We left the creature comforts of our wonderful motel stay behind and continued on re-energized. We stopped by a cafe that was just opening up right along the river cycling road we were on. There was a sports park along this part as well with climbing walls, tennis courts and playgrounds. I had a honey toast with coffee while Tori and Sally shared a ham and cheese sandwich. After our light breakfast, we rode on to clear sunny skies and the route was mostly along the river today according to the map.
The flowers were in full bloom so there were several sections of the cycling road that were quite amazing with yellow flowers gently swaying in the wind on both sides of the path. We passed a section of river that was being torn up for some reason which was a bummer to see. We were all wearing our team jerseys that I made for this trip and we took a picture under a gazebo rest stop that is found all throughout Korea. Sally started getting rashes from the sun burn and the chafing, she was quite burnt too from 5 days of riding. We reached Sangpung-gyo Certification Center and got our stamp to complete the Saejae Bicycle Path stage. We also ran into some roadies who were doing a faster pace than us, two of them American. They never caught up to us though so they must've either been doing another route or gotten lost.
There was a super crazy steep section today that had us pushing and slipping on the grainy road. On the way down the hill Tori busted out the GoPro camera they had not used yet on this trip. I strapped it onto my chest and went downhill only to find that the camera had shifted and was pointing down the whole time. I re-adjusted it for the rest of the way downhill. We went past an amusement park that was some sort of military themed park...there was a booth selling ice cream so naturally we had to stop and get our fix to cool off from the hot sun. The amusement park area also had a bunch of cool carvings of buddha figures in different forms. We got back onto the river path and continued down to Sangju which is known as the city of bicycles...they even have a bicycle museum there. We spoke briefly to an English guy we ran into who was touring with a fully loaded backpack on his bike in addition to panniers...he looked hardcore though so it must've not slowed him down much. After talking to the lady in the information booth, we made our way over to an area with various restaurants. Sally picked one and we ordered like we have been doing which is to point at pictures or just say beef...what came out was a delicious sukiyaki-style hot pot. We stopped over at the market next door to pick up some snacks and stuff for emergencies. We decided to stop at Gumibo for the night, there were several camping options in the area along the river. There was a store nearby that I thought sold hot noodles but it was actually all types of instant noodles and I guess you just buy it and make it there. Behind the store there were places to stay but they were all full so we were camping. We found a nice platform area along the river to set up our tents and slept right next to the river.
