October 4, 2024
Day 9: Lake Towada to Kazuno
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I'll keep today's journal entry on the short side, to match our ride. We had our challenges, including how to kill some time so that we'd make it to our host's house when they're actually home.
It rained pretty heavily last night, and while it lightened up, it was still pretty steady in the morning. We enjoyed our tatami room until shortly before checkout at 10am.
We finally had a chance to chat with our French cycling compatriots, Maxime and Justine, before setting out for today's big climb. They're heading the same direction as us, so we may run into them again.
While some rain is fine on the flats when dressed properly, on hills, one runs the very real possibility of overheating. The first 250 meters of elevation gain were the kind I dread. 8-10% grades, twisty hairpin turns, and enough traffic that it demands a fair amount of attention to stay safe.
After a long time and a lot of little breaks, we finally arrived at a nice viewpoint and observation deck. The latter allowed us to dry off a bit as we enjoyed the view.
One last push, and we reached the first summit, which I guess meant that we were out of the caldera. But we weren't out of the woods yet.
Steep grades were now sporadic rather than constant, but we were very eager to move on to the descent. It turns out that poor road conditions would make the cruise downhill almost as much trouble as the climb, with our hands cramping up again from applying the brakes so much.
We finally made it to Kosaka, a small town with a few interesting Western-style buildings. It was once home to a rare diesel-operated passenger rail line. Since we had time to kill, we visited the train museum. They're working to restore the engines, but it's a long and tedious process. My wife called the place a "rail graveyard." There wasn't much to see, which is a shame, because we were looking for ways to kill time. A few rail cars and engines weren't enough to mesmerize us.
When the time finally came to ride the final leg of today's tour, Komoot routed us on farm roads that were very pretty.
We're sitting comfortably at our host's house as I type this, but I'm very sleepy, so I'll cover our visit in some detail tomorrow.
Today's ride: 45 km (28 miles)
Total: 570 km (354 miles)
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