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| Emerging at the top of the climb between Nagano-shi and Hakuba |
This weekend I rode an AJ Chiba 600km event, with a midnight Friday night start. It was a spectacular, challenging ride, with many highlights. I want to thank the Chiba organizers for carefully planning our route.
AJ Chiba is the Chiba-based chapter of Audax Japan. Because Chiba is mostly a peninsula on the far eastern edge of Honshu, it is somewhat isolated. You can't get anywhere by going "through" Chiba, though Chiba itself has some lovely seacoast, beaches, and Japanese countryside. Sure enough, the course for this Chiba-sponsored ride went from Tsuchiura, Ibaraki, northeast of Tokyo, to Hakuba, on the northwestern edge of mountainous Nagano Prefecture, and back again. The route did not go through Chiba ... except for a tiny sliver of the prefecture around Noda that mysteriously extends between Ibaraki and Saitama.
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| The Renovo "Firewood" bike, resting in view of the Northern Japan Alps |
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The Earthquake!
As I was getting a bite at a convenience store, during the descent from Karuizawa to Ueda in eastern-central Nagano Prefecture on Saturday late morning, about 10 1/2 hours into the event, I checked my phone, and saw an earthquake alert!
Apparently there had been a major earthquake in the area of Nagano City and Ogawamura, to my northwest. In those areas near the epicenter of the shallow quake, this event measured "5" on the Japanese scale of shaking intensity. Oh no!
Of course, I remembered seeing an exhibit at the castle in Matsumoto nearby, which presented the many times the castle buildings had been totally destroyed by quakes over the past few hundred years. I imagined buildings in Nagano at angles, roadways cracked, survivors screaming the names of their loved ones and digging through debris of collapsed houses.
I had planned to join a March 12 brevet in 2011 and needed to cancel because of the March 11 disaster -- no train service even to Nagoya for the start and no one in a mood for a ride, even in places far away from the Tohoku tsunami and the nuclear plants that were just going into meltdown that Saturday. Then in 2016, our Kumamoto Fleche was cancelled because of the Kumamoto earthquake a few days before our planned event. Landslides covering roads, relief teams en route -- not a time for a cycling event. Would this be a third time, but DURING the ride?
Our route would put us at the center of Nagano City a few hours later, and then that night we would go through Ogawamura and again ride along the southwestern edge of Nagano City. We could not very well continue the ride if first responders were engaged in rescue operations, road surfaces cracked, worries spreading about food and water supply!
I went back into the convenience store and asked the clerk about it ... he was a bit older and looked as if he might be a franchisee/owner. He shrugged. "Yeah, we felt a little shake here". What about damage in Nagano City? "Haven't heard about any." I decided to press on.
After a few minutes back on the bike, I came to a "secret checkpoint" -- two of the AJ Chiba staffers checking us off and making sure we followed the correct route, instead of taking a fairly obvious shortcut. I asked about the quake? Had they heard? "Yes." Well, what of it? Would the ride go on? "Sure". Any damage in Nagano City? They shrugged their shoulders.
A few hours later I rode through the area near the epicenter of the quake, going South to North right through the center of Nagano City, past major buildings, government offices, and up the hills, along the edge of Shinshu University Education Department's campus.
It looked chaotic that afternoon. The streets were jammed (... with usual weekend afternoon traffic). An evacuation area, typically used as an athletic field or school "ground", was full of people (... who, judging from the uniforms I saw and the age of those wearing them, were not SDF or firefighter "first responders", but rather seemed to be playing and watching a high school baseball game).
Seriously, I did not see ANY damage, nor any sign that there had been an earthquake a few hours earlier. The same was true for Ogawamura ... where we descended a highway in the pitch dark at very high speeds for nearly 20 kms to get to the last checkpoint of Saturday. It would NOT have been a happy occasion to come across a massive crack in the road at such speeds.
Yes, one fellow rider noted, they really do need to fix the nationwide earthquake alert system to weed out minor ones that do not cause any damage. I guess at this point anything in Nagano that will be damaged by a mere "5", (okay, it was "5 minus"), has already been damaged. Everything left standing is sturdy enough to get through a quake. Maybe they need to up the threshold for these nationwide alerts to everyone's mobile phones?
