Wednesday, May 17, 2017

Walk Thoughts #225: walking into Busan

Today, the distance countdown was important to me, so you'll be seeing plenty of kilometer markers.

The walk started off as beautifully as it usually has this whole trip, but what was funny and sad was how the quality of the path's maintenance deteriorated the moment I crossed the Busan municipal border. The path went from smooth and well-maintained to cracked and lumpy.

Today's walk was a smooth finish to what has been an occasionally bumpy ride. The final 28 km were generally a breeze. According to my boss, I avoided a rainstorm that hit the Ulsan area.

Much of the final leg was a straight-line path under the cover of trees. The path itself was beautiful, but on either side, there were noisy six-lane highways.

I was generally elated to be doing my final day, but one downer was that people didn't want to greet me when I bowed to them. Up to Yangsan, most of the bikers I passed would at least nod back at me whenever I tilted my head at them. Today, acknowledgement of my presence was a rare thing: perhaps only 1 out of 4 people returned my greetings. Most people simply stared stonily ahead. I wonder why.

Of special note: about 2-3 km south of Yangsan is an enormous, beautiful park. I would definitely like to visit it again someday.






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