated skin that threatened either to rub raw and eventually open up or to blister (then open up after bursting). But last night, when I peeled off my dressings before showering, I again saw nothing. I've brought along a lot of ibuprofen to deal with the various aches and pains of a long walk, but I've been trying to use it sparingly because, like most NSAIDs, too much can mess with your kidneys, and my docs had warned me about suboptimal kidney function. 

Aside from all that, the walk has been going so much better than last year's disaster. Last year was an embarrassment—the first time since 2017 that an injury had been bad enough to force me to stop a walk in medias res. My next stop after 40K on the upcoming segment is the Hong-C Motel in Daegu (southwestern Daegu, I think, in Hyeonpoong). Last year, I was at the Hong-C when I made the command decision to go back to Seoul, convalesce for a month, then pick up where I had left off. This walk is my "redemption" walk, in which I'm trying to do right all the things I'd done wrong last year. 

If the worst hill of this route is now behind me, the worst distance is still ahead of me: 40K tomorrow. I'm not too worried: if I take frequent breaks and walk delicately so as to avoid irritations that lead to broken skin, I ought to be fine. Then, if anything bad happens during the walk's final week, I don't have to quit: I can just walk through any injuries at that point and deal with them in Seoul once the trek is over. 

Today, then, is another resting day. I'll either fast or find some cans of tuna to gobble down. My blood sugar is probably around 200 again after last night's dinner, which was a plate of fried shrimp (with surprisingly good fries) and a separate plate of donggaseu (East Asian schnitzel) along with regular Coke and some ancient, fat-bloomed Snickers bars. Later this afternoon, if I'm so inclined, I might go for a stroll.

Another thing about this Jeokgyo-jang Motel: there's no WiFi service. Good thing I switched to an unlimited-data plan, eh?

Here are a lot more pics from yesterday (I ended up taking over 400):

Many love motels feature tissue boxes advertising "massages."

to try next time: a resto doing pork and soondae (blood sausage) soup and rice

my favorite Chinese place in Namji-eup, not visited this time

my beloved NeNe Chicken... I don't care what the haters say

another Chinese resto to try next time

Namji-eup, pre-dawn, as I leave

Namji Central Church

"Watch Out for Wild Animals"

I think the sign on the left says Lotus (연/yeon) Flower (화/hwa) Temple (사/sa).

One of the main reasons I do these walks is the harvest. I'm eternally fascinated by the state of the fields and the rhythm of nature. 

A sign advertising "international marriage," probably for lonely farmers to trafficked Vietnamese women, reflecting a huge demographic problem as Korean farmgirls leave the farms to find a future in the big cities.

standing guard

growing things are everywhere

a growing thing

Ms. Dewey McWebbington

A Canadian coworker of mine in 2013, despising the stench of fallen ginkgo berries, once called them "shitberries," a name that has stuck with me ever since.

Left: spray-painted "Beware of Dog" sign. Right: dog.

fields in the morning mist

Once you're out of the city, agriculture is everywhere.

My Naver app always takes me off-piste between this point and Namji-eup, so I walk for kilometers along shoulderless roads because Naver thinks that its chosen route is shorter. One day, I'll walk the proper bike trail.

myo/묘 (tumuli, burial mounds)—for people with money

I assume this is another mama slug with eggs coming out of her ass.

one of many tossed-aside masks

my obsession: abandoned gloves

the Nakdong on a beautiful day

goats, but no goatse

another hillside gravesite

the hill from hell begins

bizarre graffito: "Shampoo Story" —Anyone care to decipher?

up we go

hillside activity

It never seems to end.

"Good Attitude"

near the top of the hill

rest area at the top, right at the border between Nakseo-myeon and Burim-myeon

fantastic view from that point

I'll be walking toward that suspension bridge in the distance.

that "I'm still alive" pic

awkwardly waving goodbye to this view

Danger Guy shows the hazards of a steep slope

Someone had scrawled "China" in Chinese, and someone else has scratched it out. Korea's not happy with China these days. 

Dicks out for Big Mike! Sorry. That was unseemly. Heh.

Abandoned scooters are everywhere in this country.

Aha! Caught in flagrante delicto!

another shaman spider

dramatic death of a predator

approaching the bridge, which is under construction

ladies

evening comes

the final stretch into town

Righto—gonna have a day. Enjoy Sunday.

ADDENDUM, 6:30 p.m.: quiet day today. A stroll revealed I have lingering foot aches from yesterday that night be an issue tomorrow. Lunch was chicken, a roll of gimbap, and a sugar-free diet soda that promised to deliver fiber. After napping like a slob, I did my resistance-band/bodyweight workout (done on rest days to make sure I don't detrain too much during the walk), and other than that, it's been 2GB worth of YouTube in my WiFi-less yeogwan room—in bed and off my feet, which need every available second to recover.

Tomorrow's walk will be the longest one on my calendar: 40 km to southwest Daegu, where I'll stay two nights at the Hong-C Motel. I've put some extra padding under my left big toe; here's hoping it's enough. The little town I'm currently in (Cheondeok-myeon) has acquired a new CU convenience store, which is going to spell doom for the more old-school, Korean-style 슈퍼/shyupeo ("super") stores run by grandmas selling out-of-date stock that they're never aware enough to check (the grannies are friendly, though). Korean convenience stores may not have the romantic, mythical aura of Japanese convenience stores, but they're at least obliged to keep their stock fresh and up-to-date. I wonder how many Korean stores will still be open in a year or two. The twentysomething young man at the CU counter talked with me a bit about my walk and what I do while living in Korea. He, at least, struck me as alert.

So: southwest Daegu tomorrow. Two days after that, west Daegu, where I'll eat my favorite Chinese food. Then a long walk to Chilgok County and the Lee Motel, then a push to Gumi City, which will bring me within reach of Sangju.

Sangju, which will take me two days to get through, marks the beginning of the final phase, and final week, of this walk. From Sangju, I'll head east along the Nakdong until I reach Andong, where the Andong Dam on the city's extreme east side is my final destination. The final day of the walk ought to be enjoyable as long as there's no rain: on a good day, the dam is an awesome destination, with a great view of the Nakdong River on one side and Andong Lake on the other. 

But I've got a while before I reach that final phase. Let's worry about getting through tomorrow's 40K first.

Reminder: a link to my 2025 itinerary is on my sidebar, as are links to all of my previous long walks. There's also an educational link to a post explaining the term Gukto Jongju/국토종주, which I use fairly often. I may need to expand that into a "frequently used Korean vocab" page.

Assuming I finish the walk, my next big project (aside from getting back into Substack) will be American Thanksgiving—another day of carby indulgence, God help me.

In bed tonight at 9:30 p.m.; up at 3:30 a.m.; out the door by 4:15 a.m. Gonna be a dark, cold start to the day. Freezing temps. I may finally have to break out the chemical hand-warmers I'd brought along. Woo-hoo!