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The Start
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| Reflective vests show the riders signing in -- around 30 showed, of fewer than 45 who signed up. |
The midnight start was at a river's edge just south of Tsuchiura Station -- less than 1 hour and about $20 by train from Shinagawa via the "Tokiwa" express. Somewhat fewer than 45 persons had registered for the ride, and I don't think any more than 30 showed up. Midnight start? 600kms? Mountains en route? Something other than the threat of an earthquake had scared them away. At least the weather forecast looked great -- a beautiful Saturday, and a cool Sunday with rain only coming in the evening, long after our finish! I even took the fenders off my chosen bike, the wood-framed Renovo, so that I could fit it easily in a "rinko" bag for the train.
At the start, I recognized several of the Chiba organizers by face, if not by name. And some of the riders were familiar as well. One, Nitta-san, came up and introduced himself as having done the Utsunomiya ride 2 weeks ago. Another, who said his first name is Kijiro, ended up riding the first 100kms with me. As we rode he said he had lived in Sydney and Tasmania at one time and that he wanted to get a fast start since he is not a strong climber. I could have said the same ... he finished at least 2 hours ahead of me! (This was my slowest 600km yet, except for the Seattle summer gravel grinder). Anyway, it was good to have a riding companion in the early, dark stretches. He was not as much of a stickler for traffic rules and signals in the middle of the night in the countryside as many Audax riders -- I guess from the experience of living abroad!
The pre-ride briefing was quite different from some I have heard. Yes, it did include some key information (at turn 95 on the cue sheet, go "right" instead of "left"), it focused mostly on where one might get good food along the route in the hours we would be riding. The speaker was obviously NOT going to settle for convenience store fare on his rides. I could have kicked myself for not having pen and paper handy, though I swear I noticed a few of the places mentioned as I passed. In the end, I ate almost entirely at convenience stores this trip.
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Outbound
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| Heading toward Takasaki on Route 354 at first light |
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| Still no traffic on Saturday morning. It gets light between 4 and 5AM this time of year. |
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| Waiting for a traffic light (same old, same old) along the river near Takasaki, with Kijiro and two others |
Anyway, I made great time with Kijiro to the 62km checkpoint, and still good time with him and then others (after I fell behind him) through Takasaki and up a very slight slope to the 150km checkpoint west of Annaka. From here, I knew we had a climb ahead - the mightly Usui Pass, with its 175 marked curves. Seriously, it is not much of a climb, starting around 400m elevation and cresting just under 1000m, with less than 7% grade and plenty of flat stretches. And it was beautiful, cool and green. I still felt okay at the top, into Karuizawa.
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| View of the Gunma mountains -- and electric wires -- from Route 18 Bypass near Annaka |
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| A bit further along -- same mountains, still high voltage electric wires |
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The classic shot - Meganebashi (the "eye glasses bridge") and bicycle,
on the quiet old road, Route 18 climb to Usui Pass/Karuizawa |
Karuizawa took longer to get through than I remembered. And there was heavier mid-morning traffic. I had already ridden 180 kms. I started to tire and was saved only by the long descent down the "Asama Sun Line".
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| Starting down the "Asama Sun Line" toward Komoro then Ueda |
After my convenience store stop and the secret control, we joined a Route 18 bypass around the northern side of Ueda, hugging the hills, then crossed the Chikuma River and stayed mostly on local Route 77 all the way to Nagano. We were going into a headwind now, and well over 200 kms into the ride.
Obasute
I passed a sign for "Obasute" train station.
"Oba-sute" or "Uba-sute", literally translates as something like "abandoning grandma" and refers to the mythical ancient Japanese practice of abandoning older women family members to die by exposure in winter, when there was not enough food to feed the rest of the family. There is no good evidence that this was actual practice, but they did name the town and train station after it, and so I guess elderly women, past child-bearing age, were not seen as serving much social function back in some parts of pre-modern Japan. You can see a depiction in the 1958 classic film "Ballad of Narayama". There is even a woodblock print of a son carrying grandma off to the mountain in the train station.
