Day 5, Leg 5

Hard to believe it's already been five days. I had a very short walk today, barely qualifying as a stroll, so I arrived at my destination early enough to have lunch at a proper time, but too early to think about getting a motel room. I'm currently sitting at the beach (Gyeongpo Beach, specifically) and writing this entry. By the time I'm done, and have uploaded and captioned the day's photos, it'll be time for me to mosey over to a motel. In the meantime, let's begin with our stats:

Distance: about 15 km

Time: about 4 hours (roughly 6:50 a.m. to 10:50 a.m., but I did spend 30 minutes resting at one point)

Steps: 24,927

Calories Burned: 3,812

Calories Consumed: 2,613 (deficit = 1,199)

Some of the day's high calories come from cheese, which is generally keto. The rest of the nutrients (macro and otherwise) came from whatever I could find at the local convenience stores that was even halfway nutritious. It was a shame to eat convenience-store food after passing so many restaurants and coffee shops, but I'm really not in the mood for sashimi given how ubiquitous it is along the coast. I did pass one burger joint, but the hour was way too early for lunch. What a shame. 

Is it possible to get sick of something simply because it's everywhere? I'm already tired of sashimi, and I've had only one serving of 물회/mulhoe. Everywhere, there are restaurants serving some form of raw fish, and if not raw fish, then maeuntang or some other familiar stew involving fish with all the bones still in. One place was serving 알탕/al-tang, a personal favorite that I'm unlikely ever to get bored of, but as with the burger joint, I passed this restaurant too early in the day. 

Like yesterday, there were a few scattered spots where traffic and people were minimal, but the general rule today (as with the previous four days) was civilization, civilization, civilization. This also means there's plenty of pollution along the route, and it's been hard not to give in to my cynicism and just document the piles of garbage that frequently punctuate the coast. When I take certain photos, in fact, I'll nudge the camera angle away from a pile of trash just to keep the schmutz out of frame. As you'll see when I eventually put up the full photo essays for each day, though, I don't always try to avoid the issue of garbage. Garbage is just part of this particular route, and I can't stand in judgment: America has its pollution problems, too. Like in Korea, some places are worse than others. I wonder how the trash situation would change if people could be paid to pick up and deposit trash in designated areas. Would that provide enough motivation?

Riffing off yesterday's insight about the general lack of urban planning, I hope you're noticing, through my photos, the close proximity of the tourism and fishing industries, which often operate cheek-by-jowl. Wharves can be found right down the street from surfboard-rental offices, coffee shops, and restaurants.

Another thing I've noticed is how much less smelly the route has been compared to last December. Last year, during my two-day reconnoiter, hanging fish were everywhere. Is there a season for this? I guess it would make sense not to leave your catch to fester out in the hot sun. By drying fish in the wintry air, you take advantage of natural refrigeration. 

Navigation today simply meant hugging the coastline, although there was one point where I had to swing away from the ocean for a good bit. No major hills to report today. I think I started off at the northern edge of Gangneung, and I'm now closer to the city's southern edge. As with navigating the Four Rivers trail, you have to try pretty hard to get lost, what with the big water providing you with the world's most obvious landmark. Keep the water to your left, and you'll be okay. 

Actually, speaking of water: there's another coastal lake right behind me called Gyeongpo-ho. This one definitely has a perimeter trail, so I've put the lake on my list of lakes to think about hiking later.

And now, Dear Reader, I suppose the time has come to provide you with your daily dose of photos, so here's another twenty for your delectation.

I ended up watching the sunrise from my room, after all. Weather.com put today's sunrise at 6:12 a.m., and right on cue, the sun popped up.

For the first pic, I zoomed in digitally. Here's a wider shot.

sky reflected in tidal pool

all in a row

There's no escaping the seafood out here. 

Are they really saying they're selling dolphin meat?

the works of Man versus the big sky

garishly colored

tempted by ass crack, turned off by lack of vocative comma

I'm starting to really like these little pine forests, which have been ubiquitous on the trail up to now. The Four Rivers path also had some such woods, but not nearly as many. 

through the trees, to the sea

Are we in Alaska, now?

The little, arched bridge connecting the tiny rock outcropping to the shore fascinated me.

Engrish

No lack of cafés along the coast. This one was particularly colorful.

