Half-Fast Mike
Lanterne Rouge-et-vert
- May 22, 2007
- 4,644
- 3,700
Saturday 31st October - Mitsumine Loop (+13T)
I had never ridden this loop in the depths of Chichibu, although I'd been meaning to for years. The autumn colours - and of course the new tiles - were calling. Naturally I had to make the ride difficult for myself by taking tiling detours not normally attempted by anyone without caterpillar tracks.
I got up later than planned and started driving. Saturday morning traffic was denser than I expected on Kan-etsu Expenseway, and I ended up starting my ride after 09.30. This would have minor consequences later. I parked my van at the Ōtaki Onsen / Michinoeki and rode clockwise, conscious of @joewein's various notes including queues of traffic for the shrine car park. Good call!
It was utterly splendid.
My first detour, while a closed road, was not bad at all. The gate even had a cutout so I could duck through on my bike without even dismounting. Most of it was paved, and not too steep. Just 150 m before the tile border, an amiable road crew were pretending to work on repairing a culvert. We had a chat, and with the requisite warning about bears acknowledged, they let me through. Beyond the border was a landslide - I could have carried the bike over and continued, but it didn't seem as though I'd find anything there but the end of the road (and possibly bears) so I turned back to the 'main' road.
The road was in very good condition. Once past the gate there were more leaves on the road - the broadleaf type that look like and can hide big stones - but it was very peaceful. Not a cloud in the sky, and so pretty...
Up to the top, through a 1-km tunnel, it got even better. I hadn't appreciated that the shrine was quite a way down from the tunnel. And.. just... wow!
Did a little sightseeing and had a good lunch at one of the many restaurants. Then headed down, past the promised line of cars waiting to get into the car park. Followed some motorbikes for a while, until I reached the turnoff for my second detour.
This one was much longer than the first, and was a nice easy climb for several kilometers with lots of picturesque waterfalls at the side of the road and a stroboscopic effect from the sunshine through the trees.
After the first gate the rindō turned even more leafy and occasionally muddy. After a bridge and a second gate it turned into a steep rock garden, with 2 km to go to the final tile I wanted. I was expecting this, having got the scoop some time back from Andrei the Invincible [he's not russian - he's just naturally that fast].
I battled through 500 m of this. It was not yet 3 p.m., but the sun was starting to go down behind the mountains and it would clearly take an hour or more to stagger up to the border and back, so I decided to leave the tile uncollected. It's already beyond the western border of tileability for my max square. Maybe I will be back, and maybe not.
Safely back to the car by 4 p.m., rested for a while, then drove through the twilight via Karizaka Tunnel which was a little longer but good fun. Spectacular night views of Enzan and Kōfu from the 'Fruit Line'.
Sunday 1 November - Kururi Revisited (+14T)
On Sunday I took the train to Kimitsu in Chiba to join my tiling accomplice and fill-in a patch of lonely tiles resulting from a foreshortened ride. We finished on 4th October at Kururi station instead of completing our planned loop back to the coast.
Although almost exactly the same distance (62 km) as Saturday's ride, this was much easier and there was plenty of time for sightseeing. A fun day out, and very satisfying result on the map.
Searching for tile border...
FINISHED!!
I had never ridden this loop in the depths of Chichibu, although I'd been meaning to for years. The autumn colours - and of course the new tiles - were calling. Naturally I had to make the ride difficult for myself by taking tiling detours not normally attempted by anyone without caterpillar tracks.
I got up later than planned and started driving. Saturday morning traffic was denser than I expected on Kan-etsu Expenseway, and I ended up starting my ride after 09.30. This would have minor consequences later. I parked my van at the Ōtaki Onsen / Michinoeki and rode clockwise, conscious of @joewein's various notes including queues of traffic for the shrine car park. Good call!
It was utterly splendid.
My first detour, while a closed road, was not bad at all. The gate even had a cutout so I could duck through on my bike without even dismounting. Most of it was paved, and not too steep. Just 150 m before the tile border, an amiable road crew were pretending to work on repairing a culvert. We had a chat, and with the requisite warning about bears acknowledged, they let me through. Beyond the border was a landslide - I could have carried the bike over and continued, but it didn't seem as though I'd find anything there but the end of the road (and possibly bears) so I turned back to the 'main' road.
The road was in very good condition. Once past the gate there were more leaves on the road - the broadleaf type that look like and can hide big stones - but it was very peaceful. Not a cloud in the sky, and so pretty...
Up to the top, through a 1-km tunnel, it got even better. I hadn't appreciated that the shrine was quite a way down from the tunnel. And.. just... wow!
Did a little sightseeing and had a good lunch at one of the many restaurants. Then headed down, past the promised line of cars waiting to get into the car park. Followed some motorbikes for a while, until I reached the turnoff for my second detour.
This one was much longer than the first, and was a nice easy climb for several kilometers with lots of picturesque waterfalls at the side of the road and a stroboscopic effect from the sunshine through the trees.
After the first gate the rindō turned even more leafy and occasionally muddy. After a bridge and a second gate it turned into a steep rock garden, with 2 km to go to the final tile I wanted. I was expecting this, having got the scoop some time back from Andrei the Invincible [he's not russian - he's just naturally that fast].
I battled through 500 m of this. It was not yet 3 p.m., but the sun was starting to go down behind the mountains and it would clearly take an hour or more to stagger up to the border and back, so I decided to leave the tile uncollected. It's already beyond the western border of tileability for my max square. Maybe I will be back, and maybe not.
Safely back to the car by 4 p.m., rested for a while, then drove through the twilight via Karizaka Tunnel which was a little longer but good fun. Spectacular night views of Enzan and Kōfu from the 'Fruit Line'.
Sunday 1 November - Kururi Revisited (+14T)
On Sunday I took the train to Kimitsu in Chiba to join my tiling accomplice and fill-in a patch of lonely tiles resulting from a foreshortened ride. We finished on 4th October at Kururi station instead of completing our planned loop back to the coast.
Although almost exactly the same distance (62 km) as Saturday's ride, this was much easier and there was plenty of time for sightseeing. A fun day out, and very satisfying result on the map.
Searching for tile border...
FINISHED!!