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| Grandma grabs a branch -- she doesn't want to go? |
I am told that the reason grandma is grabbing a branch is NOT to fight her son, but rather so that he will be able to find his way home through the woods by following the fallen, broken branches. And indeed, in the film, the grandma accepts her fate that she will be abandoned on the mountain in her 70th year. Rather, her only concern is that she must first find a wife for her son so that he can be happy without her.
Quail Confections
Our route went past what looked like a very tranquil setting for a shinto shrine. There was a sign for "Uzura-Mochi" at what looked like a shop/cafe and there was an "Uzura Hotel". I think of "Uzura no tamago" and so know that "uzura" is quail. Sure enough, these are quail-shaped rice confections (dai-fuku). I did not try one, but I did enough the peaceful shrine grounds for another brief rest.
The "Town With No Demons"
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| Reservoir on the climb from Nagano-shi to Kinasa |
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| Old farm buildings and Route 406 in upper Kinasa |
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| The road keeps going up, gradually, for a long time. Fogged camera lens. |
At the checkpoint AJ Chiba staffers told me it was 18.8 kms to the top, with 1000 meters' elevation gain to a pass around 1400 meters elevation. That was wrong. Actually, it was 33 kms to the tunnel/pass at the top, just above Hakuba, and the elevation at the top was more like 1100. But the route had plenty of up and down (~300 meters of down with 1000 of up?), so at least they were correct that the total elevation gained on this stretch was close to 1000 meters.
The upper valley was rustic, and beautiful, and we were there at a great time of year, farmers planting in the fields on their tractors in the muck of rice paddies, flowering trees, a nice "michi-no-eki" in the town where they were selling soft ice cream cones. All was good, except my exhaustion and the unremitting brevet schedule limited my ability to enjoy it all. I would love to go by train to Nagano and then ride my bike through here, on my own schedule.
I loved the name of the town. I could read the characters, which seemed to say "demon" "none" "town", or 鬼無里. The word for "town" used is "sato", which is more like "hamlet" or "village" or "my hometown", a more personal term than "machi" or "mura". A very familiar, friendly word. The name of the town is pronounced Kinasa, readings I had never heard before for those characters. Hard to forget -- the town with no demons ... but one demon-like, never-ending, gradual hill!
I rested any number of times, and the top never seemed to come. Until it did. And it was spectacular, with a view across to the Northern Alps of Japan stretched in a line above Hakuba. I remembered this view from Tokyo-Itoigawa almost a decade ago ... except then we were down in the valley, looking at the peaks through electric wires. This was, indeed, worth the entire trip.
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The elderly photographer stayed fixed in this pose for at least 5 minutes as I snapped shots.
He was waiting for the perfect sunset shot. |
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| I did not have time to wait for the sun to descend ... spectacular vista from Route 406 up the hill east of Hakuba |
Hakuba
In the dimming light, Hakuba looked very welcoming. The rivers, mountains, forests, friendly, smiling younger folks who looked as if they worked at ski lodges or on the slopes in the winter. I wanted to stay and explore the town. But, to quote Captain Jack Aubrey, there was
not a moment to lose!
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| River at Hakuba Village |
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| Road at Hakuba Village |
The next section was riding around the back side of Lake Aoki at dusk. I've gone by this lake many times on a bicycle, but always on the main highway. Our route took us in a loop around the western shore, through woods past cottages and leisure facilities, always with trees above and the lake to the side. Not a single car, nor other bicycle, was seen until I arrived at the checkpoint at the far end of the lake. The soft light was magical. I ruled out the idea of trying to capture it in a photo. Too dark and dim for that. You had to be there.
Night Ride
On the return, it was a short (5km?) climb, then a long (25km?) descent through Ogawamura to the last checkpoint of Saturday. The descent was pitch dark, black, with no traffic until several roads had merged further down the valleys. After yet another convenience store check-in, I considered my position. I was done with all of Saturday's climbing, probably 70% of the elevation covered, even if only 55% of the distance. And despite the Kinasa slog and many rests, I was still around 2 hours ahead of the time limit arriving at this checkpoint. Now there was a long flat stretch back to Ueda, then the one climb over Karuizawa, and more downhill and flat to the finish. I started to feel confident about completing the event within the time limit. I just needed to get to the next checkpoint, between Annaka and Takasaki, by 6:56 AM. Piece of cake. Oh, and several at the checkpoint noted that the weather forecast had changed. It would be raining in Nagano by morning, and in Kanto by mid-afternoon Sunday. This was about 6-8 hours earlier than the previous forecast. Maybe I should have brought those fenders along?
