joewein
Maximum Pace
- Oct 25, 2011
- 3,532
- 3,693
On Saturday, Nov 2, 2013 I headed to the Nichitsu ghost town in the Chichibu area in Saitama and was joined there by an adventurous bunch of Half-Fast cyclists (HFC) for a memorable ride in beautiful nature and a visit to an eery, deserted place. It was my third visit to the area.
The first time I heard about the Nichitsu ghost town in Chichibu and the beautiful mountains and valleys around it was in the spring of 2012, when Pete (@Yamabushi) organised a ride there. A couple of month later, in late October of the same year the "TCC North chapter" headed back there on an autumn leaves viewing ride, coming back with tales of beautiful leaves but a chilly ride through a cold dark tunnel and an even chillier descent on the other side. As my friend Jose (@Jayves) likes to say, there's no bad weather, only the wrong clothes. So the two of us headed there suitably prepared on the first November weekend that year and had a great day.
I wanted to go back for the leaves this year. When I mentioned that at one of the monthly HFC get-togethers at the Pink Cow in Roppongi, somebody suggested I should lead a Half-Fast ride there. I liked the idea and went back there with Jose in late September to refresh my memory of the route and the area. Based on RWGPS ride data from that ride, I then picked 10:10 as the starting time at Seibuchichibu station in Chichubu, which was a little after a scheduled express train arrival and should give me enough time to cycle out there from Tokyo if I started at a ridiculously early time of day.
GPS log of the ride:
I set my alarm for 03:50 but woke up at 3:40, after some 3 1/2 hours of sleep and then had breakfast (oat meal, bananas, yoghurt, coffee). I was out of the door at 04:36, almost on time and followed the Tamagawa to Oume, where I arrived a little before 07:00 to have some cocoa at the conbini in front of the station (no, the following picture does not show the conbini, just some old house in Oume).
Ten minutes later I headed on towards Yamabushi toge. A couple of km before the Arima toge turnoff someone called me from behind. I turned around and recognized Tom (TOM) on his brand new Cherubim steel bike. He was on his way to Arima and we had a chance to briefly chat as we rode along, me huffing considerably as I tried to keep up Nice bike, Tom!
I continued up the valley, enjoying beautiful scenery already.
A little while later I passed what was to be the first crash site of the day: somebody in a sports car had taken a corner on the Yamabushi descent a little too fast and lost control. The driver was OK.
The descent from Yamabushi toge to Chichibu is fun, 13 km almost entirely downhill. I made it to the shopping centre at the Rt140 / Rt299 crossroads at 09:30, exactly on time. As none of the coffee shops there seemed to be open yet, I headed over to the station and found quite a few riders had assembled already. I picked up some coffee and apple pastries at the Mr. Donut shop near the station, sipping coffee and chatting with new and old friends as we were waiting for more arrivals.
(end of part 1)
The first time I heard about the Nichitsu ghost town in Chichibu and the beautiful mountains and valleys around it was in the spring of 2012, when Pete (@Yamabushi) organised a ride there. A couple of month later, in late October of the same year the "TCC North chapter" headed back there on an autumn leaves viewing ride, coming back with tales of beautiful leaves but a chilly ride through a cold dark tunnel and an even chillier descent on the other side. As my friend Jose (@Jayves) likes to say, there's no bad weather, only the wrong clothes. So the two of us headed there suitably prepared on the first November weekend that year and had a great day.
I wanted to go back for the leaves this year. When I mentioned that at one of the monthly HFC get-togethers at the Pink Cow in Roppongi, somebody suggested I should lead a Half-Fast ride there. I liked the idea and went back there with Jose in late September to refresh my memory of the route and the area. Based on RWGPS ride data from that ride, I then picked 10:10 as the starting time at Seibuchichibu station in Chichubu, which was a little after a scheduled express train arrival and should give me enough time to cycle out there from Tokyo if I started at a ridiculously early time of day.
GPS log of the ride:
I set my alarm for 03:50 but woke up at 3:40, after some 3 1/2 hours of sleep and then had breakfast (oat meal, bananas, yoghurt, coffee). I was out of the door at 04:36, almost on time and followed the Tamagawa to Oume, where I arrived a little before 07:00 to have some cocoa at the conbini in front of the station (no, the following picture does not show the conbini, just some old house in Oume).
Ten minutes later I headed on towards Yamabushi toge. A couple of km before the Arima toge turnoff someone called me from behind. I turned around and recognized Tom (TOM) on his brand new Cherubim steel bike. He was on his way to Arima and we had a chance to briefly chat as we rode along, me huffing considerably as I tried to keep up Nice bike, Tom!
I continued up the valley, enjoying beautiful scenery already.
A little while later I passed what was to be the first crash site of the day: somebody in a sports car had taken a corner on the Yamabushi descent a little too fast and lost control. The driver was OK.
The descent from Yamabushi toge to Chichibu is fun, 13 km almost entirely downhill. I made it to the shopping centre at the Rt140 / Rt299 crossroads at 09:30, exactly on time. As none of the coffee shops there seemed to be open yet, I headed over to the station and found quite a few riders had assembled already. I picked up some coffee and apple pastries at the Mr. Donut shop near the station, sipping coffee and chatting with new and old friends as we were waiting for more arrivals.
(end of part 1)