The Pusan crew and guests rolled out early in the morning and began the 7-hour ride to the west coast of Korea and tiny Gosapo Beach. They stopped in Jinju for a snack break after a good 2.5 hour ride.
The remainder of the ride through onion fields, fields of flowers, and farmland was very relaxing and quite beautiful.
The Pusan crew arrived at the beach in the mid-afternoon and found a good campsite in a stand of trees on the edge of the beach.
Shortly after setting up camp, The Seoul crew arrived.
The remainder of the afternoon and evening was spent sitting on the beach, talking, eating, and having a generally great time.
Contrast was evident when comparing the level of camping preparations:
Pony: Blanket and bread. Was quite content to wrap up in his blanket and sleep on the sandy beach.
Koz: blankets, 4-man tent (with ground cloth and rain cover), gas camp stove, pots, utensils, swim suit, towels, beef, cherry tomatoes, bell peppers, spices, insect repellent, suntan lotion, ramen noodles, booze, kitchen knife, and numerous othe amenities. However, he was lamenting forgetting his skin cream and hair brush. Koz insisted on sleeping in the trees to be protected from the wind and and sun.
Koz took a serious amount of ribbing because of his extreme over-preparedness, but he took it in good fun. After much beer, rum, whisky, and coke, Koz was renamed “Boy Scout,” as he is always prepared for ANYTHING. However, Pony was also disappointed that Boy Scout forgot his brush because Pony was looking for something that could be used to comb the bugs out of his beard.
After some chocolate pudding made by Big Daddy, the group walked the 10 steps to the beach to light fireworks.
At some point Big Daddy thought it would be fun to start a roman candle war. It suddenly became a bad idea when Boy Scout sent a flaming magnesium ball from a roman candle down the back of Big Daddy’s shirt, giving him 1st and 2nd degree burns down his neck and back. GAME OVER.
Eventually things settled down and everyone fell asleep on the beach, except for Boy Scout, who ensconced himself in his tent along with all of our gear, which he allowed us to keep in there despite our having given him a hard time about the tent.
Morning brought pancakes, pop tarts, and a light rain. We packed up as quickly as possible (Boy Scout took a little more time than everyone else) and headed back to Pusan and Seoul.
The Seoul crew got wet, The Pusan crew managed to stay ahead of the storm most of the way, except for the few times they had to backtrack into the storm after making a wrong turn.
Great ride. One of the best ever.
]]>We had all anticipated arriving in Keumsan in the early afternoon. However, as could be expected, several things went wrong. Heretic got a flat tire late Friday night and had to wait until Saturday morning to get it changed. The Pusan group had their own issues to worry about on Saturday morning.
Big Daddy was scheduled to have surgery the following Monday morning to remove the titanium plate in his leg that had been there since he plowed his bike into a concrete power pole in September 2006. As the surgery was scheduled for Monday morning, check-in procedures at the hospital had to be completed on Saturday. Koz and Big D. met up and rode to the hospital at 9:00am. The check-in procedures were more time consuming than expected. Three hours.
After finishing at the hospital, Koz and Big D. had a quick lunch at McDonalds and hit the road at just after 1:00pm, 4 hours behind schedule. They made tracks out of Pusan and through Masan. After about 2 hours of hard riding, they pulled off into a rest area to stretch the legs and warm up a bit.
Koz took some time to soak up the sunshine.
They called the Seoul group to find out how they were progressing on their ride. The Seoul group had not left yet. Apparently, it was going to take the wonderful and effecient people at Harley-Davidson Korea in Seoul approximately 7 hours to change a back tire.
At around 3:00pm, Pony got tired of waiting for Heretic for 5 hours at the Seoul group’s meeting place. He took off to Keumsan with a guest, Achilles, in tow. Eventually, the tire got changed and Heretic set out on his 4 hour trip at around 5:00pm.
It started to get dark and cold as the March sun set. The Pusan group arrived at the paension just after dark and settled in to wait for the other two groups to arrive. While waiting, Big Daddy and Koz explored the house.
Pony and Achilles arrived hungry and frozen shortly after 8:30pm just as Koz and Big Daddy finished watching Transformers on the big screen TV. Heretic arrived just after 9:00pm.
With everyone assembled, the first and only item of business was to begin grilling dead animals and imbibing several different beverages.
Pony was the first to succumb to the evening’s festivities. He has paid handsomely to destroy all photographic evidence of what happened next.
