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Ride VeloViewer tiling in Japan

Thanks Joe!
I got it set up on the My Maps app, but will have to try it on Google Maps itself, because that one will do routing.
I got 15 or so new tiles today. I cheated by driving out to the edge of my square and riding from there.

dam climb.jpg

It wasn't today, but that's probably the hardest I've worked for a single tile. It was a closed concrete road up to a new dam being built. Still, it beats hiking any day!
 
Thanks for the pictures, Mike. So many interesting roads around Gangaharasuriyama (and a few places where someone thought about building a road then gave up). Glad I didn't take the skinny tired bike out this morning, would have been walking. Really enjoyed the ride today :tup

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Just a great ride today. Chilly in the morning for the Cookie Monster but by noon, it was warm. Beautiful view of Fuji and lots of climbing today (2300m). There was gravel on the way up and our detours for tiles had us on roads that had been long abandoned and overgrown with tall grass. Fun stuff.

Many thanks to the photo-journalist HFM who managed to take vids and pictures of the day.

One of the most enjoyable days on the bike for me in a long time.
 
It looks like I managed to swipe 30 tiles today, all in Saitama. I did an Autumn Foliage ride, for which I was joined by Julien and Julia on their amazing Dutch-made recumbent tandem bike and also by William and Kelvin.

The plan had been to first head up from Chichibu towards the Ghost Town and climb there if possible. If not we would head over to Mitsumine, climbing it from the west and descending down Ochigawa rindo on the east. We didn't even make it to the dam and lake before the ghost town because of a road closure near the dam. So I cancelled the pre-Ghost town part there and then and skipped directly to plan B, Mitsumine. for which we now had enough time to visit the shrine itself. It's a lot like Nikko, but without the international tourists.

The descent from the tunnel at the top was as cold as ever, even though I had brought a lot of clothes. Except for long underwear and shoe covers I was basically riding in my winter configuration, but it still felt cold. After I dropped off the others at the station, I tracked down a local Indian for dinner and then went back to Ogawamachi, where I had parked the car in the morning, via a route already prepared the day before that would give me about two dozen tiles. The rest I had already picked up in the morning, on the way to the ride start at Seibu-Chichibu station.

175 km with 1737 m of climbing plus about 130 km of driving in my car to get to Saitama and back.

(On Strava)
 
I cheated by driving out to the edge of my square and riding from there.
Not cheating. I don't even insist to myself that my activities intersect or overlap, although most of them do or will eventually.

I gotta ask, @speedwobble, what you plan to do about these impossi-tiles™. It's an impressive amount of nothing out there...

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Not cheating. I don't even insist to myself that my activities intersect or overlap, although most of them do or will eventually.

I gotta ask, @speedwobble, what you plan to do about these impossi-tiles™. It's an impressive amount of nothing out there...

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Where there's a ridge, there's a way. (unless there really isn't, and so you contemplate buying a drone and flying it really slowly at 'hiking' pace, over th tiles)
 
Spoken like a true bear's breakfast.

Just to add a bit of perspective, the number of deaths from bear attacks in this nation of 124 million people hovers around 1-2 per year, with about 10-20 per year getting injured. Asian black bears are omnivores whose main food source are nuts such as acorns. Though they will occasionally kill deers, they are not primarily hunting for meat. I'm not saying there is no danger, but we are probably more scared of them than we should be of other sources of danger (e.g. taxi drivers, truck drivers or an exaggerated belief in our own descending skills).
 
Just to add a bit of perspective, the number of deaths from bear attacks in this nation of 124 million people hovers around 1-2 per year, with about 10-20 per year getting injured. Asian black bears are omnivores whose main food source are nuts such as acorns. Though they will occasionally kill deers, they are not primarily hunting for meat. I'm not saying there is no danger, but we are probably more scared of them than we should be of other sources of danger (e.g. taxi drivers, truck drivers or an exaggerated belief in our own descending skills).
So it's safe to say they're bearable?
 
Today I went out and rode my bicycle. Why?

1. It's better than working.
2. Those tiles won't collect themselves now, will they?

I'd designed this route on the western edge of my maxsquare back in July 2018, but had put off riding it several times since then due to excuses: too far, too much climbing, too long, too hot, too cold, too tired, blablabla.

SafariScreenSnapz001.png

Finally got off my butt and tried to do it. First train in the morning (5.00 a.m.) train, and alighted three hours later in Nagatoro, Saitama.

First mistake: Didn't take my bone-conducting headphones. Never mind: my internal juke box is strong.

