Terrain: Flat with rolling hills. Mostly following the Bukhan River and other small tributaries.
Difficulty: 1.7, pretty easy, but there are several points where the cycle path coincides with the car road. One of us witnessed an accident (and almost got injured himself) because of a car that was forced to share the bike lane.
Trail/Path Conditions: New path. Very well paved on all bike paths. Several paths were obviously car roads that were converted to 'bike paths', however cars have permission to enter when necessary. However, there were almost no cars here, except the one that almost hit our friend.
How to get there: Start from Ungilsan Station (운길산역) or Yangsu Station (양수역) on the Jungang line (Yongmun direction). Or, start at the opposite end at Chuncheon Station on the Gyeongchun line and go in reverse to Yangpyong, Yangsu, Ungilsan, or Paldang Stations on the Jungang line.
Things to See: Semiwon in Yangsu-ri
Places to Eat: Dalkgalbi in Chuncheon
My Story:
Our first major bike ride of the spring was the Bukhangang Bike Path, which starts between Ungilsan Station and Yangsu Station on the Jungang Line, east of Seoul and ends in Chuncheon. The path is listed in the 4 Rivers Cross-Country Cycling Passport, which I will also write about soon and is approximately 70km.
This path for the most part is pretty easy. There are almost no large hills, just small rolling hills and flat riverside biking (see above). When the bike paths do meet roads (see below), cars and bikes are usually separated.
If you do have the passport, you can get your stamps in the red houses along the way which look like this. Kind of like a red telephone booth from England. Collecting stamps sounds a little cheesy until you start, but now my friends and I are total stamp collecting addicts. It's really addicting to show off your accomplishments in a nice little book.
We opted for the 'short cut' into Chuncheon. I kind of regret it now because the bike path ended early and we were stuck on streets and sidewalks clearly not meant for bikes. But, we did get to ride along side a tunnel that looked like this!
Our reward at the end of it all was Chuncheon Dalkgalbi! Chuncheon's most famous food!
We only hung about long enough to eat our dalkgalbi before we made our way home. This was a photo of how the last subway car (only the first and last subway cars are technically for bike riders) looked when we got on. By the time we got off, the number of bikes had doubled or trippled along the way picking up more cyclists at each station. It's great to see so many people enjoying the fresh air and great outdoors in Korea! Just beware of riding the subway with so many bikes, it can be hazardous!
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