Day 21: Kusatsu to Nagano

October 16, 2024

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It was a day of detours, one unintended, the other unavoidable. In all, they added 12km to today's ride. Not too bad, all considering, and a great reason to plan for shorter days so there's wiggle room for those inevitable last-minute changes.

First, let's say goodbye to our lovely little tatami room:

...and hello to Kusatsu's very own michi no eki:

After climbing out of town, it was all white-knuckle downhill riding. If you've been reading along, you know that I've become pretty good at ignoring all the little side quests Komoot likes to send me on. Well, this one was different. My computer just kept beeping and beeeeeping. I finally stopped at a pullout and checked. I missed an important turn 2km and a lot of uphill ago! I looked at the big picture and quickly realized that we'd be fine. It dumps us about 5km west of where we wanted to be, and we'd have to gain some elevation in the process of course correction. It's a good thing we have a rest day scheduled after this.

The river pictures have probably become boring by now, but we'll continue to take them in order to show that Japan is a wet place, and when you're riding in the mountains, water is your constant companion. Such scenery is a great reason to grind out those climbs.

This is a machine that allows the public to process their rice for a fee. We don't know how they're getting their unprocessed rice, or whether it's just removing the hulls or also polishing it. Maybe there are multiple options.

Waiting, waiting, waiting for the construction light to turn. We were worried about this one because it's uphill, but it turned out to be pretty short, and the timer very long.

Asserting flow control in this river, assumedly to limit erosion under the roadway

And grind out those climbs we did. The push to Torii pass was generally a nice 4-6% grade, but it went on for what seemed like forever. There was no confetti party at the summit. Simply signs informing us that we've crossed prefectures.

My dear hard-working wife was carrying our lunch on her bike, because we didn't want to be stranded in the middle of nowhere without food options. We ran across a little roadside restaurant towards the end of our chilly descent. After a very brief discussion, we decided we earned a hot meal. The lady running the place was super nice and the food was amazing. Spoiler alert: we ended up eating the konbini food for dinner.

Hard to go wrong with a mom and pop shop

My talented partner saved the day again by noticing, reading, and translating a road closure sign well in advance of our having to deal with it. By staying on the national road instead of taking the prefectural road as planned, we added another 7km to the ride, all of it through the orchards and suburbs north of Nagano. It was mostly downhill, which made it kind of fun. There was even one instance in which we helped the farmers by scaring off a bunch of blackbirds. Or at least black birds. They weren't crows.

Ski slope near the summit of our second climb

Startling birds and farmers alike as we zoom down the farm roads

We crossed a long bridge, marking our grand entrance to Nagano. From there it was still quite a way to our hotel. City riding is slow and exhausting.

The sorriest-looking bike lane in the world, but we love it anyway

I knew that the place we'd booked was nestled in the foothills near the edge of town, but I hadn't expected the ride up to be quite so steep. It turned into a hike-a-bike situation. Not ideal at the end of a long ride.

This place is dingy and dated. Just our style. We have covered parking for our bikes. The room is big and comfy. I'll snap a photo of the view later. It's fantastic.

We took advantage of the little on-site onsen. Now we feel clean and loosened up. We'll do some sightseeing tomorrow, and we might also visit a bike shop for a quick tuneup. Everything seems to be in proper working order, but we'd like to keep it that way. It's hard to believe, but we're not even half way through the tour yet.

Speaking of which, we're seriously considering heading south instead of west from Matsumoto. This should shave two days and a lot of climbing off our schedule. The mountain stages have been challenging and rewarding. I do feel that they're much better suited to credit card touring than the fully-loaded variety. We being of the latter, it may be time to quit while we're ahead.

Today's ride: 78 km (48 miles)
Total: 1,430 km (888 miles)

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