Otarumi - N Shore Tsukui Loop

Mt Fuji from the top of Otarumi Pass. Beautiful reward for the climb.

Thursday was a beautiful, sunny, and not-freezing early winter day. Nils and I headed out for a morning ride. He has wrapped up his year-end projects and is trying to get in 4500kms this year, and must ride on average 60km per day through 12/31 to get there.  I was scheduled to co-teach a class in the evening (actually, a double class, to avoid one next week), but had no commitments through mid-afternoon.

I have not been tracking my mileage closely this year ... but while way beyond 4500kms, am probably not over 10,000km. I will try the Rapha "Festive 500" -- 500kms between 12/24 and 12/31--as in many past years. I hope that 2019 will be a big cycling year for me. After lots of academic travel this year, I am adjusting and will try for more personal and cycling travel in 2019 ... Tasmania (tdt.bike) in February, Europe (including Paris-Brest-Paris) in August, Pacific NW in early September. Japan the rest of the time.

We decided to do the classic half-day (or a bit more) loop out past Takao, over Otarumi pass, then back via the North side of Lake Tsukui, and back to the Tamagawa via Onekansen Doro.

The Tamagawa at our rendezvous point.

Nils was a bit late leaving home, so we changed our meeting place from Futako Tamagawa to the bridge over the river at Setagaya Dori, just beyond the Odakyu Line. Once we met up, we made decent time upriver, and into a headwind.

One of the "one hundred views of Fuji", sponsored by TEPCO Power Grid

Our first stop was at Takao (50kms from home for me). After a quick snack and responding to work emails, we made the climb. I felt pretty lethargic the whole time, including on the climb. But a reward waited at top--a beautiful view over hilltops and trees to a snow-covered Mt. Fuji.

Everything went well as we descended the west side of Otarumi, turned SE and headed back toward town, then took our planned detour across Lake Tsukui and climbed to the rindo.

Early winter farmland near Lake Tsukui

I got a flat on my rear tire just after entering the rindo. Okay, I probably rode over a rock hidden under leaves. Nothing suspicious at all, and I quickly changed my tube. I made it to the other end of the rindo ... when I got a second flat,

We stopped just past the "Columbian drug lord" house as I put in my second spare tube, this time checking VERY carefully for any glass or wire stuck in my tire. Nothing. As I started to change the tire, a call came from an older lady at the house below the road. "Daijyoubu desu ka?" "are you okay?"  Yes, Nils assured her. Just changing a flat tire. Do you have the tools you need? Yes, no problem. This answer was obviously not good enough. Two tall westerners must have been the most exciting thing on their street in awhile. The couple came up to chat. Then the husband went back to get his electric air pump. We reassured him (in Japanese) that we had a hand pump and had it covered. He brought it anyway. He realized there was no outlet to plug in the pump, so the wife drove their little car up the drive and onto the road ... I guess they might have had a 100volt outlet somewhere in the car, though it looked unlikely. Anyway, in the end we had to refuse their help, the tire change was already done and the re-inflation completedly. So instead the brought us to cold beverages in PET bottles. We thanked them and accepted the liquid -- I was grateful since my water was empty and it was another 5kms at least the next potential convenience store.

Anyway, the third tube went flat when we were on the "tank road" in Machida. My replacement tubes were "light weight" thin and, it turned out, useless. I applied one of Nils' patches to my original tube -- having identified the pinch flat holes. With that, I made it down the tank road and almost to Onekan ... but it was still clearly losing air, so we parted ways and I went to Sagamihara Station and hopped the train.

A good ride ... 90 kms in winter, but a reminder that even on one of these shorter half-day rides I need to carry equipment that gets me home.