25 - 26 August 2007 - Ride to Donghae
At 8:30 am on 25 August 2007, the Rotten dead met up in Haeundae, Pusan and rode over Dalmaji Hill and up the coast toward Ulsan. Traffic in Ulsan was quite heavy and caused some delays. However, once we got out of Ulsan and started toward Kyoungju on Highway 7 to Kyoungju, the traffic dropped off quiet a bit and allowed us to have a more relaxing ride.
After about an hour and a half, we arrived at Kyoungju and took a brief rest. After a bathroom and water break, we fired up the bikes again and continued up Highway 7 to Pohang. Getting through Pohang didn’t take to unreasonably long. From there, it was a straight shot up Highway 7 to Donghae.
Once north of Pohang, the roads were nearly empty, and quite often completely empty. We cruised through gorgeous, open country for another hour before taking our first meaningful break.
After sitting in the shade for a bit, snacking on Twizzlers and enjoying a cool bottle of water it was time to hit the road again.
Back on the road, we road along the coast through small fishing villages.
After a while, Highway 7 turned inland a bit and opened up into a wide, straight road where we could pick up some speed.
We ate up the road at 100+ miles per hour (160+ km/h).
The road then cut back to the coast near the town of Uljin.
All along the road in the Uljin area are crab restaurants trying to entice you into their restaurants with giant plastic crabs.
We stopped at a cliffside rest area for a final rest.
We mounted our bikes and made the final hour sprint up the open road.
We arrived in Dongnae approximately 7 hours and 15 minutes after leaving Pusan.
We stayed in a decent US$ 50 a night motel called “Iris” located directly across the street from the ocean. Once we got settled in, it was time for cold drinks, salmon steaks, beef, corn on the cob, and a buch of other good eats. The plan was to go for night rides, and party until earlpillarsy morning. However, after dinner, everyone retired to their rooms and no one came out again until morning.
The next day brought a day equally as beautiful as the day before.
After a good breakfast of bread, eggs, corn and other delights, it was time to pack our gear and make the return trip. However, before starting the actual trip home, we rode further north up the coast for about 20 minutes and took a dip in the ocean fully clothed to cool us off a bit as we rode. We then road back to Donghae and went to explore a cave. We were completely dry and baking again by the time we got to the cave.
The cave is located in the middle of a residential area surrounded by apartment buildings. The caves were discovered very recently as a construction company dug into the earth to build some highrise apartments. The cave, estimated to be about 500,000,000 years old, is accessed by a steep set of stairs. Once inside the cool, damp cave, you followed the scaffolding path through chamber after chamber of enormous and breathtaking stalactites, stalagmites, and pillars.
It took about 30 minutes to walk through the cave. Then it was back into the sweltering heat. As it was Sunday in a small town on an extremely hot day, it was quite difficult to find a comfortable restaurant that was open.
We eventually found a place to have lunch. It was getting late, so we ate quickly and eventually made the real start for home at 2:10pm. We intended to be back to Pusan by 9:00pm.
About five minutes after we started for home, Big Daddy was nearly involved in a serious accident. The Dead were riding fast and furious down the road at about 80 miles per hour. Suddenly, and without any warning whatsoever, a girl on the right side of the street decides that she can’t wait one or two minutes for the light to change and runs right out in into the street and in front of our rapidly approaching bikes.
She apparently thought she could easily get across the street before we were upon her. However, she made a terrible miscalculation. She wasn’t running nearly fast enough to avoid Big D. The Pres. sees that he is going to hit her unless he does some serious braking. So Big D. jams on the front and rear breaks, locking the rear wheel and beginning to slide.
Luckily for the girl, Big D. slowed down enough to miss her by only two steps and possible death. Luckily for Big D., he managed to avoid sliding sideways or laying the bike down and ending up back in the hospital.
Big D. caught the incident on video.
We decided to make up some time and possibly arrive home earlier than planned by riding on highways that are closed to motorcycles. We drove past two cops at the entrance to the highway who looked quite befuddled and looking like they desparately wanted to say something, but in the end, they just blinked at us as we drove by them and onto the prohibited road.
Again the roads were virtually empty and we passed the time by paying tag with an army jeep full of Korea soldiers.
As we thought, we made excellent time. It took us only three hours to get back to Pohang, and that included a rather lenghty rest stop to relieve ourselves, fuel up, and ingest some caffine.
We had shaved nearly an hour off of our estimated return time. We blew past Pohang and were on the 20 mile stretch of road leading to Kyoungju, when we had to stop for a red light in front of a small university on the side of the highway.
The light turned green and Big D. was left standing at the light. unable to get the bike to shift into gear. Looking behind him, the Pres saw a very unpleasant sight…his belt drive laying on the road next to his bike. The belt had snapped when attempting to take off from the stoplight.
Thus, the ride came to a very swift and sudden end, but we were far from home.
We called the service truck to come and get the bike. We were told that it would take about three hours to get to us.
While we were waiting for the truck, it started to get dark. That is when the rain started. Thankfully, it didn’t rain too hard where we were, but the rains were so bad in other places that roads were being shut down. There was an accident on the expressway that blocked traffic,. Thus we had to wait nearly 6 hours for the truck to arrive.
The truck arrived shortly after 11 pm. The wounded bike was loaded on board and everyone headed for Pusan. We ate a very late dinner in Kyoungju and arrived home shortly after 1:00am.
With the exception of the last several hours of the trip, it was a gorgeous ride through was beautiful as the trip procees areas of the country. However, the only drawback in a run to Donghae is that due to the lack of available roads in and out of the area, it is neceaary to basically retrace your steps all the way back to Pusan.
The end…or is it???