I left the checkpoint alone, and rode only very occasionally seeing others. I was clearly toward the back of a very small pack of randonneurs. I wanted to sleep, at least for an hour or two. But Local Route 77 had little in the way of sleeping candidates. No 24 hour coin laundries, no internet cafes, no Gusto family restaurants after Chikuma. We passed a Domino's Pizza -- no seating. And plenty of convenience stores -- no sleeping. A google maps search turned up a day-onsen that was open until 1AM in Kami Yamada along my route. It seemed like a "real" onsen with outdoor bath, sauna, food service available, etc., for only 630 yen. I arrived there around 1030PM. The attendant was friendly, but shrugged his shoulders when I asked about a place I could lay down for 30-60 minutes after my bath. And the food service was over. Oh well, I figured, I would try to find a place to lie down in the bathing area.
This is at least the 4th or 5th time I have tried a mid-ride onsen. It just does not work, at least not without a decent recovery sleep to follow. My body is in an extreme condition, and the onsen heat does not help since I know I need to get back on the bike soon after. I tried lying down on a bench outside next to the outdoor bath. Too cold after a few minutes, even with a large rented bath towel. I tried sleeping in one bath. Too hot and I could feel myself dehydrating. Eventually, I gave up and went to the entry area, got some drinks from the vending machine (coffee/milk etc.) and put my head down on a table, sitting in a chair. I left by 1230AM, having had no real sleep, and feeling nearly as tired as before.
Our route went up the South side of the Chikuma River from Ueda toward Komoro. This was a low traffic road, a nice choice in the day. But at night, the repeated up/down was a killer, blocking me from getting momentum and draining my remaining strength. I rested inside the cover of a walkway underpass for 10 minutes, then pressed on. I stopped at a vending machine for an energy drink, nearly out of water -- no services on a long stretch of this road. Two other riders passed me and I tried to hop on with them, riding together or at least with them in sight all the way to where we joined the Route 18 Bypass in Komoro. The hills felt as if they were at a 15% grade. In fact, they were more like 7%.
Then, finally, as the first light cut the pitch darkness, I was up on top, and going through Karuizawa again, this time on the "bypass". It was a fast road, and on the stretch from 1002 meters elevation to the low point, around 935 meters, I zoomed. It was still long before 5AM, and the next checkpoint was just down the hill and a bit of a way down the valley, and did not close until 6:56AM.
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| The route taken ... most of it, at least. |
Panic #1
I arrived at the checkpoint, raced in, and got my receipt. I practically screamed at the clerk. "I'll take this. Just quickly get me the receipt! Quickly! Here's the cash! No bag needed! Just the receipt. Quick, ring it up. Issue the receipt first! Issue the receipt fast!" The receipt showed ... 6:56AM. Another few seconds and I would have been out of time.
What happened?
First, the Route 18 Bypass leaving Karuizawa to the east does
not go out via Usui Pass. Instead, it goes over an adjacent mountain. Add an extra 100+ meters of climbing. Even at 5AM, I did not like the bypass road. It is a wide road with sweeping curves, and the only traffic on it at that hour was going FAST. Big trucks, small cars, it did not matter. I was not steady, and they were zooming. Finally, at least I was at the top and onto the descent.
Within a few minutes, I started to fall asleep on the bike. I pulled over and rest my head on the handlebars, tried again. Started to doze off and pulled over. A third time. This time I found a nice strip of protected concrete behind the guard rail and lay down for 5 minutes. Surely now I would be revived enough, if I just crept down the hill feathering my brakes. Wrong.
