September 28, 2024
Day 3: Arutorimisaki to Shimamaki
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We slept so well last night! It was a real treat, and just what we needed to prepare ourselves physically for a day with two major climbs, and as it turned out, a pretty steady headwind.
It was finally sunny enough to bring out the solar panel. It sets up pretty nicely splayed across the rear panniers, and with a long enough cable, you can throw the gadget of your choice in the pannier itself.
We were excited to chance upon a michi no eki, or roadside station, for the first time. Between waiting for it to open, perusing the items for sale (many of them local specialties), eating our second breakfast, and taking care of various and sundry business, we spent more than an hour there. I was getting antsy. We still needed to buy lunch items, because we were going to be out in the boonies for most of the day.
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We spent a lot of time along the coast, often with panoramic views of the huge bay and the entire land mass that surrounds it. Incredibly stunning, but not something that would translate well to a photo. On the other hand, sea stacks are always photogenic:
We've seen a few videos of bike tourists unwittingly riding mountain roads that close halfway to their destination, because they couldn't read the posted warning sign and they had no data service to translate. When we reached our first construction zone, that's all I could think about. Luckily, no such issues arose. Besides, I have a pretty decent translator as a partner.
We encountered some tunnels today, including a doozy of a long one. Fortunately, it also had an ample sidewalk, so we felt very safe. From what I've read, that's more the exception more than the norm. Here's to hoping that we encounter a lot of exceptions on this tour.
Once inland, we were usually either climbing or enjoying charming pastoral scenery. More of the former than the latter. It turns out that we had trained well, and were up to the challenges facing us today.
We kept looking for a good lunch spot, but not having any luck. We hoped to find a park in the town of Kuromatsunai, and we felt so blessed to discover a lovely little rest stop just before then. It had drinking water and clean restrooms. And covered benches we could lie down on!
We huffed and puffed up the big climb of the day. Why do thr big climbs happen so often at the end of the day? This one was a 6-8%, fairly monotonous grade through forest land. Though the climb was boring, the scenery was often gorgeous. Check out this photo:
We reached the summit right on schedule, with some gas left in the tank, but also pretty sore quads. There had been several false summits before this, so it was great to see a sign that we were finally at the top.
My wife and I had discussed some of the snow infrastructure we ran across, like the snowcatchers or snow drift barriers, or whatever they're called. Just pass the summit, we encountered two of these snow tunnels, which make one feel like an aquarium fish while traversing. It's an expensive but effective way to keep the road clear in areas like mountain passes, where the wind pushes snow all around in unpredictable ways.
I think it took an hour to climb 7km, and 15 minutes to descend 9km. We caught some amazing views of the sea on the way down. All of a sudden, we were at the sea again, this time on the west coast. Our campground on the beach awaited us. There was no one there but a lone surfer who soon hopped in his van and sped away.
As is often the case next to the ocean, the wind blustered until the sun set. Pitching the tent was a real challenge. Once set up, the rainfly filled with more air than Dizzy Gillespie's cheeks. We sat upwind of the tent and cooked some ramen, which warmed us well after battling the chilly wind for a while.
Most of tomorrow's ride will take place along the coast. The elevation profile looks very roller-coastery, which we hope will be mitigated by what we hope will be a swift tailwind. Tune in tomorrow (assuming we have decent data access) to find out!
Today's ride: 76 km (47 miles)
Total: 239 km (148 miles)
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