D2 - Weekend around Bessho Onsen

Route: Bessho Onsen - into the mountains - Aoki - Ueda
Bicycle: 55 km
Train: 210 km
Average Speed: 13.8 km/h
Total elevation:
Riding time:
Weather: Quite sunny but not that warm as yesterday. Maybe 20C?

The day started with a very Japanese breakfast in my ryokan. I tried to eat as much as I could, knowing that it wouldn't be easy to find a restaurant in the mountains between Bessho Onsen and Matsumoto... but I am not born for breakfast. 

Being in Bessho onsen, I needed to do some sightseeing before leaving. First stop was the local big public bathhouse, very close to the ryokan. Only from outside, but it is supposed to have both an indoor pool and a rotenburo. 

From there to the first sightseeing spot, an ancient temple (Jorakuji) with it's thatched roof. Behind that temple is a small cementery in the forest and a swamp with some nice white flowers. 

It could be a very serene spot, were it not for these two enormous flags outside that squeak on their metal pools in the wind. Again very strong wind today. The flags look nice and all, but I am feeling for the poor people living closeby having to hear their squeaking day and night. 

The next stop was an other temple (Anrakuji), which from a temple perspective seems quite normal, but it has this octagonal 3 story pagode in the forested cemetery behind, which seems to be a unique shape for a pagoda. Well, I guess most of them are square. 

Off to the last temple in town, Kitamuki Kannon ...

... from which's balcony one has a nice view down into the valley of Ueda. 

This concluded the touristy bit of the day. From here a small road went up and up into the mountains behind Bessho onsen, through very small villages. 

My plan was to ride up and over and down to Matsumoto. This part of the road which was destroyed by some landslide, did not put a stop to my plan... 

But soon after turning on to the bigger road (which wasn't much bigger anyway and didn't have any traffic either), I was due (per komoot plan) to turn into yet an other small road, continue uphill, before descending to Matsumoto. However that part of the road turned out to be a gravel road (unexpectedly as Komoot was expecting a paved road). Now, I am not opposed to gravel, but in the middle of really nowhere (no internet, no phone reception), in potential land of bears, needing to ride uphill on a very gravelly gravel road for 3 km didn't sound like a good idea at the moment. Also not knowing if after 3 km the path would again join a "real" road or not. 

At that point I had two options: turn left and join National Highway # 254 to Matsumoto or turn right and ride down the mountain on a small but reasonably good street back to the valley of Ueda. I did choose the second option, as I am pretty convinced that National Highway #254 is full of cars and trucks and tunnels. Doesn't sound like fun. And I had no NEED to go to Matsumoto. Staying on this side of the mountains was just as well. But my curiosity is spiked and I will try this ascent again, however not from Bessho Onsen, but maybe from Aoki where there should be a real (small) street over the mountains to Matsumoto. 

So down it was. In Aoki little by little population and people picked up again and I found a "michi-no-eki" to have lunch and decide where next. I decided to go to Nagano, but to also climb up an other hill closeby. So hill first: 

And then down to the valley, where I should have joined a bicycle path to Nagano (maybe about 30 km)... but the wind was still very strong and even though it would have been slightly downwards to Nagano, the wind was a very strong headwind. So instead I decided to ride river upwards to Ueda (wind in the back, bicycle road below my tires) and take a Shinkansen from there back over the mountain (to be fair: through the mountain) to the Tokyo side of things. 

Good timing allowed me to hop on the next Shinkansen a few minutes after arriving at the platform and getting back to Tokyo. 

Walking (and a bit of cycling) tour of Bessho Onsen:

And from here it is real cycling. After the elevation disaster (misscalculation by Wahoo) yesterday, today I recorded the ride on Strava instead... which is not ideal as it drains the battery unnecessarily: