This fall, I’m going to be riding my bike the length of South Korea, from the port of Incheon to the southeastern coast in Busan. It’s roughly 400 miles along mostly paths separated from the road.
Riding Korea’s Cross-Country Trail is something that’s been on my mind for years. When I last lived in Korea more than a decade ago, I remember riding along the Han River on my days off from work and imagining just continuing to ride off into the countryside. Plans for a nationwide network of bike paths were just beginning to take shape back then, and now are a reality.
A big part of my motivation for riding this route is to experience the country in ways that I never did while living in Seoul. Sure, I’ve seen the country between Seoul and Busan, but the express KTX train blazes through the heartland at such speed that almost everything is a blur. A glimpse of a man fishing next to a river, then, fwoosh. At a bicycle pace, you can take things in, say hello to people, and feel more connected with the landscape.
The route is pretty established and reportedly well marked; there’s even a system along the way where you stamp a passport at different checkpoints. All of which is to say that this is not exactly adventure cycling in the way that some might conceive it. All the same, I’m planning to bike the route solo and am organizing the ride myself – of course, with the help of many resources on the internet, and the kind advice of previous riders I’ve contacted.
I’ll be posting information that I gather on a dedicated page, listing questions and hopefully answers as I pin down the logistical details of my journey. I’m also planning to post about my training, gear, and other preparations. Although many riders have reported good experiences using various bike rental services in Korea, for now my plan is to take my own bike. With plans to clock roughly 60 miles/day for the span of a week, I think I’ll value the comfort and familiarity of being on my own ride. That brings its own hurdles, but ones that are (probably) surmountable.
After years of pondering this ride, plans to actually get out the door and do it came together pretty quickly. It’s strange how when you reach a certain age – I’m over 40 – the notion of time as something infinitely flexible suddenly seems to vanish. One day I looked at the calendar, thought about how the expanse of free time I was waiting for was never going to materialize, and realized that this ride was never going to get any easier. I found myself on the Korean Air website hitting “purchase” before I knew what I was committing to.
In that way, this trip not really about the endurance or achievement. It’s not even about whether I finish the route, though I certainly intend to. It’s about making room in this short life for the things that feel important. As I’ll write about more as I go along, Korea has long been a big part of my life. I’m looking forward to moving through the country more slowly and seeing it from a different perspective.