A week ago, I did a nice long bicycle ride in the mountains north of Kyoto (route and data). Manseki Kanemitsu and I tagged along with Joshua Levine on a route that he does often.

It totaled out at 131km (81 miles), making it my longest ride so far.

The route took us up the mountain toward Hanase Pass (花背峠), a 500m (1,650') climb that holds a special place in my heart as my first real mountain climb, and every time I've done it since I've done it faster than the previous time.

That would not happen this time, as we paused before the pass at a natural spring where I sometimes see folks filling up water jugs.

Josh mentioned early on that we'd stop here, so I somewhat slacked off the whole climb knowing the pause would kill the time-to-the-top measurement. So later when I checked the data for the climb, I was shocked to realize that had I not stopped, I would have easily broken my record.

Part of the attraction of cycling is the joy of seeing and discovering the countryside at a slower pace, but also part of it is the feeling of accomplishment I get when I make a new PR (personal record) on a section of mountain. It's quite superficial, I know, but I was inept at physical activity for the first 47 years of my life, so I'm simply amazed that I can now do some of these things. If someone else does it, I think “well sure, because they're normal people in good shape and it's natural for them”, but for me, it's like a dog making scrambled eggs: it's not the accomplishment itself so much as who's doing it.

Anyway, we went down the other side of the mountain, past Cowbell, and farther north until eventually we got to a road I'd never been on. It's always nice to ride a road for the first time, and since Joshua was leading, I didn't need to pay attention to the route at all. It was nice.

I finally had to stop and pull the camera out when we passed a rice field being planted completely by hand. I would have loved a lens with more reach, but this is what I got:

It's a bit hard to see what's going on, but the adults are in the paddy planting rice seedlings one by one, and the kids are penned off under the tent to the right.

Two of the adults have infants strapped to their back.

The road eventually worked its way back up to another climb, this time toward Sasari Pass (佐々里峠).

Josh showed me a spot to stop and photograph a wonderful vista, but the photos didn't end up well. I'll just have to go back and try it again.

Cresting the 735m pass earns you a long, lovely downhill. It was a bit dicey at times trying to juggle the camera, brakes, and steering while plummeting down the mountain, but I wanted photos showing the lean of the bike in a curve....

After the descent the road mostly flattened out for a long while, and Josh stepped on the gas a bit. Manseki noticed this and kept up, refusing to be left behind, drafting just inches behind Josh's rear wheel. I was slow to notice, and even if I had, I wouldn't have been able to keep up.

Josh just kept going faster, and Manseki just kept staying right with him. Two minutes later they were almost out of sight...

... and half a minute later they went around a curve, and I'd not see them again until they stopped 10 minutes later.

I tried drafting with them for a while, but especially with my long history as a driver (car and motorcycle), I felt uncomfortable with so little time buffer in front. I understand why professionals do it, but I'm not a professional. Perhaps I'll try again after I get a suitable amount of experience (and after I put the camera down 😉 ).

We rode through the quaint village of Miyama (美山), which reminded me of Gokayama and Shirakawago, all three being villages with a lot of old thatched-roof houses.

We continued on for another 15 minutes before stopping for food.

By this time we'd traveled only 72km (45mi) with only 1,200m (4,000') of climb, but I was wiped out. Bad calorie-intake management (I didn't eat enough) combined with trying to keep up with them left me drained. So I was happy to stop for food, drink, and rest. And ice cream.

It was a good lesson, and it prepared me for the much harder ride that I did a few days later (“A Day of Vertical-Climb Cycling Torture in Western Kyoto”). That ride was harder and on a day with much more heat, but having learned my lesson about making sure to have enough calories throughout the ride, that tougher ride ended up feeling much easier than this one.

We didn't want to go through the tunnel, and did want to have more climb, so we tried an alternate route. It did not disappoint.

Continued here...