Second mistake: Assumed that I had been paying attention last year when I named the ride plan "Nagatoro to Takasaki". I actually plotted from, and could have got off the train, one stop earlier. This caused me considerable consternation as, at Nagatoro, the start of the route was nowhere to be seen on my Garmin.

Third mistake: completely forgot to replace the brake pads on my TRP HY/RD calipers after last Saturday's ride with @Karl and @sean-e. Ooops. There was still enough on them for the ride, but I had to keep effing around with the (filthy) barrel adjusters.

The initial climb was long, but best to get it out of the way. Very pretty and peaceful, once past the quarry (and associated dump trucks) and into the World of Rindō. The top section was unconvincingly 通行止 with a half-assed barrier and threats of fallen rocks, but in the event no problem at all. At the pass I met an old couple out for a drive in their K-car; I told them they'd be fine, and moved the barrier aside so they could drive down the way I'd come up.

My toes and fingers became completely, painfully numb on the way down. I'm going to have to dig around in the shed for my Bar Mitts, and secure supplies of kairo activated charcoal pads. The descent was also closed, and this time a little more sketchy. There were several very dirty and/or unpaved sections where landslides - presumably from last month's typhoon - had been pushed aside but the road not washed clean yet. Unconvincing braking power and frozen fingers are not a good combination.

It was an enjoyable plummet, nonetheless, bringing me to Lake Kanna 神流湖, a reservoir created by Shimokubo Dam 下久保ダム and which lies on the border of Saitama and Gunma prefectures. The map shows a minor road along the south side of the lake, and a major road on the north side. So obviously my route took me along both.

Road? Ha!

20191120-110408-exploring-nagatoro-to-takasaki.JPG

Well, I love this kind of riding - especially trying to keep riding without putting a foot down. I didn't succeed completely - maybe four faults. But it was a wonderfully enjoyable trail to ride. Those 4 km cost me a lot of time, though.

20191120-110002-exploring-nagatoro-to-takasakib.JPG

By the time I'd finished the lake, and done the next climb and descent (60 km since I'd started) it was 1.30 p.m., with more than 50 km and around 1000 m of climbing to go. Nowhere near enough daylight for that. So I decided to skip those climbs, devising a shortcut that would take me down the river valley and re-join the original route later. These last 30 km were still tough, though - heading north, straight into the wind dammit.

Nearing Takasaki, I found myself briefly on the Kaburagawa 鏑川 cycle path. Serious damage from the typhoon flooding...

20191120-145359-exploring-nagatoro-to-takasaki.JPG

All the photos worth keeping: https://photos.app.goo.gl/mYrDdAQRxehNAohX9

I got the train toward home from Takasaki just before 4 p.m., which was ideal then, but as it passed through Tokyo station about 16 million people boarded, so getting out with my bike to change at Kawasaki was a major headache.

Altogether, 89 km / 1511 m / 5h23m (and about 6 hours on trains). Most importantly... 31 new imaginary internet map tiles. I'll have to come back for the others another day.
 
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Hi fellas

Thanks for the concern about problem tiles on my quest for a larger square. I'm feeling the love and am genuinely touched! :):love:

As it happens, there is an old path up through the lower of the green squares Mike indicated. It's an old mountain road that used to be used for pilgrimages. There's now a pylon up there, so someone still clears it up to close to Garayama, the labeled peak near the bottom of the tile. This path goes up the east-west ridge in the tile to the left, so there is a decent chance it will branch off north as well to the named peak, letting me nab the other tile as well. On the next row of tiles up though, there are some severe tiles that will be all day hikes through woods with no paths. It's much easier to just go south and east.

Good to see that driving out is accepted practice!

Great video here if you've not seen it.
 
At the start of 2019, I set myself a goal of reaching 50*50 by the end of this year. I'm feeling frustrated now because I'm not sure I'm going to make it. All the rides I need are mountainous and far away. I need at least four, maybe five days of riding. But it's getting really cold; cold in the mountains isn't much fun, and this project is supposed to be fun, dammit.

I know it doesn't matter to anyone except me. Still... grrr.

On the other hand, new bike is on its way, and new bike should be amazing for these rides.

[dreams about cycling]

northside.gif
 
Cold or not, when you get that new bike, you're gonna be up in the mountains, I bet.
 
I headed across the river to Kawasaki to pick up 4 tiles south of here that have been the closest tiles in the way of enlarging my 9x9 max square. They were my low hanging fruit, so to speak.

