October 13, 2024
Day 18: Nikko to Katashina
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Did the pre-tour hill training pay off for us? Today is the day we find out. I'll tell you this much: whatever group decided that this route should be used by fully-loaded tourists is decidedly off their collective rockers.
It looks pretty good on the elevation chart. A long climb, a nice plateau, a short climb, a nice plateau, a long climb, and that's it. A nicely paced day of hard work. Nothing to brag about.
The reality was quite a bit different. The long 8-10% grades were killers. There aren’t many turnouts where you can recharge your weary legs. And worst for us, the traffic! My gods was it bad today. I expected a lot of families in small boxy cars. What we got was a ton of motorcycles. It's like we were heading straight towards Sturgis! So many of them were cosplaying biker gangs, with their knockoff Harleys and their leather jackets emblazoned with knockoff names like "Yellowcorn". Ooh, I'm so intimidated when those Yellowcorns come blazing through town!
This was a day not so much about sights as about sounds and smells. Loud mufflers and exhaust fumes. Every motorcyclist and sports car owner in Japan must have been on this road today.
Yet it was still better than many of the days we've spent riding in North America.
Let's recap the day.
Whenever we get a tatami room, we make a huge mess of our belongings, which takes forever to clean up. Today was no exception.
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Being out the door at 7:45am should do the trick for us today.
As long as the grade continued at 4-5%, as it had yesterday, we could take our time and appreciate the beauty around us.
Soon came the switchbacks. I thought we'd be better off because the only traffic on this road is uphill. However, having two lanes meant that drivers were passing one another with astonishing frequency, as though they were jockeying for position in a race.
Eventually the drivers settled into a calmer groove. We stopped whenever we could. If there was a shoulder we would've taken at least twice as many short breaks, even though doing so results in a wobbly start and sore legs.
After many switchbacks, we entered a tunnel. At the end of the tunnel lay Lake Chuzenji. As it had just turned 11:00, we sought a noodle shop and immediately found what we think is the best one in town. I had a delicious shiitake mushroom udon. It sure hit the spot after that long ride.
Strangely, neither of us took a photo of the lake, even though we spent at least an hour there. Properly rested, it was time to step back into the torture chamber for another round of steep grades. This felt like a repeat of the first 650m of elevation gain, only much worse, because our legs were no longer fresh. We took it slow and steady. It was the key to our success. Two nice things about the second half: there was more scenery, and there was considerably less traffic.
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The summit was a disappointment, as it was just a tunnel. On the other hand, tunnels are good things when one is trying to avoid more climbing.
At the end of the tunnel, besides light, there was also a "welcome to Gunma Prefecture" sign that we had to perform a celebration for. We also took this opportunity to bundle up for the long downhill ride ahead.
Soon after, we came across a roadside stand with hot soba to warm our chilly bones. What a life saver!
We made it to our minshuku a few minutes earlier than expected. We realized at that point that we had neglected to plan for dinner. We tried the soba place down the street, but they had already closed for the day. We were resolved to skip dinner just this once, when I gave the map one more look, and found an "Italian restaurant" about 1km away. We called to make sure they were open, and they were kind enough to reserve a table for us. Western food isn't our thing when in Asia, but hunger is the best cook, and it turns out we were quite hungry after all.
The minshuku is a rickety place run by a very sweet old lady and her ailing husband. My experience in Korea staying in older homes served me well. It was cozy. We both slept soundly after this brutal day of riding.
We're going to stick with shorter-distance days for the time being. It suits our riding style, and it will certainly give us more time for sightseeing or just plain doing nothing.
Tomorrow we'll be camping again. Hopefully it won't be too cold!
Today's ride: 55 km (34 miles)
Total: 1,249 km (776 miles)
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