Date: September, 2012
Terrain: 1- Mostly flat river trail.
Difficulty: Easy used by children and families.
Trail/Path Conditions: Well maintained bike paths with sign posts and occasional maps.
Things to see: Biking groups and enthusiasts, a very easy quiet escape in the heart of the city into tranquil settings.
Places to eat: A couple of food stands otherwise you have to exit and go a block or two back into the city to look for a mart.
Getting there : The Geumhogang river runs east to west along the northern side of Daegu. The Sincheon dissects it in half north to south. Very easy to access either of the trails from any part of Daegu.
My Story:
Originally posted and adopted from: http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/londone7/1/1347207943/tpod.html#_
Back home in Toronto I used to do lots of biking along the Lakeshore trail which ran for about 30kms. It also branched northwards along the Don and Humber Rivers providing an extensive river biking network. I've missed having these biking trails and was envious of other korean cities such as Seoul which has a long biking trail along the Han River.
Daegu does have a downtown biking trail along the Sincheon River but I lived nowhere close enough to be able to access it. The new neighbourhood I've moved to brings me closer to the Geumhogang River. This river crosses the entire city of Daegu along the north and seperates it from the northern suburb of Chilgok. It also connects to the downtown Sincheon River.
Starting at the Paldal Bridge
One of the joys of moving to this new neighbourhood is I now have easy access to the river biking trail which runs to many parts of the city. I live close to the Paldal Bridge crossing so have the choice of going east to downtown, or west further out into the suburbs. Normally I would go in one direction but for the purpose of this entry I did a big loop going both ways.
The path is mostly paved except for a small area west of the Paldal Bridge. However, the paving seems to be going up quite fast since my last visit and should be complete in the next couple of weeks.
Under construction
Considering this is a major Korean city the path is quite tranquil and removed from the urban setting. You would think you were out in the wilderness somewhere. However there's no need to panic as other bikers will regularly pass you by, so no feeling of isolation here.
KTX passes by a baseball field
The path will continue west thru Seojae-ri towards Dasa and the end of the Green Subway Line. However, I turned around to head back downtown
Looking at Seojae-ri
Again it's very peaceful and isolated like being in the countryside, far removed from being in the city. I passed back by the KTX crossing where trains were passing at regular intervals. There are also many types of river crossings with various types of architecture
Riverside Highway
River Span Crossing
Passing back under the Paldal Bridge and new Line 3 crossing I headed towards downtown where the trail had more bikers.
Heading Eastbound to Sincheon
I passed by the Daegu Solar city and you can see the Exco further in the distance.
Daegu Solar CityTower
Shortly after you will come to the Sincheon
River crossing. Here you have the choice of going south through downtown,
or crossing the river and continuing to head east. I headed east as the
downtown path is more crowded with bikers, joggers, pets, people
strollling, and children.
Downtown Sincheon River Path
East of the Sincheon you come to an older part of the trail painted like a track and a popular fishing spot. There is also a rare sign marker indicating 4kms back to the Paldal Bridge.
Signpost Marker
Just east of the Sincheon is a strange vegetable field. It starts with many carved head totems similar to the ones in Andong.
Entrance to strange vegetable field
I now returned back as my tires were having problems so I need to get them changed as I bought this bike used. It was another 4kms back to the Paldal Bridge as the sign indicated and the sun was now beginning to set.
I've heard the trail runs from Andong to Busan (maybe 200kms) though I'm not adventurous enough to actually test if thats true. However I will continue to explore east and westbound on weekends and while the weather is good
This article was published on the Daegu Blogsite
http://globaldaegu.blogspot.kr/2012/09/biking-geumhogang-river.html
A map of the river trail has recently started to go up in some spots
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