Daimonji Hike with Kai-Kai and his Entourage

Anna's First Biwa-ichi

Mt. Aso, Day 4 (Osaka Port to home)

Mt. Aso, Day 3

Mt. Aso, Day 2

My longest ride ever (beating out the 260km round trip to Nagoya for coffee).  Ranks #7 on my vertical-climb list.

No wind until a mild headwind started to build after Hanaore Pass (just above Tochu). Was pretty brisk by the time I got to Kutsuki. But descending down toward Obama it became a powerful tailwind. At one point I had to jig over to a parallel street, putting me at right angles to the wind, and let me tell you it was difficult to control, the wind was so strong. Reached 60kph on the mostly flat roads.

Though I'd have this Wind of the Gods at my back all the way, but when I got to the coast and turned to follow it, it became a side/headwind. Killed me for the 75km to Amanohashidate. At some points I was struggling to maintain 15kph with the same effort that gave me 60kph before.

Amanohashidate is not particularly photogenic from ground level, so I did a 280m 10% climb to what I thought was a viewing area on the mountain, but it turns out that I had to then descend 145m (also 10%) to get there.  Took a photo, then made the return climb to realize I was missing my taillight. Thought I must have dropped it at the viewing site so I descended back down, didn't find it, and climbed back up. I'd really wanted to hit the original climb's descent (the oddly-named "Flee the Temple" segment)  to leave my KOM mark in the area, but took it slow to look for my light, in case it had fallen on the brutal climb.

Never did find it... was luckly that my Fly6 rear camera also has a light... otherwise, I wouldn't have felt safe to make the130km return in the dark.

Losing the tail light threw my battery management into disarray, so that was the primary stress during the 6.5-hour return. Kept my flashing front light on the lowest setting to avoid going without a light, but this meant holding back on some of the most wonderful, long sweeping pristine-road descents I've ever seen. Next time.

In planning the trip, I somehow thought that the return trip would be fairly flat. I was wrong.



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Jeffrey Friedl

Coffee Round Trip to Amanohashidate / 天橋立に往復

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Daimonji Hike with Kai-Kai and his Entourage

Anna's First Biwa-ichi

Mt. Aso, Day 4 (Osaka Port to home)

Mt. Aso, Day 3

Mt. Aso, Day 2

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