At the tail end of autumn, for the first time in almost two years, a padyatri made a loop around a remote area on the eastern outskirts of Gayasan National Park 가야산 국립공원. It was a bit chilly, but the pleasantly cool autumn weather made it a great day for cycling. Because this area is rural and the harvest season was almost over, mud spilled by passing farm machinery had dried and stuck to various parts of the paved road. Every time a car passed, it kicked up a cloud of dust. At this time of year, the hard part of cycling on country roads is breathing in dust whenever a car passes.
Starting from the Unsu-myeon 운수면 township office parking lot, heading north, you’ll soon reach a stream you have to cross, and in the distance, Mt. Gayasan comes into view. A three-story stone stupa is located on the road leading to Jageun-ri 작은리, standing on the site of a former Silla-period temple.
Jageune-ri, a small village nestled deep in the mountains, is made up of several small hamlets. Jageun 작은 means 'small' in Korean, but here it means a place where magpies hide—that is, Magpie Hidden Village. The apple orchards around the village sit just below the mountain summit at the very end of the valley. Whenever a padyatri came to a remote area like this, he always wondered how the people living in such mountain villages made their living, because there was hardly any land suitable for farming. But that curiosity was resolved when he saw the apple orchards scattered around. He realized that apples are the specialty product of Jageun-ri.
A Catholic chapel(mission station, 공소) is located next to an elementary school in Suryun 수륜. After passing Suryun and riding along the road toward Goryeong 고령, he turned right and went through a village. After a while, he climbed a short but fairly steep hill and then rode down the slope heading toward Baekri 백리, a secluded mountain basin village that he passed through while going from Suryun to Deokgok 덕곡. Since the route from Deokgok to the starting point in Unsu was flat, he pedaled comfortably.