Once again, I'm stumped by the marketing. First, there's "Lamer." This is probably an attempt at the French "la mer," i.e., the sea (with a space between the definite article "la" and the noun "mer"). Instead, the result is lamer, i.e., more lame. And then there's the horse logo. What does a horse have to do with the sea? (Obvious joke answer: seahorse.) Some idiot committee thought this was a good idea.

not far from the ocean

today's cert center

final stretch to my probable motel

the view from where I was blogging just now

ADDENDUM: a word about hotels versus motels in Korea. This may apply to the States as well. For a hotel, you will almost certainly pay more than you will for a motel. Motels can be anywhere from the W35,000 to W90,000 range. Above that, and you're talking pensions and hotels (yesterday's place was listed online as a motel but turned out to be an expensive pension). Now you might pay a premium to stay in a hotel, but this is no guarantee of quality. In my first visit to the Suanbo area, I stayed at the huge tourist hotel there, and everything was bad: the room was humid and poorly ventilated, and there were plumbing problems in the bathroom. There was also no A/C, which I  found surprising after shelling out all that cash. After that, I only ever stayed in the cheaper (and better) motels in the area. Today, I had originally put down my destination as the Gyeongpo Beach Tourist Hotel, but when I got to the area, I saw some lowlier-looking motels and decided to follow my instincts. The motel I'm in is called simply the Gangneung J Motel. It's W60,000 instead of whatever ungodly sum I'd have paid to stay at the other place.* The bathroom has no toilet paper, but I always come prepared, and I have my own. There's a working A/C, which is a plus, and there's a plug right next to my bed, which is a huge plus for bedside charging. The soap bar in the bathroom was covered in hair when I arrived, but I'm no longer easily grossed out by such things; thirty seconds of rinsing later, and Bob's your uncle. Clean soap. My room is apparently a double; it has two beds. All my stuff is sitting on the bed I'm not using, which makes everything easier to keep track of. So all in all, I think I'm better off where I am, despite this place's shortcomings.

where I almost stayed

where I actually am

ADDENDUM 2: went for a stroll this evening, first to the lakeside, then out to the darkened beach. Both Jupiter and Venus seem to be shining strongly tonight. I knew how to find Jupiter in the sky already, but I had to use Google Sky to look up the other bright light and discover it was Venus. Mercury was in the same sector, but Google Sky said it was below the horizon, like the sun itself. But what really struck me was the moon, which I don't think I've ever seen rising above the ocean horizon before. Below are two attempts at photographing the moon (I wasn't the only person trying to do this); neither picture does justice to what the scene really looked like. In real life, you could clearly see the moon's features.

Just wow. A sunrise, then this, on the same day. Cosmic.

__________

*The other place, according to my 여기어때 app, has a deal for W78,000. I'm having trouble registering for 여기어때 right now, so I wouldn't have been able to take advantage of the deal, anyway.

PHOTO ESSAY

murals in every town

sorry for the blur

clay pots/jars

"Ace 24-Hour Health Spa Land"

Jumunjin Port sculpture

no lack of dried food

skates

so long as they're not actually hunting whales

something disturbing about the severed fish head

an ad for lemon-herb streamed crab (I thought 대게/dae gae might mean "king crab," but Google Translate suggests "snow crab")

Is 해파랑/haeparang "blue sea," "blue sun," or something else entirely? Whatever it is, this seems to be another name for the bike path I'm following. 

This seems like some giant's disembodied fingertip. 

just sit and lounge

Are these emplacements really abandoned, or can they be made active again?

garish colors

"Out of consideration for others, no cooking, campfires, or camping." This sort of sign is routinely ignored.

ass crack, vocative comma

What are these flame-shaped flowers?

Pine Scent Campground

love these pine forests

how Gangneung markets itself

The King lives on!

birds, sand, waves, surfboards, and cigarette butts

observation deck/steps to nowhere

burger joint that I would love to have eaten at

trash collectors in action

masonry and ivy-covered stone = very European

"the Ciel" is interlinguistically ungrammatical

Is that "사랑" (love)?

Trying to figure out the hanja for something (i.e., the Chinese) is often a hoot. Sacheon could be "four thousand," or maybe "stream (cheon/천) of death (sa/사)."

I think these used to be topiary.

That settles it: 4000.

There are a lot of these wavy symbols all along the coast. Do they represent the coast's wavy shoreline?

colorful coffee shop

I discussed my problem with Lamer above.

"You protect yourself by social distancing and using a mask; the consideration you show to those who are next to you is [also] a social promise."

burial mounds in unlikely places

weird geometry

see the tires?

for my buddy Mike: the Camino

lots of camping and campers everywhere

Trying to snap photos while avoiding cars was frustrating at times.

final stretch

the day's goal

corona, so no water

the Korean love of abstract sculpture

just a name, I hope

freshwater lake on the other side of the path

closeup of the weird island-thing in the lake

seals? really?

where I almost stayed

where I stayed

moonrise 1

moonrise 2