Gangwon-do has nice rivers, lakes and it's a perfect place to kayak. Bukhan river goes down to the west, meets Nanhan river and becomes Han river in Seoul. Since this rivers are water source of Seoul Metropolitan area, there are dams to control water flow. This makes nice rivers providing water sports spots. Me and my boyfriend went to Bukhangang area by ITX train, brought our own kayak.
Read the posting about how to take ITX here
https://www.livinginseoul.online/post/how-to-book-and-take-itx-line
This whole area has big lake, rivers surrounded by mountains. You can just start your kayaks on riverside. If you don't have your own kayak, there are water leisure/sports places. They rent kayaks so you can just rent them. There are not only kayak but also other water sports like wakeboard, water ski etc.. Peak time is summer of course, you can make a reservation via on-line usually so you don't need to wait when you go there.
There is also well maintained bicycling roads along side of the river and lakes. This area is a good place for outdoor definitely.
Chuncheon is the last station on ITX line. It takes less than 2 hours though. Our kayak is inflatable one and quite heavy to carry. We bought a small carrier to carry our kayak. It wasn't hard to drag the carrier because all roads are well maintained, there are elevators or at least escalators in subway stations.
About our kayak, it doesn't take much time to inflate it but takes much much more time to remove air and repack it. We needed to dry up water on the kayak and roll up the kayak. We did it on the public dock installed at motor boat license test site. Actually we tried to go back to the first place where we started at first but we got exhausted later and couldn't go back that far. We just stopped by the nearest dock. Fortunately, the manager of the dock didn't kick us out after I told him we're so tired and can't go far.
We started our kayaking on Sangjungdo deck. It's a walkable distance from Chuncheon station. Go out from exit 2. This Sangjungdo deck seems a private deck because there is a cafe and water sports company. They were okay with us using the deck and asked things about our kayak. They don't have inflatable kayak but boats and motor boats. It seemed they also do water ski. We bought a coffee before we started our kayak.
The guys said our life vest seems weak, water is cold so if your kayak is flipped over, drowning is not a matter but the cold water is a problem etc.. We didn't need to test our life vests quality on that day though.
There are two islands middle of the river. There are some small decks on the islands. People who are fishing stop by there. Those decks are not a solid one but kind of temporary one. We stopped one of the deck once to take a rest a bit and rearrange our stuffs.
Actually that day was my first kayaking day in my life. I didn't know how to row at first. I even had a slight motion sickness. We had two paddles since the paddle was bit small, water came in when we rowed. We tried to clean up at first but later we half gave up.
We went down following the stream and passed the big bridge. When we yelled under the bridge the sound made echo. We came back against the flow and went through the narrow passage between two islands. Some people are fishing on the river bank. Sun light was quite strong and it wasn't cold at all. We packed our lunch. I brought strawberries and fired tofu rice balls, my boyfriend brought home cooked chicken. I didn't have much appetite at first because of motion sickness at first. I got my appetite back. Maybe it's because the food were more tasty in the middle of the water, on kayak.
We also brought a bluetooth speaker. With a music, after finish our lunch box in the middle of the river, leaned back on kayak, felt the sunlight and heard the river wave hitting the kayak gently, we just did nothing but rest. We didn't even row. We just felt the moment. It was a lovely moment. Bringing kayak all the way from the early morning and transfer to ITX train from subway were bit tiring but because of that moment, all efforts we put in were paid.
After we enjoyed that perfectly relaxing time, we found out our kayak was carried down following the river flow. We wanted to make a round trip along side of big island so we started rowing. It was damn hard. When we just took a rest a bit, we immediately felt that our kayak is on the river flow. I never truly understand why people chant when they work together before. However on that day, I understood the power of chanting all together. 'I want to rest but I can't otherwise I can't go back to home, all I can do is just to keep rowing' situation was quite new to me. We already booked our ITX train ticket going back to Seoul. We eventually stopped by the other deck not the one we first started. Then we took a taxi to come back to Chuncheon station.
There are some Dakgalbi places near the station and we had a dinner there with makgeolli. The taste was so so. They are not super tasty places and usually crowded with people. When we went there, a group of people who finished cycling were there. It was just a average tourist sites restaurant.
It's easy to reach there from Seoul using the train. You don't need to spend too much time in the train so it can be a simple day trip. On peak season in summer, other water sports are also available and scenery itself is good too. I will definitely go back again to do kayaking.
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