Day 8: Aomori to Lake Towada

October 3, 2024

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Good news! We have adventures to share today.

Dear reader, you may have noticed that we're not really into sightseeing on days when we ride. It's an awkward transition from cycling to walking. Our cleats, recessed though they may be, still clack on hard surfaces, and sometimes we're a little self-conscious wearing our kits in museums and such. We often do it regardless, but we don't do it on a whim. Today and tomorrow are different. Today because so many sights were available from the comfort of our saddles. Tomorrow for a different reason I'll explain later.

The rain fizzled out overnight, although cloudy skies remained. Occasional spittle reminded us not to take the weather for granted. We were out the door at 7:30. A long and difficult day lay ahead.

The first few kilometers took us to the outskirts of the city, where we followed a rather haphazard bike path along a river.

Soon we reached prefectural road 40, where the climbing began in earnest. The grade was generally between 5 and 8 per cent. Pretty manageable, but it was 700m to climb to the pass, and it got steeper as we neared the peak! Luckily we were well-rested, and more importantly, well-conditioned after our shorter climbs in Hokkaido.

We had the foresight to stock up at the first and only konbini of the day. Each treat was a morale booster, and provided fuel to get us up those hills.

Halfway up the big climb, Komoot took us on a shortcut that looked totally legit. It's nice to have a break from the main road, even though traffic was light. Well, in predictable fashion, our beautiful tarmac turned into broken asphalt, which then turned into gravel, when then led to a locked chain across the road! We were faced with a dilemma: trespass on gravel, or portage our bikes across the overgrown, muddy, limb-strewn path that lay to our right? We chose the latter, and let me tell you, folks, it wasn't the least bit fun. Again, it's the uncertainty that gets you. It almost always feels like things get worse with every few steps. In reality, it got worse, then it got better, then we saw the main road, and everything was peachy keen again.

We reached the pass without too much trouble. It was the descent that threatened to crush our spirits. The grade was gentle enough, but the air chilled us to the bone, even with much of our cold-weather gear in use. This may not bode well for late October in Nagano. But that's a worry for another day. In the meantime, we happened upon a little shop that was open. The nice ladies there served up what I'm sure was a pretty average udon, but wow, if that didn't hit the spot! We also chose a table near the propane heater, further enabling our quick recovery.

Hey look, I finally remembered to snap a photo before digging in! This is a mountain vegetable udon.

Soon afterward, we were able to maintain our warmth with another decent climb. Then came the big descent. It started out innocently enough.

I trusted a second alternate routing, even after the first one burned us. This one was interesting, to say the least. I understood it to be a bicycle path, and it was, but it was so littered with leaves and sticks that we had to slow to a crawl not to be sent ass-over-teakettle by some of the larger pieces of debris hidden by the leaves.

Sticks and stones may break my bones, which would end our tour very quickly

The trail then spat us out on to a country road, which started out fine, but became almost unbearably steep. We both complained of hands cramped by constantly slamming on the brakes. The steepest section was comprised of rough grooved concrete. I, on my heavily-laden bike, said "screw this," dismounted, and walked the hundred or so meters to its end.

We found ourselves in the same uncomfortably clammy situation as before. A coffee house magically appeared out of nowhere. We haven't fared well with such places in Korea: mediocre coffee that's very overpriced, coupled with poor ambience. It's mostly about having a place to chat with your friends for a while. Not exactly what we're after. But I was after a hot drink, and not only did we get that, but we got a repeat of the "sit next to the propane heater" treatment. The owner encouraged us to make ourselves at home, up to and including taking our shoes off to warm up our toes. Man, did we ever need that!

Yep, that's a motorcycle in the background

Surf's up! The coffeehouse also hosted a stage with amplifiers, guitars, and even a halfway decent-looking plywood upright bass

We'd hardly left the coffeehouse when we stumbled across an information center for the Oirase River gorge. We knew of this attraction, but we didn't know much about it. Soon we started to see busloads of shutterbugs scurrying about everywhere.

The road followed the river all the way up to Lake Towada, so even if we hadn't been in the mood to see the rapids and the waterfalls, they were mostly within eyeshot regardless. Rather than recount the experience in words, I'll just leave these photos here.

Some kind of automated vehicle. We waited a while for it to go somewhere, but it never did.

I pretend not to care about clicks and likes, but when you're out there touring on your lonesome (or even twosome), sometimes you look for human connection and validation in unconventional ways. In the CycleBlaze world, tons of pretty pictures are a sure key to success. So there we have it. I'll ride the crest of this wave until we find another similarly-photogenic slice of nature.

Since rain was inevitable tonight, we opted for a private room at a backpackers' hostel. It's a ways past the campground, and involved not only a climb, but also a tunnel. I'm sure you're tired of tunnel photos, but I had to include this because the sidewalk was so wide! Hopefully we'll see a lot more of these. It was a real pleasure to ride.

The last time we stayed at a hostel was 2021 in Paris. It wasn't the best experience, although the staff was incredibly helpful in allowing us to store and box our bikes in their common area. We don't find private rooms in a hostel to be a particularly good value. We may end up sleeping in segregated dormitories one of these days, especially if we decide to try out one of these "rider houses" (the "riders" being primarily motorcyclists) they have here in Japan.

We were greeted by a French couple who are also cycle touring. We haven't seen them again since, but I'll report in the journal if we have a chance to chat with them in the morning. I want to know where they've been and where they're going.

Tomorrow is going to be a very short riding day, because we will rendezvous with our first and probably only Warmshowers host of the tour, and they live only about 35km down the mountain from here. We've planned a short detour to Kosaka, which looks like a really interesting place. We'll see!

Today's ride: 72 km (45 miles)
Total: 525 km (326 miles)

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