Perfect weather today: no clouds, very clear air. Fuji-san was dominating the scenery wherever I went. And koyo added for more spectacular scenery, at least below 1,000 meters.
Today was the day to go high, and to try out two north approaches which were new to me: Wada (completely new - Tom has blogged about it, so have TCC folks), and Otoge (have done it only from the other side).
The newly discovered north approach of Wada Toge is nice. Especially the lower part with the farm houses is very picturesque. Quite wet though after all the rain and on the fallen leaves, this can be treacherous. It meant I had to stay in the saddle whenever going over wet leaves, to avoid slipping.
I then headed via the old Koshukaido to Sarubashi, and from there climbed up to Otoge, which was in places in similar conditions as the north approach to Wada, though much, much longer... Very nice views of the distant mountains, including Matsuhime Toge. But no more koyo above 1,000 meters.
I then took Akiyama Kaido and various backroads to Hashimoto where it became too dark to ride on. 200km and 3,000 meters of climbing. Mapmyride will no longer show my newly imported routes (old ones still work), so no GPS trail for now.
The newly discovered north approach of Wada Toge is nice. Especially the lower part with the farm houses is very picturesque. Quite wet though after all the rain and on the fallen leaves, this can be treacherous. It meant I had to stay in the saddle whenever going over wet leaves, to avoid slipping.
I then headed via the old Koshukaido to Sarubashi, and from there climbed up to Otoge, which was in places in similar conditions as the north approach to Wada, though much, much longer... Very nice views of the distant mountains, including Matsuhime Toge. But no more koyo above 1,000 meters.
I then took Akiyama Kaido and various backroads to Hashimoto where it became too dark to ride on. 200km and 3,000 meters of climbing. Mapmyride will no longer show my newly imported routes (old ones still work), so no GPS trail for now.
Nice coincidence to meet Tom, Nishibe-san and David at Sekidobashi (see also Tom's blog) - if only David had worn our uniform!
I also wore a long jersey on top of the short one, which proved just right for today's weather: starting at 14 degrees from home, 9 degrees on the ascent to Wada, 20 degrees in Sarubashi, 12 degrees on top of Otoge - you get the picture...
Can anyone remember such a stunning view from just below Wada Toge?
Koyo on the descent from Otoge, somewhere below 1,000 meters.
Firemen everywhere in the villages, hunters everywhere in the mountains. Fortunately nobody threatened me unlike David - see Tom's blog.
Manfred:
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear that you had a good ride.
I'm sorry I was out of uniform for the photo you took of the 4 of us at Sekidobashi--I expected much colder weather than we had. At first I thought your camera lens was dirty -- based on what appears to have black splotches on the sky above our heads in the photo ... but on closer inspection these prove to be a large flock of birds.
On my way home down the Tama-sai (Tamagawa Cycling path), there were large numbers of people about with cameras on tripods -- I realized they were waiting to try to photograph not birds, but the sun setting just over Mt. Fuji -- the so-called "Diamond Fuji" view. No doubt many succeeded given the cloudless sky.