However, he had everyone else had recovered nicely by morning in time to enjoy a breakfast of champions of ramyeon, Cap’n Crunch, Pop Tarts, Cheese, bagels, and leftover meat.
We cleaned up our gear and prepared to leave the house for the rides back to Pusan and Seoul.
Before leaving, we took a short ride around the neighborhood to see some of the sights. It was quite a lovely area.
The Seoul group took their time riding home. However, as Big Daddy had to report to the hospital by 7:00pm on Sunday night, Koz and Big Daddy tore up the highway and got back to Pusan as quickly as possible. The ride back to Pusan was interrupted just long enough to take a few pictures of an odd, man-made waterfall.
We held a raffle and auction at Ghetto’s a local bar in Pusan and raised around 1,400,000 Korean Won cash for donation to the Heerakwon children’s center. Also, a truck load of private donations of clothing, toys, and household items were collected and delivered to the director of Heerakwon.
The Rotten Dead gathered at Pusan City Hall to launch the ride.
We were joined by the president of the Wombat RC and by two members of the Ocean Riders, a Korean riding club.
Children from Sunny International Home School also joined us at Heerakwon.
We saddled up and made the 30-minute ride to Heerakwon. We made our donations to the Heerakwon director and then enjoyed a performance by the kids from Sunny International Home School.
After that, we showed the kids our bikes.
We then played some basketball, soccer, and other games with the kids before heading home as the sun began to set.
The RDMC would like to thank Dr. Martens, R Led Hair, United Seamen Service Center, Ghetto Bar, Fuzzy Navel Bar, Jinsung Motors, and Sunny International Home School for their donations and assistance with this years Toy Run. We would also like to thank the numerous individuals who donated cash and items for this year’s toy run.
We look forward to even better results next year.
]]>The P., Koz and Prospect Nate started out from Pusan late in the morning. They rode throughout afternoon through Masan, Jinju, Hapcheon, Geochang and over to Jeonju. They arrived at the hotel just before dusk and settled into Nate’s room to await the arrival of Pony and Heretic from Seoul.
The Seoul group arrived at around 8:00pm. We all gathered in Prospect Nate’s room.
After a bit of small talk, we held a super-secret patching ceremony and made Prospect Nate a full patch member of the RDMC. As Nate fancies himself to be a bit of a behavioral psychologist and therapist, we tried to get Nate to accept an officer position of the RDMC analyst/therapist, but Nate refused to accept the “ANALRAPIST” tab.
The five RDMC members then headed out to dinner for Ddalkgalbi (spicy stir fry chicken) and beverages.
The next several hours were spent walking the streets of Jeonju’s university district sampling local food, drink, and people. Feeling that he had sampled a bit too much of the local drink, and the flask he brought with him, Nate decided to head back to his room to sleep it off.
The four conscious Brothers then headed across town to the Bar where Pony hoped against hope to meet the mysterious woman. No woman. Just adult beverages and interesting characters.
Thereafter, we headed back to the hotel and retired to our own rooms.
The next morning, the Club rolled out of Jeonju and headed back to Pusan and Seoul.
The Rotten Dead’s annual Fall Haeinsa Temple Run was held on October 25th - 26th.
As usual, Big D and the Pusan crew, this time including Prospect Ian, set off Saturday morning. Big D, Ian, Nate, and Nate’s old lady enjoyed a great ride through spectacular countryside highlighted by the changing leaves.
With plenty of time to kill, they made their way to the temple on a very circuitous route. Instead of the 2 1/2 hour mad dash through Masan to Changryeong and over to Haeinsa, they headed north out of Pusan toward Yangsan and then cut cross-country toward Miryang. About 30 minutes outside of Pusan, they stopped to check out Cheondaesa Temple built in the mountains between Pusan and Miryang.
The temple is in the process of carving a Buddha statute out of the cliff face.
From there, the Pusan contingent rode straight through Miryang and onto highway 24 toward Changryeong. They climbed the mountains along the twisty road favored by racing streetbikes.
The group stopped for lunch a restaurant know to local bikers for the seafood-onion pancakes (파전) and the commanding view of the valley and the road from the cliff-side tables.
After lunch, they made the final leg of the journey and arrived at Haeinsa temple in the afternoon without a hitch, and enjoyed an evening on the mountain eating more onion pancakes and chicken stew (닭도리탕)
Also as usual, the Seoul members, Pony and Heretic, were delayed from leaving until late in the evening; this time by a late season downpour and thunderstorm. A break in the rain finally occurred around 9pm, and the two decided to make a run for it. They had a good 45 minutes of dryness before the rain found them again. As it turned out, the rain didn’t lose them until they were well south of Mungyeong.
