Yabitsu - Tanzawa-ko COMBO

[WhiteGiant]

Who's not busy this Saturday,1st of December?

Start: Hon-Atsugi station.
Roll down Rte.246 to the Rte.64 turn-off (near Isehara).
Follow R64 up for about 12km to "Mike's Turn-off", and follow it across to Rte.70. Then turn left and head up to Yabitsu-toge.
10km down from Yabitsu, turn right, back onto Rte.246 for another 8(ish) km to Rte.710.

Rte.710 is similar to Mike's Kiyokawa-mura road, in that it's on the 'paper' map, but not on 'Google' - hence, it's a guess as to whether or not the road is actually there!
But if it is, it comes out right on the Tanzawa-ko lakeside.

We follow the lake around for about 4km (to where I think Thomas made his mistake last week), and we take the LEFT turn onto Rte.76.
From the lake, I think it's a 13-14km climb up to the top, where there's a 1km-long tunnel; followed by about 12km of down-hill to Rte.413.

Again, about 8km along R413, we turn right back onto R64, where we'll roll around "Miyagase-ko (lake)" on our way back to Hon-Atsugi station - OR Rte.246, for people going home that way.

On the way back though, instead of following R64 all the way down, there's a short-cut on R60 that will save about 10km.
Anyway, check out the map here:
http://www.mapmyrun.com/run/japan/atsugi/622231381

Call me a wimp if you want to, but it's at least 55km (one way) to Atsugi from my place, so I'm going to catch the train there, put my backpack in a coin-locker, and both start & finish the ride there - 155km in the hills will be enough for me, I think - rather than a 265km all day marathon!
(Although, if Thomas can convince me to "do the ride back"... That could be on the cards)

Thomas, Mike, Aaron, Christoph, Philip, Alan, Deej, Phil....
Anyone?
T

 

[Phil]

Sounds like a really great ride Travis. I used to live at Tokaidaigakumae, a few stops beyond Atsugi, when I first came to Japan, so I know some of that territory you'd cover. I always read the reports of everyone's West-side mountain rides with envy--Mike's photos in the other thread were really impressive. But... it's shaping up to be a busy week and I don't think me and bike will be up for the long-distance train haul. Definitely want to make it out there sooner rather than later though, maybe make a 2-day trip out of it or something...

 

[Mike]

Sounds great Travis. I'mjust a little worried about those roads around Tanzawa Ko. Have you shown this to Thomas? What does he say about this route? Is it different from his? I already posted it on the other Thread but have a look at my suggestion to your route. Instead of going up R64 (which isn't that exciting) lets go up nakatsu kawa. This is my backyard and I can pick everyone up from Hon Atsugi Station and go from there.
http://www.mapmyrun.com/run/japan/tokyo/446737545

 

[Pucci]

Fujino

I am spending the night at Fujino with the family on Saturday. To get to Fujino I am planning this route:

From Aobadai
Down Sakai river
Turn off towards Isehara
Climb Oyama
Go over Minogegoe Pass between Oyama and Minoge (near base of road up Yabitsu Pass)
Over Yabitsu Pass and around Lake Miyagase
Cross to Doshi Michi
Over Makiba Pass to Fujino

Haven't measured it yet, but there's plenty of climbing. Maybe I will see you guys in the hills.

 

[Deej]

Triple Bypass

I have to work from 6:00 p.m. on Saturday night, but I may leave early in the morning (5:30-6:00) to do my old "Triple Bypass" ride that takes me from my house in Kyodo, Setagaya Ward, along the Tamagawa, then on to the Asagawa, then over Darumi Toge at Takao, then to Yabitsu Toge, then back the same way. Three decent climbs and some nice scenery. Its about 180km round trip. Depending on the timing, maybe I could link up with the group before the approach to Yabitsu. Or if someone wants to ride with me starting from the Tamagawa (using the bridge at Izumi-Tamagawa as the starting point), that would be cool, too. From my starting point, the ride is almost completely traffic-free all the way to the mountains, so aside from dodging people on the bike path, it's a very stress-free route. Me likes it.