I awoke suddenly, just as my left side of the handlebars hit the high concrete retaining wall next to the road. The bike and I went tumbling onto the surface of the road. Ouch! I waited 5 or 10 seconds, then started to try and move. Some sharp pains, but nothing obviously broken, at least. My right toe ached, my right knee, left elbow. The brifters on my bike were jammed toward the center, bar tape torn on one side, handlebar bag and contents strewn over the roadway, seat and seat post twisted at a 15 degree angle. And the DI2 rear derailleur was no longer shifting.
But, but ... no broken bones. And after 5 or 10 minutes of work, the bike was rideable and almost as good as new. No scratches on the frame I could see. Only the loose left brifter could not be fully fixed -- I could not easily tighten it with the wrench I had brought, but the rear derailleur was working (after I replugged a wire), and everything else was okay, and the brifter was usable.
In the end, it took me over 40 minutes to get down a hill that I would typically do in 20 minutes or so.
How far was it to the checkpoint again? Let's see. It seems as if the address is "Takasaki" and not "Annaka"!!! It looks like it is ANOTHER 20 KILOMETERS from the BOTTOM of the hill! That is cutting it VERY close. Now THAT woke me up!
I gave it my all.
As I passed the signs for Central Annaka and Annaka Station, I figured I had at least 5 minutes' to spare and still arrive within time. My GPS was acting up, so I tried to adhere to the cue sheet to find the PC. First, I remember being told at the briefing that we needed to stay in the MIDDLE of 3 lanes to avoid a left turn near here. I moved to the left edge of the middle lane. Immediately, a horn behind honked loudly and repeatedly at me! I sheepishly pulled over. Where was our turn? And why did we leave Route 18 Bypass? I went down an exit from an overpass (was that the left turn to avoid? or the correct one? And I re-entered the main road again. Eventually I got out my iPhone and uploaded the Ridewith GPS file. I could finally see the route, and retraced to get off the main road and go around. But I was still a few kms from the checkpoint! It would be VERY close. Every red light was a risk of being late. I sprinted, or as close as possible, the last kilomter.
My watch said 6:56 as I pulled into the PC and ran into the store. The receipt also said 6:56. Whew.
The Rain
The rest of the ride - still another 145 kms - was flat. Easy, right. Just roll it home and maintain an average speed around 20kph. Well, yes, and no.
First, my GPS device's "route" function was haywire. It was rebooting itself repeatedly. And though I had the cue sheet, I had not bothered to print a map ... my iphone and GPS versions had worked so well in recent rides. I made it fine to the 540km PC, with plenty of time to spare.
Panic #2
I realized that the time limits for the PCs were set for a 600km event, but our finish point was actually 609 kms. So we had an extra 9kms tacked on to the final leg. Then the rains hit. Gradually getting heavier and heavier, reaching downpour level when I was just southwest of Tsukuba. My GPS device was for all practical purposes useless, my iphone screen would not work when wet (and the battery was down at a few percent, and my cue sheet was telling me about roads I could no longer find, some unmarked). I knew I was off course, and had taken a long route to get back on course, ... but to no avail. Was I going East? North? Had the road turned back West? I felt as if I could spend the rest of the day riding in circles around Tsukuba. Finally, I found a convenience store where I could dry my phone, look at a map, and figure it out. As it turned out, I was only 6-7 kms from the finish (as the crow flies), and if I could just get back to the route, I had enough time.
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| At the finish - Flash Cycle near Tsuchiura Station |
I made it to the finish with 15 minutes to spare ... out of 40 hours. And there were at least 5 other riders behind me. An easy 600km, that was not so easy. With this, I have completed my "super randonneur series" of 200, 300, 400 and 600km events, so should qualify to ride the Central California Coast randonée (1000km version) in late August.
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| The downpour as my train leaves Tsuchiura Station |
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| Tsuchiura Station's cyclist-themed waiting room, on the platform |
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| Tsuchiura is trying hard to attract cyclist visitors. At the station, there was a room where we could assemble/disassemble bikes, use lockers, change clothes, wash grime off things, even showers are available. Plus several bike shops at or near by, rental cycles, etc. etc. Good for the day-tripper. (Lockers not accessible at night, according to the signage I saw). |
