May 16, 2022
Crush collision march: 속초[Sokcho]-춘천[Chuncheon]-가평읍[Gapyeong-eup]
The original plan was to sleep in late, basking in the comfort of the condo. We should know ourselves better by now. Awake at 5:30 (well after sunrise here), eating breakfast at 6:00. We did take our time, and I think we were out the door at about 8:30 to catch the 9:30 bus. We made it with plenty of time to spare.
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Once on the expressway, it felt like 90% of the route was tunnels. I mean, there were a lot of tunnels, and they were long. Good for us! This is a very mountainous country, after all.
We get to the bus terminal at 춘천[Chuncheon], and Sunyoung feels rushed to get all our gear unloaded. So rather than unload, cart everything over, then return to close the cargo bay doors, we kind of do everything all at once. The bus starts to move while we still have a couple of bags on the pavement. Sure enough, like an angry elephant, the bus chooses a single pannier and stomps it thoroughly with its rear tire.
Which one was it? Let's find out. Whew, it's the one with the air mattress. The pannier itself appears none the worse for wear. If it had been the one with the fuel canister, it wouldn't have exploded, but it may have burst and left the pannier smelling like butane for the next century.
We had recently heard of this dish called 감자 옹심이[gamja ongshimi], a 강원도[Gangweon-do] specialty. It's a thick soup with gnocchi-type potato dumplings and Korean zucchini. The two shops we tried in 고성[Goseong] were both closed. Sunyoung found two places near the 춘천[Chuncheon] bus terminal that serve it. We headed straight towards the closest one. The place was packed. We knew we had found the best in town.
A creekside trail was close by. We followed it to the river. Getting to the start of the 북한강 (North Han River) path, a 10km journey, was its own adventure.
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...and we're back in the stamp game! Time to start filling up a new page in the passport.
The scenery was georgeous. We fought a headwind, but the path was flat and we were well-fed. We made decent progress. There's an expressway and a railway that also hug the edge of the canyon. The trains make it easy for urban bikers to come up for weekend rides.
At the end of this long bridge, another stamp awaits!
We had just pushed off from this booth when Sunyoung spotted camping decks off to the left. We debated whether to check it out. Not knowing what lay ahead, we agreed that if it was open and if it was cheap, we'd end today's ride here. At 15,000₩, we were hooked. It'll make for a long day tomorrow, but we'll get up early, grab those two last stamps, and tour the north side of the 한강 (Han River) until we reach our destination hotel. I think it'll be about 87km. Totally doable.
One more surprise awaited us today. The air mattress, which we figured would survive a bus stomp, was not a happy camper. I patched up two obvious holes, but it's still deflating, albeit much more slowly. It's either a pinhole leak somewhere else, or the patches aren't fully doing their job [Update: once home, I determined that it was the manufacturer-supplied patches that failed. I used materials that we had on hand during the tour to fix it: cement from an innertube patch kit, covered with Tenacious tape that I keep to repair panniers that might rip. So we don't have to toss the sleeping pad!]. We're grateful to be sleeping on this deck tonight rather than a pad of gravel, or worse, tree roots.
We might camp one more time, at the place we had planned to stay at along the Ara Waterway path in 인천[Incheon]. Otherwise, I guess this is our last hurrah. It'll leave us with memories of frogs croaking and the gentle hum of the trains as they pass by.
I feel like we've finally learned how to be real tourists, stopping to smell the roses and all that jazz. Stamp collecting is starting to feel less like a road rally and more like a scavenger hunt.
Today's ride: 51 km (32 miles)
Total: 1,144 km (710 miles)
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