Day 19, Leg 18 (2)

A few shots from today as I enjoy a day of rest before I'm back on the trail tomorrow:

a windy moment between bouts of rain

monument from a different angle

same resto I visited yesterday

I opted for the sea-urchin bibimbap

never had sea urchin before; not bad

an old, rickety home

a pic of the resto where I ate twice

I've thought a bit more about the schedule from now until the end. At this point, I have a week to go before October 13, my final day of walking. Because of my revised schedule, three of those days will now be over 30K in length. Given what I now know about what a workhorse I've become since May, I'm going to stick to the crazy plan to walk all of those 30+K days (instead of just extending the walk an extra day and not lengthening any segments) because I now know the price will simply be slightly achy feet and a bit more tiredness. Losing all that weight really did make a huge difference in how I experience my walks, so if nothing else beneficial comes from this experience, at least there's that knowledge. 

However, as John McCrarey noted in his most recent comment, I have a lot of inherent control and flexibility with this walk. That's partly because of my reduced weight, but also partly because it's so easy just to walk a few extra kilometers to find lodging if I can't find something at my planned destination. Along the Four Rivers trail, there's much less flexibility in that regard. So if I need to revise plans again between now and the end, I won't stress about it.

Not sure if any of you actually paid attention to how I had originally planned this walk for myself, but my second-to-last day on the trail ends at the Westin Chosun in Busan. So yes, I plan to indulge in the material comforts of civilization that day (expensive hotel, but hopefully no mosquitoes this time), and then the final day of the walk will involve traversing Busan—inland—to reach the Nakdong River Estuary. To be honest, I don't know whether that point is considered the official end of the east-coast trail, but it's where I've chosen to end my walk. 

So we're down to the final week. My belt is telling me that I probably haven't lost any weight, but I bet my blood glucose, at the end of every day, is pretty low. Despite all the indulgences I've allowed myself on the trail, food-wise, I'm actually impatient to get back to a stricter regime once I'm back home. Seven more walking days to go.

ADDENDUM: I went out twice today in the rain, which was sporadic. The prevailing condition was wind, and by the beach, the sea was angry and agitated. They're forecasting a nice, calm, hot day tomorrow, then we're back to rain the day after that.