Pony and Heretic, soaked and shivering, finally made the Kimcheon rendezvous with Big D and Ian nearly seven hours after departing Seoul… Three hours later than they should have, and six hours behind schedule all in all. After taking time to stretch and down some much-needed hot coffee that Big D and Ian had waiting for the soaked Seoulites, the four thundered back up the dark mountain road, arriving at the resort around 3:30am to indulge in equally-needed booze.
The next day had Big D, Ian, Nate and his old lady make the hike up the remainder of the mountain to visit the temple proper. Pony and Heretic, still exhausted and slightly hungover from the aforementioned booze, declined to make the effort.
Nonetheless, the group in full made the ride down the mountain later in the afternoon and onward to Hapcheon.
In Hapcheon, the two groups bade each other farewell** once again until the next time we could gather.
**No bikes were harmed in this installment of the Rotten Dead monthly run.CLICK HERE to view more photos of the event.
]]>Rotten Dead MC rode up from Seoul in the company of some ASMC and other MC members and independent riders in the early hours after dawn. The day’s main event was a 75-mile poker run involving one hundred bikes lasting four hours.
Upon returning from the run, the horde of MC members, Korean H.O.G. riders and independents settled into Dongducheon Pavilion and Mojo’s Bar for an evening of booze, BBQ and music headlined by the LRD Band.
Rotten Dead MC thanks ASMC and all others for a great event and a great time!
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The 2nd Annual Rotten Dead Donghae Burn & Turn run got underway with Big D, Jessie and Nate leaving Busan on the morning of August 30th. The trio spent the day heading north along Korea’s scenic eastern coast on Road 7.
In an omen of things to come, the 4th gear of Jessie’s bike decided to take an early retirement halfway into the journey, but that didn’t stop the group from arriving at Mangsang Beach by afternoon, where they spent the rest of the day enjoying plenty of food, drink and sea air.
Rotten Dead’s Seoul contingent got off to a much later start, with Heretic and Pony unable to leave the city until late in the evening. Meeting up at the traditional jumping-off point at Itaewon McDonald’s, the pair headed eastward into the night. The ride was easy, fast-going until they encountered Korea’s eastern coastal range mountains, where frigid night air, steep climbs and hairpin corners in the black, unlit void of Gangwondo forced them to relax the pace.
After further delays in the wake of navigational SNAFU’s related to a desperate search for an open gas station, Heretic and Pony finally met up with Big Daddy in the wee hours of the morning. The three rode the final stretch back to Mangsang to partake of snacks, alcohol and bullshitting on the pre-dawn beach.
The next day was spent with the full group riding up and down Donghae’s coast taking in the views, coffee and fresh air.
However, morning came earlier for some than for others.
After exploring Samcheok’s caverns and having a late lunch, it was time to part ways and head back to our respective homes.
Heretic and Pony rode back to Seoul on route 6, beating the ever-threatening rain by a good hour. The Pusan group headed south on 7, where they were less fortunate…
Some distance north of Pohang, ominously close to the spot of last year’s Donghae run breakdown, Big D’s bike inexplicably…stopped. With the hour getting late, and the skies threatening, Jessie and Nate continued onward while Big D tried all he could to work out the problem, but to no avail. Finally, he had no choice but to call the mechanics and their truck, and to wait and wait… In the dark and rain… Alone…
Epilogue:
Donghae’s a great place to go, and 7’s a fantastic rode to ride, but with two successive RDMC runs ending in major mechanical failure, and a previous ride there being not without serious incident, our well-educated, rational Western minds have decided to err on the side of caution and submit to superstition. Donghae is deemed a cursed destination. A Bermuda triangle for bikes. Thus ends the second and final Rotten Dead Donghae Burn & Turn.
For more pictures of the Donghae Run click here.
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This year, the Chuseok holiday (the Korean harvest / Thanksgiving festival) fell on the 13 - 15th of September 2008. The holiday weekend turned into an impromptu ride to the DMZ.
Big Daddy started out on a ride to Seoul to spend time with his brother Heretic and other relatives. Searching the internet and online maps, Big D. found a route between Pusan and Seoul that would reduce the cross-country ride by a couple of hours.
