Day 21, interlude

Calm before the storm. I begin my four-day, 90K trek along the Nakdong River from Sangju to Andong tomorrow. I have my bus ticket; I'll be leaving at 4:30 and arriving around 7 p.m. for a late hike of about 10.5K to my motel for the evening. 10.5K means close to 2.5 hours' walking at my post-stroke speed, so I'll arrive around 9:30 p.m. Still, such a distance is relatively short, so this will be more of a stroll than a real walk. On Friday, I'll walk 25K along the Nakdong River; Saturday's walk will be 20K, then on Sunday, it's a long, 33K trek to the dam, plus some extra mileage as I cross town to reach my motel. Monday, I'll head back to Seoul either by bus or by train, and that will be that for walk projects this year. Oh, I'll still be doing some lengthy walks once I'm back at my place, but nothing like the Jeju Olle or a long march along the Nakdong.

Here's a photo of the back of the walk tee I've been wearing:

image almost all gone (compare with fresh shirt here)

As I mentioned before, I'll have to design two shirts for every walk now: one shirt will have both front and back designs on it, but the other shirt—the one I'll wear on a given hike—will have only the front image so I don't experience what happened this trip, i.e., all that dandruff-like flaking as the back image rubbed off. My little backpack ended up being a lot more abusive toward my shirt than my big Gregory backpack ever was toward previous shirts. Lesson learned.

I'll be taking three days' worth of dried food with me; on the fourth day, I'll be in Andong City, so I can easily find restaurants while there. Andong, the region, is known as the most traditional and conservative part of Korea, with a deep sense of history. I might have to put on my tourist hat on Monday morning so I can see some sights before I step onto the Seoul-bound bus or train. If you know anything about Andong and what sights I might see (within a reasonably walkable distance), let me know in the comments. And if Andong has any food-related specialties, I want to know about those, too.

I'm hoping this hike will prove to be as good as, if not better than, the hikes I did on Jeju-do. The weather in Seoul is definitely cooler than what I'd experienced down south, and I'm hopeful that the upcoming walk will be full of fall colors running along the local river valley.