D3 Nozawa onsen back to Nagano

Route: Nozawa onsen - Kaesa - Tokyo
Bicycle: 35 km
Train: 250 km
Total ascent: 328 m
Average speed: 18.1 km/h
Riding time: 1:54 h
Weather: sunny and WAY TOO HOT!

After the rather cold day in the wet yesterday, today was my return to the valley and with that the heat.

Up in Nozawa onsen, there is skiing even in summer on plastic slopes. My mother always tells me that the one and only time she tried to learn skiing was on a plastic slope. And not even on a mountain, but in Frankfurt in a stadium where they had put a plastic slope on top of the tribune, some motor oil on top so that it would be nice a slippery and then it was time to learn skiing. Surprisingly she never got the hang of it nor enjoyed the experience. These snow(plastic)boarders in Nozawa onsen seemed to enjoy it more. 

There is a lake close to Nozawa onsen, but the direct road is closed since a long time (it was already closed all the previous times I came up here. As today I hadn't any special plans I tried if the closed road was passable for a cyclist... but it wasn't. So I went a long way downhill, just to cycle up again to get to the "famous" lake. And yes, it's a nice, serene, small lake on which people do some kayaking. 

On the shores was what looked like an old school house now transformed into a relaxed bar. Very relaxed indeed. Although there were hardly any guests, it took an eternity for them to scrape up two balls of ice cream. 

From this place it was downhill and then in the valley all the way to Nagano... or so was my plan. But with every loss of meter of elevation the temperature kept soaring and once down in the valley it was simply too hot for me in the middle of the day to continue riding. 

And instead of risking a heat stroke, I took a quick glance at google maps, found a nearby very small train station and was in luck that the next train would depart soon, but not too soon for me to reach the station and pack the bicycle up. I think I even had time for a quick visit to the loo and refueling the drinks. So a rather short day in the saddle... but after quite some time finally again a weekend away with my bike. 

I had planned a longer weekend away later in September, and while it turned out to be perfect weather, I also managed to catch a cold right in time to bind me to bed for the entire long weekend :-(