Last year October I had come to the lower slopes of this mountain with my friends, when we cycled from Tokyo to Hinohara. And now that I start to like cycling in the mountains I decided to come back again to attempt the full climb. As always before going, I planned my ride with Komoot and looked at the profile. A long, long climb, but it didn't seem to be too crazy steep... and I knew that if it was going to be too tiring I could turn any place and just roll back again the mountain, back to a train station. But finally that was not necessary and actually I enjoyed the ride up quite a lot. Slowly, and with breaks but essentially riding up all the way (just a very short part I pushed the bike, but that was away from the main street on a crazy steep climb on rugged roads in a village).
This road is well travelled by cyclists, motorcyclists and also some cars, but not too many and no trucks. Which also means that there are enough vending machines along the road to replenish water resources and several restaurants as well. When I passed the onsen where last time we relaxed and then returned it was still too early for lunch, so went on, and some time later I passed through a small onsen village and had lunch at a ryokan. They had very nice looking wild vegetable tempura.
I often order tempura... but actually often find that it is too fatty... and this was no exception. Plus it was way too much. But definitely looked very nice.
After that, back on the bike and up, up it went. While cycling up and taking a rest in the shade along the road, I met a German cyclist with whom I have cycled twice. She is crazy fast and crazy long ranging rides. She was already on her way back, having cycled from Shibuya to Ome, Okutama, over the mountain and was now on her way back down to Musashi Itsukaichi and then back to Shibuya all by bike and still had plans for the afternoon. After a 200+ km ride. What energy!
The pass itself was actually a bit disappointing... no view.
But not that much later I got to this very nice view point. The crazy thing is that that lake down there, is mighty old Okutama lake! A lake to which you need to climb up and up... and there it was, down in the valley! Very satisfying view. I guess I am starting to get it why there are famous climbs with famous views. Probably this one isn't really famous, but for me this view was really rewarding.
Then downhill, along the lake, further downhill to Okutama station, further downhill to Ome and I continued on. At that point I made a wrong decision giving to Komoot the decision how to ride back home, which resulted in a long stretch on a very busy road, which in hindsight I could have avoided in probably 2 different ways (Tamagawa cycling road or smaller but not too small roads in the same area). Anyway, I made it back down to Tokyo, linked up close to Lake Tama with the cycling road that goes all the way straight into Kichijoji and then from there back home. Long ride... but from that picture above all downhill!
No comments:
Post a Comment