A bunch of hiking pictures
I’ve been lazy about uploading pictures lately. Today I don’t have to teach elementary, so here is a big batch of hiking pictures.
The first gallery is from our first real hiking trip. We went to Seoraksan National Park with Ben (a Canadian English teacher) and Mihyun (his girlfriend, also an English teacher). We hiked to Ulsanbawi, a rock formation in the park. When I say hiking, I mostly mean stair climbing. The heavily-traveled trails are pretty tame, for the most part. Certainly strenuous, but not technically difficult.
The giant buddha is a bronze statue near the entrance of the park. The other statues are at a shrine on the beach that we visited on our way home.
These pictures were taken from a hill near our apartment. It’s wooded and there are some trails going up it. It was a hazy day, so you’re not necessarily looking at smog. The city is a bit smoggy, but I think it’s usually a mix of exhaust and smog. It’s not the prettiest city I’ve ever seen, but also not the ugliest. (This is an unattractive angle, however.)
These pictures were taken on our second trip to Seoraksan Nat’l Park. Erin and I went alone, and it was insanely busy. We should have known better than to visit a popular park on a holiday weekend. We hiked a an easy trail up to a cave in the mountains. It was a beautiful walk.
These pictures are from last Sunday. We went to a small mountain near Yongpyeong Ski Resort with Ben, Mihyun, and another teacher. It was a gorgeous walk, but we got a late start and the trail was a lot longer than we anticipated. We turned back about halfway up. I didn’t take many pictures, but the changing leaves are gorgeous. Korea is pretty if you can get out of the cities.
More writing to follow soon…
Motorcycle Repair
I got my motorcycle out of my parents’ garage last week, and it’s had some problems this year. There was a short in the ignition switch, and the bike would sometimes die for a split second. At cruising speeds, this wasn’t a problem, but at low speeds, it would stutter and lurch. Not good.
Thanks to the labor union at work (long story) my hours have been cut back, and I had the day off today. I decided to tackle the ignition problem. There’s an active forum on Yahoo Groups for Honda Nighthawk owners, and I found some advice on disassembling and cleaning the ignition switch.
I pulled off the headlight housing, disconnected and labeled the dozen or so connections inside of it, unbolted the horns, and pulled off the fuse cover. I could then remove the lock cylinder and ignition switch. I was even able to separate the ignition switch from the lock without breaking the little plastic tabs. When I opened up the ignition switch, I saw that a solder connection had broken.
I pushed the bike closer to an electrical outlet, re-soldered the connection, put it all back together and it runs like a champ. It’s a pretty sweet bike, and the community of riders is really helpful.
Check out the pictures:
