Shirakawa-go to Takayama
We got up to “mountain misty” conditions, with our bikes soaked from the dew overnight. It wasn’t cold though, but definitely damp.
Another sumptious meal in our accomodation – too much for breakfast, especially with a ride uphill on the books.
leaving the accomodation in the morning (ours is in the centre)
And so off we set, on the road again… I woke with a sore throat this a.m., the scratchy throat being part of the reason I didn’t sleep well last night, but am in denial that it is going to develop into anything. It’s just a dry throat, right? In the trip notes today was to be 80 km and 1340 m elev gain, similar to the ride up Mt. Baker this summer.
Up hill we went, a long but relatively gradual (yes, a few spikes in there!) ride. Through many snowsheds and tunnels as usual – tunnelling is something the Japanese have certainly mastered. There wasn’t a ton of volume on the road, but when a car or lorry went through the tunnel, it was definitely loud. It was a free ride, so everyone rode at their own pace, but groups stayed together for the tunnels for safety and we had flashing lights on back and front.
fall colours
It became quickly apparent that the gear problem I’d mentioned a couple of days ago hadn’t been addressed – couldn’t get into low gear. Fortunately we stopped before the steeper part and it got fixed, as I definitely needed it for the top part of the climb. We had a couple of quick stops enroute at info points, a dam viewpoint, another spot to admire some 500 yo cherry trees that had been moved from the area the dam flooded before it happened (you can see the size of these rootballs LOL).
stopping at a dam viewpoint – over the top of the first hill!
the dam with fall colours
It was quite warm by this time and most of us were in shorts and tshirt.
Soba noodles for lunch at the rest stop, which was between the first (biggest) hill and the second. I was able to change to a cooler top at the lunch stop.
Some waterwheels collected by an entrepreneur.
Not much else to report; the second hill seemed the hardest, after we went up and over it my riding partner noted we’d only gone 14 km and we both agreed it felt like double that at least… There were some fairly intense downhills too, and some maniac descenders in the group. I was about 100 m behind one woman at the top of the third hill, and going down, saw her whiz off into the sunset. When I mentioned this at the coffee stop she said, yes, she likes her downhills and her husband just laughed. Egads. On roads I don’t know, I’m a bit more cautious.
After the third hill we got a coffee stop, in the middle of nowhere but really excellent coffee and the pastries looked good as well. He sold out of apple streudel (there were only 4 pieces and intense competition for the last bit!).
We collected together at the coffee stop to ride the last 10 km into town together; it was rush hour traffic and good to get to the hotel. This is an upgrade to our normal “Route Inn” with a much nicer onsen (inside, outside, and cold plunge pool as well as free ice cream after!). Futon on the floor, but roomy.
We walked to a pre-ordered dinner and I had grilled fish which was excellent; almost everyone else opted for Kobe beef which they also rated highly. Tomorrow, more hills, and fingers crossed my dehydrated throat scratching disappears overnight.
Only two cycling days left (excluding the day cycle tour in Kyoto).
Today’s mileage; interestingly we all compared notes and there was quite a bit of difference between devices, though we all rode exactly the same route! Mine said 72.69 with 1,031 m elev gain, and others said 77 km so somewhere in there! It was enough.
Today’s highlight; the maples in fall colours that we saw individually along the way in contrast to the lovely blue of the dam resevoir.