Lincoln Peterson

Lately, I have been really into cycling… I don’t think there is a form of exercise more fun than cycling, especially in Korea.

Korea has great infrastructure for long distance biking, especially compared to the US and Japan, which both have some combination of qualities including dangerous, boring, or too difficult. The government built a series of bike trails all around the country which, for the most part, are not anywhere near cars and have great scenery.

Along with this, you can receive a “bike passport” for about 4000 won (about 3 dollars), which lets you track your progress on the paths using certification centers. When you finish a route, you can get a medal.

I live in Yangpyeong, so one 20 minute train ride on Gyeongi-jungang line towards the city center and I can go to the Bukhangang bicycle path.

In Chinese characters, buk( 북　北 ) means north, han ( 한　韓 ) means great, and gan ( 강　川 ) means river. So the bike path is the North Great River or North Han River. So it mainly follows the river north.

I have to get some food before we leave, and I don’t want to be bombarded by my students so I wanted to eat by the station we get off at rather than Yangpyeong station.

But for some reason, the only thing the restaurants sell is eel…? But eventually I found a restaurant that sells water dropwort (minari) pancakes and cold noodles (guksu). It’s called 돌미나리집 (Minari house)

The atmosphere is really old and there are almost no seats available. It’s for a good reason, because the price is very fair and they use fresh ingredients. I heard that minari is a bit expensive normally, but you get it as a side dish.

I ended up starting later than I anticipated, at like 1 o’clock… I was very worried there would not be enough time to get to our destination comfortably. The course takes about 4 and a half hours.

This certification center is first… It’s called Balgeun Gwangjang which means something like, “the clean square”.

After a while, the path becomes a lot more rural, but you will never go hungry or thirsty with the amount of biker cafés and convenience stores.

The first rest stop is this café along the bike path.

They sell different flavors of ice cream, coffee, and juices. The owner seemed to be listening to English radio, so I wondered if she was an Anglophile, but she didn’t talk to me in English. Anyways, I’m not from England.

Outside the café, there’s a Sakura tree. It’s not in bloom anymore because it’s June, but I noticed the berries on the tree.

It turns out you can eat the berries on a Sakura tree. They’re edible, but they don’t taste very good. They are a little bitter and sour.

There are a lot of tunnels through the mountains on the bike paths in Korea. It’s always my favorite part, because they are super cool, both in terms of temperature and atmosphere.

I forgot to take a picture of the second certification center, so let’s skip to the third.

I look excited, but actually things are about to go downhill. I only have 1 certification center to go, but it’s the furthest, about 30 km away.

June and July in Korea is the rainy season, which means sometimes it will rain on and off for days or even weeks.

Actually, I’m ok with a little rain, but it can get dangerous. Right after I got to this certification center, it started to rain a little bit…

It’s probably going to stop soon, so I thought we should just carry on. It’s just 30 km left, so maybe an hour and a half left.

The rain is going on and off, and if you look at the radar, we can hurry and get there before it starts to hit fully.

But the bike path is under construction.. So we have to go on the highway. And the highway is totally flooded…

Luckily, there is a train station nearby.

Actually, it’s unbelievable luck, because there aren’t always train stations near the bike path.

So we gave up and took the train to our destination, Chuncheon. It’s ok, because we will bike the full path again tomorrow ㅠㅠ

Time to eat some dalkkalbi because it’s famous in Chuncheon.

And go to the motel. It’s just 50,000 won for a night, so I’m pleased.

Next day, we leave a little late and have breakfast at a café.

Why do people in Korea treat it like a crime to eat a with your hands? It’s considered bad manners.

But I think a European would consider it bad manners to cut a croissant with scissors like they do here.

Anyways, it’s a little far to the first certification site when going home, because we have to go north.

I think it’s about 7 km.

But when we got there, Hyeonjeong realized she forgot her passport in the motel.

I can imagine myself doing the same thing…

And we have to take a taxi back to the motel. There’s not enough time to ride there and back.

I realized it was a good idea to give up the first day. The distance from where we were to the finish is very far, and it doesn’t include the time to get back to the city.

The scenery in Chuncheon is much more beautiful. There’s a lot of mountains along the river.

And time for some lunch in Gangcheon.

I started paying attention to the foliage around and I realized there were a lot of wild wineberry plants on the side of the road.

Wineberries native to East Asia are a lot like raspberries, but not as good as the European raspberries. You can look out for them if you come to Korea and try them.

But after that, the last 15 km or so, I started to get some rough knee pain. It happened to me before, but the last time it happened, it was a lot sooner. I guess I’m building up endurance, but it’s frustrating. I finished the rest of the course in pain.

By the time I got home I couldn’t walk up the stairs well because of the pain in my right knee, so I decided to call off work the next day.

But the next day, It was painful, but I realized it was not bad enough to call off work. I felt guilty all day. I have only called off work once or twice and have come into work sick or often injured, so I think people thought it was something serious.

And apparently my coteacher had told the other teachers that I got in a bike accident, even though I told her I had very bad pain from biking, so when I came back fairly normal it was kind of embarrassing.

Anyways, don’t think I will call off work again after this.