RrEWjnVQFNpsfoDLUajlYgOhuwvhA4IPF1PXrRn7SyWPDP4nxa-KEy8OivhjgHU-TPGtBZSTeWOGg5WEs-H_HPk1yc74_invkiXJvZFEyV1dId4euSX3RkYqy43E6m4TxiJm7R-FHpzQ55AVsawfxAZ4bQxn16gJXX99Wq0tAbgKlmigtNFVDiOMRwJ1K71r9PdyaqADPFeb-jLknC-A_pmCW2eaV6luRzljZ1wIZ1XuYnlHHCmnGpSK6bEOFU6qCfoiYDF1WeIy7O4iAZgGCUdI04eSNqYriXOEl6jFb2zTW5R8KEQAvDYJFnq4gCr1tALqQouvHEKeNSdiQfZXrPgxUTUBqzcsh97_VzL0XcD7JPuJ74XZ8hEk1cZy71etsXkqbmtbBhf0zvYAB6QXZlACzFrYtyCCqThwRp_hsTUJEYhRvg4RdnOL3GvJKNgshYdkg3f-G2Y46ZStw96Rh9ZFLcV-gpBBh61UFzPG8DvTo0KFOVsp-rV6xU-oAfSw08ak8a6xcNICmvIYsTdOkgtjNdDMP1PNtfU8FO66faBksr4VKYjbEkepz3i8Osk0hdwpaKNcjQ6LHPt2vmx-8Z9B_3p5NH94HD7VZYAJCW_bZ8dJ1QF6pf1M4bvthbSL_vBZ-Ayq_HZ9UYLNkO6L25V9IPYZlMl3kOevqzZ7xvYyzPDC7BDeHO1gan1KqOcHoq044fgAsU8l3yErW69d33uiV079o47vU58f25s44wyukBBN=s800-no


Now my max square is an 11x11 (or 11x15, since it's still more N-S constrained than E-W).

47H9_aN9GJhOQcFylO8C6N3A-MaIdiCb40TurBmGEuSfreyGag8NCCHBbijga8H4rxL8niaK20Km533qtAdThLDxffrrLLsnkJwZd2s9va9DclPf61l6IPGIyb6KKeVGDNfwvw5-oDdFyvbrmLrb2WWpGMaKS30ewgLGo9R68MyHFELzaBRYaN0q7wZIEOQMU6qnB-bbo0XISRhwOClKvZVqUzpiSCv-ltWFOmeNcHBV9938eRqOANoxWW-KEAO-tuW7SvTmUEZjwfpaE-GxsB1GJY7BSaFb4mgqy6vxOuczOiqn8NQ1ieAt4KusWX88WszN80ZjFTH-SYlHbnqHZuE9KIi4qZEkczzLj0jDY7ziGVuvGR_G8G54BcKGl7wHqROaYaXbgR5ZU72KyD1DFBy95aix0f1UjkslzYJwqYJPwujBrJgnWoPEc1xAseGcZ9MztZvlmIWO2SGX5hQtZB4w0bm15cz9L1ZHHTL63uc7MiNt5wO5QxtyHaXZs38TJwpKr_1ILHEpxJFk1L7PkKKOflZHwNKZCOxUYX62W5v-Mg5qxboO4StwkaaBHvW06waNP9dCmTxlDQcgYRP-EzyebnFxMr_S9wO6obVgePXZ5Q5LmbXX71sUwuxes-pMSt-uokhdU_r-1uiL2kRaAPxGBArEVTSn83eBQEihJzGy2xttA3baMfUUK8CJpNs4dc9bQ_SJ6aETpuy2bagAUeIQgUUT7I03FycRO6-wZrXLPX1n=s800-no
 
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50x50 tiles is 150km each way?! Amazing work!

Sunny and 20C here today. It was the warmest late November day in 40 years of records. I saw people in full winter gear, but was in short sleeves with no base layer myself.
 
@Half-Fast Mike I look at that max square and am amazed you were able to do that. So much riding and hiking and scrambling! Good luck trying to make 50x50 this year. Looks doable if the weather cooperates.

I'm at a meager 27x27 :( and plan to stay mostly in the mountains so don't expect it to grow very fast. LOTS of hiking required. If the knees and ankles hold out for another 10 years, maybe I'll see 40x40 someday. Next summer, I'm thinking of doing more bikepacking so I can spend more time in the mountains and less time coming and going. (Inspired by @saibot 's videos.) Also hope to chip away at Fuji-san and Chichibu area where I expect I'll encounter lots of tiles protected by unobtainium.
 
The VV Tile Gods gave me a tile that they denied me for the past 3 months. I thought I had it but it didn't register. It was a hard tile to get. Today, it looks like it has registered. Weird, but I'll take it. Never look a gift tile in the mouth. My max square is still 27x27 but at least I won't have to redo that tile. :D
 

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