Big D. left his office in Pusan at around 4:00 pm on Friday, 12 December 2008 and began the ride to Seoul. The first three hours of the ride covered familiar territory into Kimcheon. The new Northwest Passage from Pusan was as follows:
Along the road to Seoul, Big D. called Pony to see what was going on and to see if Pony wanted to meet somewhere along the way and ride back into Seoul together. They met in Icheon and made the sprint back into Seoul and over to Heretic’s house.
Heretic was engaged in other activities. As it was not known when he would be able to disengage, Pony and Big D. headed off to Itaewon for a night of laughs, cheers, and good times.
The night ended around 9:30 am the next morning when Pony shuffled off home and Big D. took refuge at Heretic’s humble abode.
Big D. got to Heretic’s house at just about the time Heretic was going to work for the morning. Heretic arrived home from work around the time Big D woke up.
They packed their bags and road off along Highway 6 east out of Seoul. At the juncture of Highway 6 and Highway 46, we veered left on Highway 46 and worked northward. We followed Highway 46 into the tiny village of Gapyeong. Big D. and Heretic spent the night in a little resort area outside Gapyeong.
Pony spent the day sleeping.
Sunday morning dawned and the sun rose early in the mountains above Gapyeong slowly burning its way through the morning haze.
Big D. and Heretic had breakfast and rode around killing time in Gapyeong waiting for Pony and hangaround Achillies to arrive from Seoul.
Everyone met up around 1:00 pm on the outskirt of Gapyeong. Pony was in charge of the Ride to the DMZ from Gapyeong. He sent us wandering slowly through the countryside up Highway 75.
We followed the winding road up into the tops of the mountains and into Gangwon Province.
We made a rest and relief stop at the summit of the mountains before beginning the descent out of the mountains.
We continued north by turning left onto Highway 56.
It became increasingly clear that we were approaching North Korea and a very real zone of serious military conflict. The roads were lined with barricades, concertina wire, lookout posts, and numerous massive concrete blocks resting upon smaller concrete support pillars that were designed and wired so that the smaller support pillars could be blown up and drop the concrete blocks into the road to create road blocks to impede the advance of any invading forces.
Highway 56 ended when it reached Highway 5. We turned left and west onto Highway 5. We rode into the small village of Kimhwa where we stopped for lunch.
However, Kimhwa is a very traditional village and that day was the actual Chuseok holiday and there wer no restaurants open. There was only one very tiny supermarket run by a very elderly woman whose drunken sun was making a spectacle of himself around the foreigner.
The old woman forced her son to go inside and we all bought a few small snacks and hurried across the street to relax, rest, joke, eat our food.
During our lunch, we decided that we were close enough to the DMZ for the day. We rode down Highway 47 back to Seoul.
At Heretic’s house, we got cleaned up and rode to Itaewon for some Mexican food, pool, and a night of observing the social train wreck that is Itaewon.
Pony took the rest of the week off work and decided to spend it in Pusan. We all went to sleep early so that Pony and Big D could head back down to Pusan as soon as possible in the morning.
Pony and Big D. met for a quick breakfast at McDonald’s before starting the long ride to Pusan.
Pony and Big D. retraced the route back to Pusan that Big D. took up to Seoul. They made record time of 7 1/2 hours from Seoul to Pusan.
It was a great four days of riding and brotherhood.
For more pictures of the ride and the beautiful Korean countryside click here.
Video:
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Four months ago we planned to ride to Jeonju, but it got rained out by a very serious storm. Two months ago, we planned to ride to Jeonju, but it got rained out by the Summer monsoon rains. This month, we planned to ride to Jeonju, and woke to overcast skies.
Big D. and Pony rode down from Seoul to Pusan the previous weekend after the Chuseok holiday. They made record time going door to door in 7.5 hours. Big D. went back to work, and Pony took a vacation for a week in Pusan.
The Pusan contingent intended to leave around 10:00 am on Saturday morning and arrive in Jeonju around mid-afternoon. The Seoul contingent planned to leave Seoul around 8:00pm Saturday and arrive in Jeonju around 1:00 am Sunday morning. As the lines from the Robert Burns poem go,”the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.”
Pony and the Pres. met up at Amby’s restaurant across from Pusan Station around 9:30 am to enjoy a delicious classic egg breakfast before hitting the road.
Although the weather reports had between 60% and 100% chance of rain, we were optimistic that the weather would hold. The weather held…for about 10 minutes. While eating breakfast, the rain started falling.
We ate our breakfast and, as we were not pressed for time, we decided to wait a while to see if it stopped raining before we hit the road. After about an hour, the rain stopped and we were able to take off.
