Day 17, Leg 17

Today took me from the edge of Pohang to, well, the edge of downtown Pohang. Once again, I was forced to dodge a lot of traffic, and then I had to deal with entering Pohang proper, with all the urbanization that that entailed. On the east-coast route, there's just no escaping people. But at least I finally had Chinese food for lunch. Once I'm back in Seoul, that sort of thing will be for cheat days only. Some stats:

Distance: about 24 km

Time: 380 minutes

Steps: 36,663

Calories Burned: 4,994

Calories Consumed: 4,414 (deficit = 580)

Today, I went overboard with the eating after I managed to find a Chinese place at lunchtime, so for the rest of this trip, I'm going to have to dial things back and prepare for my return to Seoul. Like you (I assume), I'm curious to see how much weight I've lost over the course of this journey down South Korea's east side. At a guess, not much, if any. I think I lost a lot of weight during previous trips because there was so much weight to lose, with a lot of the loss coming from water weight. This trip, I started basically 60 pounds (27 kg) lighter and in better cardiovascular condition than I've been in since college. So any loss from here until my goal weight of 90 kg is going to be hard-earned.

The day started out quietly, as always. I left White Whale Pension at 5:28 a.m., texting the manager on my way out, as promised. She didn't text back until the afternoon. I like the early-morning portion of my walk because the traffic is so sparse, and I'm also usually full of energy and optimism at the beginning of the day. (Ask me how things are eight hours later.)

Within forty minutes of starting today's walk, I solved one lingering mystery: are there cert centers between Pohang and Busan? The answer is a clear yes because I found one, right there at Weolpo Beach. Unfortunately, the damn booth was locked, so I couldn't get a stamp. In fact, when I looked in the booth, I didn't see the usual stamp, stamp pad, and scrap paper for testing the stamp's ink. I have a feeling that this cert center is about to be moved. Why do the trail minders keep doing that? Anyway, I took a pic of the booth itself, so yes, the booth exists, and I was there to see it.

As happened the previous day, sunrise was obscured by clouds, but the sun gave us a show once it rose above the cloud layer. No weird or interesting interactions on the road today, and the terrain wasn't very hilly. In all, this was a fairly straightforward walk. It did involve dodging some traffic, which is always irksome, but once I veered close to downtown Pohang, there were plenty of sidewalks. 

Pohang is a port city and a huge industrial center, so I walked by a lot of properties with huge, warehouse-esque buildings and heavy-duty machinery. I took photos as I went, and one security guard at one of the properties clapped his hands to get my attention so he could warn me to stop shutterbugging. I stopped, and then I passed by a sign that said "no unauthorized photography" in both Korean and English. I behaved myself until I was past all the heavy industry. I certainly don't want to be accused of spying.

The last few kilometers of today's walk took place inside the city, close to if not in the downtown area. I ended up passing a touristy area that I had visited years ago with my buddy Charles and his wife. The statues of the same two hemorrhoidal mythical creatures were there, puffy anuses still exposed under their raised, mace-like tails, while they guarded a short bridge leading to an observation deck that allows people to look out across the water. (Nothing to see but more heavy industry.) I snapped pics of roses and sculptures as I walked. I should have taken a selfie of me impishly tonguing one of the creatures' swollen buttholes, but I suspect the locals wouldn't react well to my notion of high art.

The final visit to a convenience store, right before my motel, brought me face-to-face with a nice lady at the register who asked about my walk (having this tee shirt as an ad for the walk was a smart move because it's proved to be a conversation starter) and gave me some yeonyanggaeng candy for free. Not my favorite candy (the texture is like a heavy, waxy dotori-muk, or acorn jelly, that becomes a bit gritty when you chew on it). Still, the lady herself was nice. (A store manager earlier in the day also made some conversation. We talked a bit about foot pain; she used to be a distance walker herself.)

I'm at the Queen Motel (also called Motel Queen, per my complaint in the previous post), which is a very good deal for only W40,000. Got here a bit before 2 p.m., even after taking my time eating Chinese food. I essentially worked a double shift yesterday, finishing up the Day 15 entry and doing the entire Day 16 entry, so it's nice to be back to doing only one entry per day. I'll get to sleep early tonight.

Oh, yes: I did have a random, superstitious thought about walking around curves while I was on the road and dealing with traffic: when you're walking around a curve, you can't see past it, and this very ignorance is what generates all the cars that come around the curve at you. Once you get around the curve and find yourself in a straightaway, the cars stop coming, or if they do come, they come only in ones and twos, never in fours and fives like when you're walking around a curve. And on a straightway, you can see any cars while they're far away. The ability to see far limits the number of cars that come at you.

So there's my superstitious insight. Call it Murphy's Law of Road Curves: if you're rounding a bend, you'll be assailed by cars in groups of four or five at a time, forcing you to hunker in place as they pass, but if you're on a straightaway, cars will only come in ones and twos, if that.

One last thought: I've been coming around to the use of rain-head shower heads. I used to think of these as frou-frou affectations and a waste of time, so for years, I never used them in motels. Now, though, I've come around, and I use them whenever I get the chance. They're awesome, and I'd love to have one for my own bathroom.