Side note: I once did this ride, but kept going over Yabitsu then down to Tsurumaki Onsen for a nice soak at a great sento and a couple beers, then bagged the bike and took the Odakyu Line back into Tokyo. Very nice. I must do it again -- it would feel wonderful after a long winter ride.

Here's a link to route that the Half-Fasters use from Roppongi, ending at Tsurumaki Onsen.

http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/DamDamDam

D

 

[thomas]

I will definitely join next Saturday whatever route we'll decide on, riding out from Tokyo. No rinko, Travis.

But if it is, it comes out right on the Tanzawa-ko lakeside. We follow the lake around for about 4km (to where I think Thomas made his mistake last week), and we take the LEFT turn onto Rte.76.
From the lake, I think it's a 13-14km climb up to the top, where there's a 1km-long tunnel; followed by about 12km of down-hill to Rte.413.

I don't think we were mistaken last Saturday. As a matter of fact R76 is disrupted and more or less impassable after the tunnel (at least for road bikes). See the map below.

 

[WhiteGiant]

I'll bring a map!!!

Sounds great Travis. I'mjust a little worried about those roads around Tanzawa Ko. Have you shown this to Thomas? What does he say about this route? Is it different from his? I already posted it on the other Thread but have a look at my suggestion to your route. Instead of going up R64 (which isn't that exciting) lets go up nakatsu kawa. This is my backyard and I can pick everyone up from Hon Atsugi Station and go from there.
http://www.mapmyrun.com/run/japan/tokyo/446737545

Thanks Mike, for your enthusiasm!
I'm sure Thomas (and Christoph) will see these maps sooner or later, but I think that on that day, neither of them were carrying maps, so it might be difficult for both of them to point out exactly where their 'mis-adventures' took place until they have another closer look at it.

In the meantime, I checked the map you made from Hon-Atsugi!
With that area being your back-yard, you can take the lead until your (R64-70) turn-off (I'll jump in front to slow everyone down when I get tireduch.
But so far, it looks pretty good!
Also, even by train it will take me a while to get out there, so is 8:00 OK?
Later is also all right by me.
And again, like the "Half-Pucci" & "Hotaka" rides, I want to try and do this one non-stop too.
Let me know, eh!
Travis

 

[WhiteGiant]

I will definitely join next Saturday whatever route we'll decide on, riding out from Tokyo. No rinko, Travis.

I don't think we were mistaken last Saturday. As a matter of fact R76 is disrupted and more or less impassable after the tunnel (at least for road bikes). See the map below.

OK Thomas, I see now!
I think that was Philip's original question in the first place - To find out if anyone had ridden it before; and if so, was it passable?

That means a change of plans...
I just looked at the map searching for an alternative route, and I think I've found one.
Please check your respective maps: Heading almost directly west from Tanzawa-ko, Rte.729 looks like it might be paved for at least the first 5-6km, then it turns into a "thin white line" - meaning that it's a gamble - but it continues all the way to a junction between Rte.147 & Rte.730 at "Myoujin-toge" （明神峠　- 900m).
From there, Rte.730 leads directly to Yamanaka-ko; which only lengthens the entire ride by about 15km.
Now the question becomes, "has anyone tried THAT road - Rte.730?"
Will post a map later tonight.
T

 

[Mike]

Travis, 8 o'clock sounds fine. Not wanting to hijack your thread, another suggestion may be to head back towards Miyagase Dam after the climb up to Yabitsu, and then do a half Tour de Christoph. R518/R519/R76 back down to 413. At least we know these roads are 100% passable and good climbs and in total with my backyard tour over two good climbs would come to around 130km anyway.
I'm just not sure if I want to spend too much time walking my bike over rocks.

Just a suggestion, as I thought Thomas might also prefer this after his cyclocross experience last weekend.

Does anyone else have any thoughts on this?

 

[WhiteGiant]

Has anyone tried this road?

Travis, 8 o'clock sounds fine. Not wanting to hijack your thread, another suggestion may be to head back towards Miyagase Dam after the climb up to Yabitsu, and then do a half Tour de Christoph. R518/R519/R76 back down to 413. At least we know these roads are 100% passable and good climbs and in total with my backyard tour over two good climbs would come to around 130km anyway.
I'm just not sure if I want to spend too much time walking my bike over rocks.

