Bicycle: 29 km
Car: 42 km
Riding time: 1:49 h
Average speed: 16,1 km/h
Weather: mostly cloudy , 27 C
When my friend first suggested this trip she proposed to cycle once around Lake Towada. Which I agreed to, but also pointed out that although this is only about a 50 km ride it has more than 1000 m of elevation gain. It’s a lake. But it is a volcanic lake in an old crater and in one place the road goes up to the rim of the crater. So it was quite unlikely that we would manage to do the ride.
Luckily a good alternative appeared. We had a relatively late start and until we were actually sitting on the bikes (we drove up to the lake from Kazuno by car) it was already 11:00. We parked at a road side station and started from there which was the flatter part of the ride. On our way I saw that the road along Oirase stream would be open from 12:00 onwards.
My friend was very happy to see that news as it meant we could alter our overly ambitious plan to make a full round of the lake to a much more easy but tourist-worthy ride along Oirase stream. Actually I had hoped that we could walk along the stream, but only the road had been opened for traffic, the walking path officially was still closed. Which didn’t stop all potential hikers but did stop us from attempting it. Oirase stream is very popular and has become very popular with foreign tourists as well. But thanks to the closure yesterday there were very few people today and no bus tours. So we could ride leisurely along the road , stop every now and then and walk a bit to see some highlights.
The River was fast flowing still showing the damage of the strong rain a few days ago.
As this is a River flowing out of the lake the road along it is downhill. Not steep at all, but it also meant we would need to ride it uphill again so relatively early we returned and started on our way back to the car.
The main road in some places was still very dirty from the rain that had washed down parts of the forest. So our bikes (and we) got pretty dirty.
Back at the car we put the bikes back into their bags and in the car and then drove back down to our excellent ryokan. We did stop at a very new road side station in our village that even had a foot bath. Kind of mandatory at a road side station called “big onsen”.
Back at our hotel we had a relaxing hot bath in the rotenburo before another excellent dinner and an early night on two very comfy futons.
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