I woke up early Sunday anticipating a long ride in somewhat cooler and dry weather. The morning paper predicted cloudy with a 20% chance of rain in the morning, and sunny with a 10% chance of rain in the afternoon. I usually ignore forecasts until the night before or day of a ride, since the Japanese weather changes so quickly (or the forecasting is so bad) that the forecast is worthless until the last 12-24 hours. Well, now I've confirmed yet again that the forecasts are worth very little even during the last 12-24 hours.
I had a nice ride in misty rain to Uenohara and up Tawa/Tsuru passes on Rte 18 ... but turned back on Tsuru when the rain got too heavy and the weather too cold. All in all, a peaceful solo ride, the longest I've had in two months (165 km+).
Thanks to Tom Spillaert for showing me the road to Tawa/Tsuru two years ago. Rte 18's "Uenohara-Tabayama Line" is still a beautiful valley, good road surface with almost no car traffic.
Glad you still like that road David! For this coming fall season, I plan to explore and familiarize myself with the Saitama area furhter. Hopefully I can discover some more similarly peaceful passes. Yesterday was a bummer in terms of unexpected rain...as long as it is in a race context, I don't mind though. The Nariki Stage Tokyo Hillclimb was very nice and the post-race party at Stephen & Ryoko's place even nicer. Be sure to join next year!
ReplyDeleteYes, the rain was really something and it is amazing that you could make this trip without coming into the rain showers.
ReplyDeleteConcerning weather forecasts, my wife has an interesting opinion about them: She says that they are generally speaking very precise, however if a typhoon is approaching the understanding of the Japanese public is, that this would be the theoretical weather excluding the influence of the typhoon. I don't know if this is true or even maeningful, but surely there was a typhoon moving along the South of Japan.