Just a suggestion, as I thought Thomas might also prefer this after his cyclocross experience last weekend.

Does anyone else have any thoughts on this?

Thanks Mike!
Your suggestion is a definite maybe!
I've never done the "Tour de Christoph", but it looks interesting.
In the meantime, check this out and see what you think...
http://www.mapmyrun.com/run/japan/tokyo/737513749

Similar to the map of your ride, I had to fill in the blanks, and it's possible that the road is NOT passable. Still, I wouldn't mind checking it out - if only to be able to advise riders in the future whether it's a 'yes' or 'no'.
It goes over two passes (toge's) - Myoujin-toge at 900m, and up from there to Mikuni-toge （三国峠）at 1,170m, before rolling slightly down to Yamanaka-ko.

If there are time restrictions on your part, I have no problem with the course you have set for us - Pretty sure Thomas wouldn't disagree either, so it looks like you're the leader for this one.

Looking forward to it though, and I'll see you at 8:00 at Hon-Atsugi station (west exit?)
Travis

 

[livestrong]

hey everybody - i have never been down there so i would love to see / ride it - i will try to make it to Hon-Atsugi on time .. there is a train that arrives at 8.04 am .. i will try to catch that one if thats ok!? marek

 

[Mike]

That course you've mapped out certainly looks challenging and a definite adventure! I'm just wondering how far the whole loop would be. Are you planning on coming back via 413?

I'm up for anything, but have to be back at home by 5pm. I'm just a little worried if we get slowed up by walking over rocks. See how you guys feel after doing my new route and we hit R70. Will we go left or right??? I love the suspense..... It adds to the fun!!! Don't you love riding.

As for the meeting place, do you mind coming out of the north exit. There's plenty to look at there while I'm waiting for you guys to arrive, if you catch my drift

Thomas are you coming by train, or rolling down? And Marek, I'll be waiting for you. The more the merrier!

Mike

 

[WhiteGiant]

Over-ambitious?

I just completed the map with all the new adjustments.
http://www.mapmyrun.com/run/japan/atsugi/247252072

It's roughly 180km, with three big climbs and 3 lake-sides! And the last 70km or so is almost all downhill.
The only downside to it so far, is that it goes over two roads that I don't think anyone has been on before; which could make for some unwelcome adventures should they turn out be like Rte.76 (which Thomas found out about last week), or heaven forbid, like the arse end of O-toge!

But like Mike said, we can all decide which way to go when we get to the top of Yabitsu-toge.
>Marek: I look forward to riding with you again too. See you at the station.
>Thomas: Depending on how I feel, I may ride back with you from Atsugi.

See you all on Saturday!
Travis

 

[Mike]

Now it's all mapped out, that looks like a fabulous ride Travis. I'm licking my lips in anticipation. Make sure you bring warm clothes. It's going to be between 1 (6am)-9 (12pm) degrees at Yamanako tomorrow.

 

[livestrong]

wow ! thats looks like an awesome ride ahead of us - i am getting very excited - i just hope i dont oversleep again (like last time) - as i said i my train arrives at 8.04 am - i will meet you at the north exit ! (if i havent made it till 8.15 go without me)

 

[thomas]

Haven't heard back from Philip yet, but Christoph and I will join tomorrow's ride. So meeting 8 to 8:15ish at Hon-Atsugi sounds feasible. I am not sure about the distance from Eda to Hon-Atsugi.

One concern Christoph has voiced is whether R710 will end up the same way R76 did last weekend. Anyhow, I am willing to take the risk.

 

[WhiteGiant]

Good to hear...

Thomas & Christoph,
It's almost exactly 25km from Eda to Hon-Atsugi (about an hour, eh!?)

See you there!
T

 

[Mike]

Thanks for a great ride Gents. The weather and scenery was perfect! (And of course the beer was pretty damned nice too) Hopefully we can get together next Saturday for the Tanzawako special.
Cheers, Mike

 

[Deej]

Wish I could have joined you guys on Saturday. That route looked like fun. Did all the roads turn out to be passable?

