Karl Lavtar's: Late Fall weekend in Gangwon-do, from River to Sea....2009

Well....looks like this will be the last kayaking post until the Spring of 2010!

This was an unexpected, to be able to kayak Jinbu again, especially in the late fall. we were told that you can only kayak it with massive amounts of rain, I think we proved that theory to be false. Luckily i became curious about the weather in this region of S.Korea and continued check it....in our favor, it was raining for a week straight, granted not heavy rain, but enough to bring the flow up of our now favorite run 'Jinbu'

So...Luca and I loaded up the Volvo, despite, cold rainy temps and myself a little sick....it turned out to be an amazing weekend...

We recently purchased 2 V.I.O pov 1.5 cameras, therefore not too many action kayak photos, but we were able to create a few video clips...you can see them through the links below...

http://www.vimeo.com/7749439 short 2min version of Jinbu

http://www.vimeo.com/7717135 longer 7min version of Jinbu

hope you enjoyed the video clips.......Now, time to check out the photos below :D

the usual stop on the way to Gangwon-do....Hong Chun service area. Unfortunately, the potato guy was not open, so we had to settle for some snickers and twix bars for some quick energy on the rio

the loaded Volvo....

not sure if he is nervous thinking about Jinbu or if he has yet to wake up ?!?

nice CKS sweatshirt....

a bit too early to try out a Korean Burger joint, but looked like a good photo...

caught on camera...pregnant mom walking, and her boy falling...a bit concerned ?!?

view of the mountains of Gangwon-do...

a dusting of snow up high....

well...we made it to the jinbu valley, there's enough water, it's cold, and we found a nice place in the sun to have some food and espresso before entering the FUN ZONE!!!

as always...the Bialetti, camp stove, bread, jam, etc....

about ready :)

my new Bliss~Stick SCUD, ready for some whitewater action.....

Luca's Bliss~Stick Mystic......we are KOREA's TEAM BLISS~STICK

at the put~in, last photo before take-off. You can see the V.I.O. pov 1.5's, mine is on the side of my helmet, mounted to the strap and Luca's is on the top of his helmet.

scouting a tight corkscrew drop....just before having a bad line... hahaha!

the look at the corkscrew, next time I'll style it, because this time it flipped me....

the villian....

Luca running roller~coaster, one of the bigger drops on the run...

the calm before the action....Roller~Coaster!

in the middle of the Coaster.....

getting out of the bottom hole....kinda stopped me in my tracks...i need to remember I'm in a short boat....not like the longer bigger creek boats I'm used to....next time a few more strokes, to have a little more speed and boof!

below the low-head dam....catching some sunlight, trying to warm up my hands...it's actually working!

Luca, feeling happy this time around, not sure if you remember the posting from the summer, but Luca had to walk off jinbu twice, once for a lost paddle, which i ended up finding downstream and the second time, he broke his paddle in the first few rapids.....This run he was able to complete with some style.....

entering the steep section...

10 footer....

20+ footer....

that was nice....

Luca about to take off...first time running this one!

very nice section of Jinbu...i recently found out that when I ran this drop this past summer, I got the first D of it.... which is always nice :D

almost at the end of the run...

the last big boulder.....hope to get on this more in 2010.....

feeling satisfied and a bit chilly! the last bit of sunlight shining on us...

at the take~out, there's a side creek that we'll have to check out, here, were having a closer look than before at the bottom falls...

if this is the bottom falls....i wonder what's further up stream, unfortunately the road and entrance way is blocked off and the sign says fines will be given for trespassing.....we may just have to make a stealth mission for this one :D maybe we can play the "we didn't know, we're foreigners" role... hahaha!

hiking up to the road...what a beautiful day !!!

Giving a "Hell Yeah" to completing Jinbu in the late fall.

sunset as we drive into the town of Ganseong which is maybe 30-40km from the DMZ and North Korea... Ready to find a motel and a place to chow.....

After checking into a motel, we walked around in hopes to find a tasty place...this caught my eye, not to eat there but...."Mexican Chicken" too funny!!!

walking through the local market after,

we decided to ask a girl that worked at a Paris Baguette Bakery, where the best place to eat is, so she asked a customer to watch the shop, and she showed us the way, the first place was closed, but the second place was just perfect!

check out the size of this BBQ plate...

we were in for a FEAST!

Oh Yeah!!!

after eating the BBQ, with some leftovers, the lady made us some Kimchibokumbap. So delicious, maybe the best I've tasted.

Kimchibokumbap....

WOW....that was a lot of food...I believe this one ranked #1 for the after kayak meal in S.Korea

we'll definitely be back after the next Jinbu day!

Thanks to the Paris Baguette girl for showing us a place for an incredible meal...

Well, as I mentioned before....I was a little sick and kayaking all day in the freezing cold didn't help, I wasn't feeling too bad, but was able to find a pharmacy and get some magic capsules, not sure what these were, but they managed to help me out....

part of Korean culture...."Room Club"

well after a delicious meal, back to the motel room....small heater blasting to try and dry our kayaking gear.....

On the laptops downloading and checking out the video clips of the day....

this looks like something out of the movies...

Rm #307

the usual breakfast....perfect start to yet another fantastic day away from Seoul...

View from Rm #307

Cold windy morning...but beautiful blue skies.....we are curious to see the water level of Jinbu and wondering if we'll get another run in....

Motel in Ganseong, not bad for 30,000W like 20USD....

On our way to check out the Jinbu flow...

very nice driving in the countryside of S.Korea

a view of the Roller~Coaster rapid.....definitely looks like the water dropped, but not quite sure...

It is lower....some ice has formed on the bridge...the temps are low....the water is low, so we decided to bag it and drive back to Ganseong and check out the East Sea and the surf since we are so close to the East Sea....

from river to sea.....

AND there is some surf....pretty good sure as you will see in the photos to come...I decided to sit this one out, since it was pretty freakin' cold out and I still feeling under the weather....Which gives me a good opportunity to get some good pics of Luca with my Nikon D80 and tele photo lens.