We headed Westward out of Pusan on highway 2 through Jinhae and into Masan, where we turned at the 5-point intersection just inside the city and rode past the Homever store on the right and Masan Stadium on the left and continue on to highway 5. Unfortunately, there is nothing that can be done about that 1.5 hour stretch of road from downtown Pusan through Masan and up Highway 5 toward Changryeong. It is the fastest, most direct, and one of the very few ways out ofthe city.
We stopped at the Homever store to pick up some extra bungee cord to secure Pony’s bag. While there, our eyes caught a rack of inexpensive, clip-on drink holders. Figuring that it may be amusing to see if we could install beverage holders on our bikes in order to cut down rest stops by drinking on the fly, we picked a couple of them up.
Outside again, we bungeed Pony’s bags more securely, hooked up our drink holders and roared of into the early afternoon cloubs. As an aside, Big D. thinks that the drink holder is an amazing piece of equipment for long-distance riding and will use his regularly. Pony, on the other hand, doesn’t like it and took his off even before reaching Jeonju.
We continued on highway 5 to Changryeong, where we turned onto highway 24 and headed West again until we arrived at the small town of Hapcheon.
There is a little convenience store and gas station just across the bridge into town that makes a convenient rest stop. After fueling up, stretching the legs, and grabbing a quick snack, it was time to mount up again. As another aside, if possible, use another gas station for fueling up in Hapcheon, because the woman at the convenience store / gas station is perhaps the worst gas pumper in the known universe. Big D has filled up there three times, and each time has resulted in gas overflowing all over his tank and flowing onto his blazing hot engine, which the woman apparently finds laugh-worthy.
We got back on our bikes and continued on highway 24 (which merges with highway 26 a short distance outside of Hapcheon). We rode the incredibly scenic route along the gorge above Hapcheon lake into Geochang.
The skies had withheld their life-giving moisture up to this point, the but skies were darkening further. We kept on highway 26, making as much time as we could through Anui, into Jangye, and continuing northwest toward Jinan.
Outside Jinan, we passed a large run down Catholic church out in the middle of nowhere. It appears broken and dilapidated, but there were some windows open. I’m not sure whether or not the church is still in use.
A little bit of online research showed that it was built in 1966 to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the martyrdom of a Korean Catholic who refused to deny his faith. He was later sainted.
As we arrived in Jinan, the rain started to fall. We made a dash to the closest gas station where we sought shelter. We had almost made it to Jeonju. If the rain had held for another 20 minutes, we would have made it nice and dry.
We stayed at the gas station for about 90 minutes before the rain had stopped and the roads were dry enough to travel. The last dash for Jeonju was cut short after about 3 kilometers as the rain started again, forcing us under an overpass for shelther.
Mercifully, the rain stopped and we were able to get back out on the road after about 20 minutes. Although the roads were still a little wet,the fog and mist rolled in from the mountains. However, the sun was beginning to show through the clouds.
We passed, quite literally, over the bosom of the mountains and into the valley where Jeonju sits.
Pony was happy to be in Jeonju where he had lived and worked before. Following his lead, we rode through town toward Jeonbuk University. We found some excellent rooms in a love motel for 50,000 won (about $50). We managed to talk the owners down from 60,000 won a night.
After showering, we climbed aboard the bikes and headed back up the road to the university. We found a great restaurant that served spicy chicken stir fry.
After dinner, it was getting close to the time when the Seoul group was supposed to be leaving for their ride to Jeonju. Heretic was supposed to ride down with Achilles, but Achilles was still drinking from the day before and was in no condition to make the ride. As it was dark, still threatening rain, and as Heretic would have had to make the ride alone, we decided to err on the side of caution by telling Heretic that it simply wasn’t worth risking his life to come down alone. We told him to sit this one out.
We, Big D and Pony, spent the rest of the evening hanging around and enjoying the quiet nightlife that Jeonju has to offer. Pony seemed to enjoy himself back in his old stomping grounds.
Big D had to get back to Pusan early on Sunday morning, so he woke up early and made a dash to Pusan. He arrived safely home 4.5 hours after leaving his hotel.
Pony, on the other hand, was a little slower waking up. He stayed all day in Jeonju, visiting some of the places he used to work and roam before making the 3 1/2 trip to from Jeonju to Seoul.
20 September 2008 - Jeonju Run
For more pictures of the ride to Jeonju, click here.
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