I had to do some family stuff in the morning and then work in the evening, so I couldn't hook up for an extended ride. I was able to squeeze in a ride over Odarumi Toge and Wada Toge, though, so the day wasn't a complete cycling loss.

With my bike being inspected for a defect (I finally got the lowdown from the LBS -- I'll post about that in a different thread), I had to borrow my friend's Bianchi, which is far smaller than my Felt. The effective top tube length on the Bianchi is about 53.5cm c-c, compared with 57.3 on my bike, so about a four cm difference. With my long inseam and the Bianchi's short head tube, I was rocking some serious saddle-to-bar drop. True pro peloton aesthetics. But aside from a little fatigue in my neck from holding my head at an extremish angle, I didn't have any issues with the major frame downsize. In fact, I quite liked how nimble and racy the bike handled. I actually logged my fastest-ever time door-to-door for the Jimba route using a bike that by all logic I probably should not be riding. Maybe what I experienced was a variant of new-bike-itis, as in, new=faster.

D

 

[WhiteGiant]

Fulll report

It was supposed to be 3 lakes, 3 climbs, but ended up being only one lake, four climbs...... Who's counting?

First of all, it was a great day of riding!
Great course (Thanks Mike!)
Great company (Thanks Christoph, Mike & Thomas!)
Great roads (Thanks to the Kanagawa Municipal Road Council of 20 years ago.)

Secondly, sorry to disappoint all those waiting for an update on the “unknown” road situation – we never made it that far.
After the first two course changes that Mike had suggested, it was clear that we’d all run out of time (and energy) before we made it back.


I met Mike at the station just after 8:00, and Christoph & Thomas came rolling in not long after that. We waited for Marek until 8:30, before the four of us decided to ride out.
The first part was basically Mike’s course along Nakatsu-gawa; flat for the first 8-9km or so. Lot’s of wiggles along the way, so please don’t ask for an accurate map of it – you’ll just have to explore for yourself.
We had a very short break at the 15km mark around 9am (Thomas skipped breakfast, and his ride down with “the Super-Express” had drained him of everything).

A credit to Mike: The first two climbs he picked for us (40km from Atsugi up to Yabitsu-toge – Cut-across roads from Rte.412 to Rte.64, then Rte.64 to Rte.70) proved to be more than we bargained for – we joked later that, “they looked flat on the map!”, but they were some really nice, steep mountain roads. And once we’d made it through the second gate on Rte.70 – about 5km from the top of Yabitsu (around 11:00), we all knew that the full 180km course just wasn’t going to happen.

We then decided to go (again) with Mike’s next choice of course:
Basically, Down Rte.64 to Miyagase-ko. Once we hit Rte.413, we turned almost immediately onto Rte.518. About half-way along we cut across to Rte.76 on a really nicely paved road (one of Philip’s favourites, I think); then straight back to R413 via Rte.76.
Once we were back at Miyagase-ko, we continued on Rte.64 around the lake, thence Rte.60 all the way back to Hon-Atsugi station – 113km in total.
It consisted of at least 4 descent climbs - the first & third were quite steep, and although the longest was no more than 5-6km, when all added up, it made for a very challenging ride. (I will endeavour to make a map of the course in the near future.)

All in all, the riding dynamic was fantastic – Christoph & Mike in the lead, with Thomas & I never more than a couple of hundred meters back at the top of each climb (albeit, in varying states of morbid despair).
The down-hills were absolutely awesome; particularly Rte.64 heading into Atsugi – with all of us doing roughly 45+km/h in VERY tight formation; that was the first time I’ve ever felt like a “USAF Blue Angels” fighter pilot.

Anyway, we all made it back to the station by 3pm (two hours ahead of schedule), so we had time for a post-ride beer.
After saying goodbye to Mike, the remaining 3 of us started rolling up Rte.246 – Christoph in the lead – Which is another adventure in itself.
Suffice to say, we made it 25km later to Eda (in under 55 minutes), where Thomas & I said goodbye to Christoph before rolling towards north-east Tokyo.
I got home at about 7:00, with 178km on the clock.

Travis

P.S. Wait for the map of the course – I highly recommend it!