cycling across Korea day 7: Daegu to Yangsan

It’s a good thing I stopped where I did yesterday, because the morning started out with a fairly big climb and it was nice to tackle it on fresh legs.

I still needed to walk a fair amount, though in my defense it was because I found myself on my first patch of dirt road. I thought I had made a wrong turn so I checked Naver maps — but it looked like I was on the right track.

What goes up usually comes back down, and so I found myself on a fairly fast decent on some rough pavement. Thank god for disc brakes. After rolling through some dirt or mud I’m not sure if rim brakes would be able to stop very well with all the weight I have on the bike.

This part of the ride is strangely rural even though it’s between two huge cities, Daegu and Busan that are only a little over an hour apart by car. In some places it felt like I’d gone back in time. Some of the buildings kind of look like the buildings you see in historical Korean dramas.

After the short super rural section I was back on really nice pavement. It seemed like I was rolling through a farming village.

I was back riding along the river. This part of the bicycle path is on the levy. It’s really well paved here and the scenery is breathtaking.

I found myself on another climb. This one was pretty steep so I had to walk, and this time it wasn’t because it was unpaved. Seeing this sign made me feel better — 13% is pretty steep so I was okay with walking it.

There was a nice little rest area at the top of the climb with a nice view of the valley below. It seems like this is a climb that a lot of cyclists like to challenge themselves on, because I saw a lot of marks scratched into the concrete wall near the top of the climb with peoples names and times.

After descending I found myself riding along the river again. Here the bike path is built almost right on top of the river.

After riding through some pretty rural areas today I ended the day in a really urban area. I’m in Yangsan, which is actually almost like a suburb of Busan. The Busan subway system actually even connects to Yangsan, so if I wanted to I could have dinner with my relatives tonight.

I decided against taking the subway into town though. I was pretty exhausted by the time I made it to my hotel. I think it was my longest day so far in terms of riding time, second longest in terms of distance, but combined with the highest in terms of elevation gain. So yeah, I’m pretty exhausted. But I’m so close to the finish!