Sokcho Trip - Day 3: Biking around Sokcho

After getting back from our beach day on Sunday, we contemplated getting up early the next morning and going back to Seoraksan N.P. to hike the other trail we'd wanted to. But my knee was still hurting every so often, so we decided to just stay in town and explore by the water. On Monday, April 30, we had a relaxed breakfast at our hostel and then searched through the owner's selection of bikes that he freely lent out to hostel guests. None of the bikes that were left were in very good condition. In fact, all of them had something wrong with them. But we managed to find one that was only slightly rusty for me to ride. Then Jonathan tried to take a spring off a kickstand on a bike in really bad shape and use it to keep the kickstand from dragging on the ground on the tallest bike he could find. In the end he just tied it up with a string hanging off the kickstand and we set off. First we biked along the docks just below our hostel and headed to Yeonggeumjeong Sunrise Pavilion. It was a pleasant 10-minute bike ride and the view from the pavilion was pretty in every direction. Next we biked past the fish market and out onto the long nearby jetty and looked at the city from that angle. The string holding Jonathan's kickstand up broke while we were riding on the jetty and so he tried again to get the spring fully attached. Fortunately it worked this time. After that we went a little further up the road that hugged the water and found the Sokcho Lighthouse Observatory. The view from the observation platform near the top was even better than from the pavilion! We spent quite a while up there enjoying the sun and the beautiful scenery. Jonathan spotted a man in scuba gear walking along the rocks just below the lighthouse and took a series of pictures of him getting ready to dive.

Finally we pulled ourselves away from the lighthouse and continued biking to the north of Sokcho. We didn't get very far, though, because we found an inviting spit of sand, Deungdae Beach. We left our bikes on the sidewalk and walked along the beach. I found a few pieces of sea glass and then went crazy when I realized how many pieces were hiding in the surf and a little ways up the beach. Jonathan joined me in my hunt and we found many pieces of broken ocean-smoothed pottery as well as sea glass. While we explored the beach, the lighthouse fog horn went off and we noticed that the clouds out to sea were getting grey. We heard a few rolls of thunder and wondered if it was going to storm. We decided to watch the men fishing out on the pier and if they decided to leave, we would follow suit. Soon fog blew in to shore and for a while the lighthouse was completely invisible to us. But the storm never arrived and it was our hunger that drove us away from the beach instead of thunder, rain or fog. We hopped back on our bikes again and tried a local Korean restaurant for some kimbap. We made sure to emphasize that we didn't want haem (ham) in our kimbap and tried to indicate we didn't want hwe (seafood) either. Since we got the kimbap to go, we didn't want to be rude and open the tin foil packages to check if they'd understood us while we were in the restaurant, especially since we were the only customers at the time. So we just took the kimbap, paid the owner, and rode back to the hostel to eat. Well, it turned out that they had understood the no-haem request, but hadn't got the no-hwe part. There was something that looked suspiciously like squid in all the kimbap rolls, so we just put them in the hostel kitchen fridge with a note saying that anyone could have them. We relaxed for a bit and then around dusk we ventured out and found a nice restaurant down the street a ways that served pasta. We asked to eat out on the balcony and enjoyed the night breeze while we ate supper. It was a good ending to an enjoyable day.

Yeonggeumjeong Sunrise Pavilion

Ceiling of the Sunrise Pavilion

Fishing

Out to sea

View from Yeonggeumjeong Sunrise Pavilion of one of the jettys and the boat-shaped Dongmyeong Raw Fish Market

Boats sitting in harbor

Dongmyeong-Hang Port, with Sokcho in the background

Ali's picture of Yeonggeumjeong Pavilion Observatory from the Sunrise Pavilion

Jonathan taking a picture on the bridge

The bikes we borrowed for the day

At the base of a lighthouse

Jonathan biking back from the lighthouse on the jetty (Sunrise Pavilion in the background)

The Sokcho Lighthouse - the observation platform is at the top of the wide section

Four seasons of Seoraksan

Looking down at our bikes from the lighthouse

Scuba diver getting ready

Heading out

Overview

The pink lighthouse on the jetty from the lighthouse on the hill

Enjoying the view

Looking to the north

Open ocean

Fishermen

North of Sokcho - later we explored Deungdae Beach, the first spit of sand, and collected sea glass, etc.

Water and sky

The requisite pose in front of the view

Looking down on the concrete "stones" - I don't really know what to call them

In keeping with the nautical theme of the city, we found a whale's tail by the lighthouse

Tube with a view

Reflections

Ali liked the birds on the lightposts

Kim (seaweed) drying in the sun

From the sand spit, you can see the fog rolling in towards the lighthouse - later it partially obscured it

Ali discovering sea glass

Sea plastic

We spotted a heron

While looking for food, we stumbled into this side street which turned out
 to be a cool market - but we were too hungry to shop

Finally, we found a pasta place

Waiting for our food on the balcony

For pictures and commentary about our other days in Sokcho, click the links below.
Day 1: Seoraksan National Park
Day 2: Naksan Beach
Day 4: Sunrise and foot tour
Wrap-Up: Extras