Saturday 60: It’s been a while…

It’s been just under a year since my last good tree hunt. The Wonju Monster and five other stories on the 14th of November last year with Eric, Chris, and Joon. It was a great ride, but when we got to the monster, it had already shed its leaves.

The thing about Gingkos is that for a short period in the fall they turn a bright yellow (you can see the remnants on the ground in the picture above). So I thought I’d be smart and plan a ride back a bit earlier. I figured, if all of the leaves were down on the 14h of November last year, this must be the weekend to go.

Well, not quite. The Monster’s leaves were just beginning to change. But it was still in leaf, and sometime next week, it might just be spectacular. I might even drive up next weekend.

Still, I had a great ride. Unfortunately, I was on my own — no one else could make it. But they missed out for sure. It truly was a tree hunt — I picked up two trees (both with interesting stories) that we had to miss last year when we cut our ride short. Plus, I rode past Empress Myeonseong’s birthplace (quite early — it was closed) and King Saejeong’s grave (too far off the road to really see). Besides, when I ride, I seldom pay to go into a historical site — I can’t not take my time in them, and 100km (what I ended up doing today) takes enough time as it is. Gotta get home at a reasonable time — especially when I start my ride over an hour away. I’ll definitely have to go back though. This is prime Korean history. Now I’ve just got to convince Micha to go.

I learned something about Yi-ch’eon today too. Last year, as we were leaving the city, my GPS was all over the place and we ended up doing a good mile or two extra before we even got out of town. Today, I couldn’t get it to connect at all for a good mile, so I restarted it. In reality, I probably did a few kilometers over 100, but the first bit didn’t count. So yeah — Yi-ch’eon is in some kind of dark zone that messes with your Garmin. Or maybe just my Garmin.

Anyway, lots of pictures today, so here you go…

This was supposed to be the first stop, but I skipped it

Well, here’s a picture of what it looks like

All I could get was a shot over the fence

Going to cross the Han River on this bridge. No one there yet this morning.

It was a beautiful morning. Not a good sky for pics, but still…

The Monster. My bike in front for scale. Pretty much identical spot from where the other picture at the beginning of this piece was taken.

From another angle. You can see it beginning to turn yellow.

Much like the Empress’s birthplace, all I could get of the King’s tomb was a parking lot sign…

Usually the breaking of branches doesn’t end well for the breaker…

River crossing. The rails worked quite well.

The second story. A Manchurian Ash — a first for me.

But not the first baby-bringing tree. There’s another one on the northern outskirts of Yi-ch’eon that I found a couple of years ago on my first Yi-ch’eon ride.

Bonus — nearly back to the parking lot and i look to the right and see this beauty — a 300-year-old Zelkova

And it doesn’t hurt that one of these is on the way home…

I almost forgot to mention that I met my annual goal during this ride. Over the past couple of years I was hitting my goal of 5,000 km so easily that I decided to make it 5,000 miles for 2021. I’ve still got two months left in the year, so I wonder how far it’ll take me. I’m thinking somewhere around 5,500…