Dong River Road

By Matt Witherspoon


Date: 6/16/13

Terrain: Cement and paved road

Difficulty: 2

Trail/Path Conditions: Rough cement road

How to get there: Drive or bus to Jeongseon

Accomodations: Yogwans in Jeongseon, minbaks along the river

Things to see: Cliffs, whitewater, deer, rafters

Places to eat: Cheap restaurants in Jeongseon, expensive “gardens” along river

My story:

One of my Korean bucket list items before I leave in August was to ride this really nice 20 km stretch of the Dong River, between Jeongseon and Yemi, in Gangwodo. It’s highway 424/Donggang-ro, on my map. I’ve been on the road several times over the years on motorcycles and in cars, and even down the river in a raft, but never have cycled it. I have a car, so I parked at the ranger station at the south end of the road, where Donggang-ro and Yeonpo-gil intersect. If you don’t have a car, then you’ll probably have to take a bus to Jeongseon and back track 5 km west on highway 42 to the river road.

The way I went there’s a small climb before you drop down along the river and then it’s smooth sailing. It’s mostly a cement road, with some potholes and broken up bits, and a few km of new asphalt. I was on a hardtail mountain bike with 2.0” semi-slicks and was glad for the big tires most of the time.

 There are rafting groups floating by every so often to wave at, and a zip line overhead to watch at one point. A bonus on my ride was scaring a deer into the river and watching it swim across. If you have the legs, there’s a new “sky bridge” on top of one cliff, but I can only guess as to how hard that climb is.

When I got to the north end of the road, where it intersects highway 42, I crossed to the west side of the river to see if there was a connection to Jeongseon. Unfortunately, it eventually dead ended at the river after about 3 km. That was as far as I could go north.

So, with that bonus section I put in 54 km in just over 2 hours, not trying to set any records. I saw two other groups of riders, one on cheap folding bikes, and one going the other way on mountain bikes, all with smiles. I encountered three or four tour buses and about 10 cars in my two hours of riding, and that was on a Sunday. I’d expect less during the week. There’s quite of bit going on in Jeongseon, with the rail bike, zip line, and rafting, so you could easily make a full weekend out of a trip there.