So those are my thoughts for the day. Quite a jumble. Here are today's images.

PHOTO ESSAY

initial grainy pic

I think most or all of these lights are on land, not from squid boats.

Jesus' lightsaber

How can anyone camp directly under a streetlight?

evocations of Poseidon get my attention

Koreans and their love of abstract sculpture

the beach I'm passing through

Koreans call the combination of pizza and fried chicken pichi (pronounced "peachy").

some garbage to balance out the beauty

And here's the Pohang Weolpo cert center. So these centers do exist between Pohang and Busan.

But as you see, the cert center is locked. No stamp for Kevin.

hairy shwimteo

sunrise soon

Pohang, 24 km away even though I'm in Pohang.

howler

partner in crime just standing there like a dumbass... but I salute his calm because Jindo dogs are usually nervous and excitable, so meeting a calm Jindo is a rare treat

And that's about it for the sunrise.

but a few minutes later...

zooming back

Several other people had come out to see the sun. They were still staring when I turned around to leave.

world's rustiest door

a few minutes after I resumed walking

dining area

My buddy JW is a POSCO man.

I do love those pine groves. 

This is a hill, but it's not bad.

I'm lucky to have this much shoulder.

Why I don't trust signs: Pohang is still 24 km away (remember the previous sign).

old arfer, seeing me and barking too late, just like all the other "watchdogs"

shameless use of Disney properties

I gotcha, Woody

almost no shoulder

Iga Village... one of the most aggressive markers I've ever seen

patience... the rice harvest will be in a few weeks

moving back down to the water's edge

This one just stared.

A photo of the yeoin-bawi (여인 바위), or woman rock. The rock is right next to this lodging.

Yeoin-bawi. Why aren't there thousands of tourists flocking here, looking for a blessing or something?

strikingly green moss

reminiscent of molars

I'm not sure I get this. The verb 그립다 (geuripda) is "to miss [someone]," so maybe the poem/graffito is saying, "Did I miss you, or did I miss that time?" There's some wordplay going on here with "you" (그대/geudae) and "that time" (그때/geuddae).

digital zoom!

another tiny house?

very cool, and mostly anatomically correct

... which makes this a real disappointment

mysterious equipment

crab pots, I presume

Second time seeing "Damoa"... which means what?

another arfer—wouldn't want my leg gnawed on by this monster

Heunghae-eup—another village, I guess

creepy, eyeless bear holds vigil

that couch

guilty dawg

DMZ Pension

another minor hill

If you can't sound out Korean, you don't know that these three signs are basically all in English. From left to right: "Holy Moley," "The Ocean," "Play Beach."

weird rooftops

weird rooftops (front)

"Someone actually lives here?" is a question I often ask myself when I take pics of presumed residences.

didn't arf

an observation deck beneath me

love the pics of falling people

Do Not Disturb

church vs. temple competition

A group of guys in this area told me the road was blocked off while they waited for some special vehicle to arrive, so I had to detour.

the detour

Tacky art is still art.

no shoulder to speak of, and watch as the sign problem repeats itself (here: Pohang, 16 km)

The sign refers to Mushim Temple (mushim = no mind, an important concept in Zen). I briefly wondered whether this was the same Mushim Temple I'd encountered on the Four Rivers trail in 2017. I don't think it is; the geography doesn't work out. But for a brief second, I had the wild idea of skipping over to the Four Rivers trail to complete this walk.

glove, subdued

See? Pohang is still 16 km away. Who makes these signs, and what are they smoking?

teeny wind turbine

got this shot...

...and got this shot before the security guard saw me

slowly moving from industrial outskirts to downtown

onward

fascinating patterns of falling rock

I'm always looking for reassurance that I'm on the right path.

a very wide street

another Buddhist temple that doesn't look like a temple

Does the grub know about Grub Hub?

At this point, I think I have maybe 3-4 kilometers to go to my destination.

Flags out for Harambe!

Things are about to get much more urban.

soccer field (and don't tell me "soccer" is an Americanism: it comes from the British term "association football," reduced to "soci/socky," and from there to "soccer"—British!)

moving more fully into town now

a silhouette is all you get today, alas

not sure why, but am suddenly feeling a DC vibe

Sunglasses Superman has gone from wrestling his supercrabs to fighting angry alien teacups.

I ordered a medium tangsuyuk, which came with complimentary fried mandu.

tangsuyuk

the resto

bridge leading to observation deck

hemorrhoidal guardians

That's quite a flareup. Let me lick it.

Give blood.

Some of the roses in the nearby rose garden look pretty rough, as if they've seen some shit.

I never promised you a...

Footloose time!

my motel (don't be fooled by the word "hotel")

vaguely raunchy art in the lobby (mood setter?)

The elevator floor asks, "What's your sign?"

art and quote

dignity of quote sucked away by dangling electric cord

view out my window: "Thai" massage

looking down

looking over

looking the other way

your humble narrator

the gift given by the convenience-store lady