Day 19: Katashina to Takayama

October 14, 2024

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The route from Nikko to Gifu is bisected by Nagano. That's where we'll spend our upcoming off day. It's at not quite the halfway point. Our revised mountain itinerary puts us there at the end of day 4, with 6 days afterwards. That'll set us up for the following week's off day in Gifu. Most days involve a little over a thousand meters of climbing per day, except for one day towards the end that's just one long slog up a very large mountain. That one involves 1500m of climbing. Oy vey!

We needed a break after two very stressful days of riding. The stars aligned in a certain way to make it happen. First, there's very little in the way of lodging between Numata and Kusatsu. Second, after Scott Anderson's seventeen-year-old rave about Kusatsu, I wanted to get there early so we could check it out. He hasn't steered us wrong yet (but there's always a first time)! Third, there's a campground after the biggish climb out of Numata. So our goal today was to reach the campground and rest our sore quads. And calves. And hamstrings. And butts.

Start-of-the-day and end-of-the-day photos may be boring, but they're so easy to take. Plus, we put a lot of effort into securing our lodgings. When I read a journal, I'm always curious about how others go about it and what they end up with. It seems that there are as many approaches as there are bike tourists. Anyway, here we go!

Like home away from home, but completely different

We cheated by loading and unloading through the sliding glass door in front of our room.

Katashina has a michi no eki, and boy is it nice. That's a food truck behind me on the left. They have the same fancy coffee vending machine the other michi no eki had, but it was sold out of everything but hot cocoa. The cocoa was not very good, but it was hot and we were cold, so it was perfect. Since today was set up to be more relaxed, we didn't feel guilty taking a break after just five mostly-downhill kilometers.

It was also mostly downhill all the way to and through Numata. I think this is the only photograph snapped between the two of us during this section, which took up more than half of today's riding. It's a good representative photo of the kind of views we enjoyed when we weren't scanning the pavement in front of us for potholes.

There was a point at which we could choose either a hilly road or a tunnel that bypasses it. After taking one look at the wide tunnel sidewalk, we took the easy way out with no regrets.

We made it into town unscathed. Komoot decided to treat us to a brief detour through side streets. It was a pleasant break from all the hubbub of the main highway.

Can someone name this crop? At least, we think it's a crop.

We wanted to enjoy lunch in Numata, but it was early yet, and it seemed that many shops would be closed due to the holiday. By the way, happy sports day, everyone! We stopped to consider our options.

The path of least resistance was to visit a konbini and have a picnic. And that's exactly what we did. The park was nearby, there were tables and birds and families enjoying the day off together. A really heartwarming scene.

Most of Numata Park isn't this pretty, but it was a great place to eat and relax nonetheless

Well-fed and well-rested, it was finally time to tackle the climb. There's not much to be said about it. It was consistent, but also consistently steep. The great thing about it, in our case at least, was that once tackled, our destination was near at hand.

Just after the crest of the hill, we passed Lockheart Castle. Apparently it was an actual Scottish castle that was moved here stone-by-stone. Or maybe all in one piece. I have no idea. It's a theme park now, a kind of Little Europe. Sounds like great kitschy fun.

When we neared our destination campground, my fabulous wife shopped for dinner at the village 7-11 while I checked to see if there were any less-hilly ways to get there. She had a conversation with the clerk, who was possibly the owner, and discovered that there's another campground nearby. Roughly the same distance and same amount of climbing, but this one was run by the local government as opposed to the private one we had lined up. We always like to support the towns and villages we pass through, so we quickly rerouted to the public facility.

We had our site picked out by 3:00, giving us plenty of time to take care of all our chores in the daylight. This is how camping should be! It was so nice to air out the tent to get rid of that musty smell.

I'm the cook at home, but for some strange reason, the roles are reversed when we camp. I think it's wonderful, and I don't mind dishwashing duty one bit.

Using up the last of the rice that Akina gifted us. It made for a delicious meal!

We have more time than we know what to do with at this point. I was going to take this opportunity to share some witty observations about our travels thus far, but I've completely forgotten what I wanted to say. It's all for the best. We'll just rest up as best we can to prepare for tomorrow's batch of climbs.

Today's ride: 47 km (29 miles)
Total: 1,297 km (805 miles)

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