Cherry-blossom season in Kyoto is always hectic for someone like me who likes photography, made all the more busy because I now like to cycle and these are some of the first warm days of the season. I've been out with the camera and the bike a lot lately, but sort of punted on blogging about it because schedule already left me overwhelmed.

So, I'm getting back into the swing of things with a writeup on my most recent ride.

First I popped over the mountains from Kyoto to Lake Biwa...

I got 4th overall on this straight, steep climb; I should have gotten 2nd, but my Garmin's Edge 820's GPS track had drifted and part of my rest after finishing it was counted in my climb. I'll do better next time, and hope my Garmin will as well.

My first destination on this ride was a temple in the middle of nowhere in the mountains. I had ridden by it numerous times, but had never stopped in to check it out.

From there I continued along undulating mountain roads away from Kyoto...

There were blossoming trees here and there in the mountains, providing a lovely touch of softness wherever they were. This batch was on a long mountain climb on a road that seems to have no reason to exist... it doesn't lead to anything, nor connect anything not already connected by less rustic roads. Makes for a pleasant ride, though.

The long twisty descent has some very rough, very steep patches of pavement (a bit you can see in this photo) and the ever-present potential for oncoming traffic, so one must be particularly careful. It could be quite fun if I were in the mood to push a fast descent, but I wasn't, so I took it easy, and as so often seems to happen, I surprised myself by beating my former KOM time to set a new KOM (fastest registered time). It tickles me to no end when this happens.

Still not halfway into my plan, it was time for the heinous Momoi East climb, which I wrote about here the first time I did it. Today's was the fourth, and I noticed as I did it that I had no worries about falling over on the steep sections, illustrating to myself how far I've come.

I did the full Momoi climb, followed by the subsequent even-worse western descent (I think the worst section of road in Kyoto), then continued up through Hanase Pass to Sugino Pass. I went at a plodding pace and the whole trip (distance of 12km / 7.2mi, with a vertical climb of 715m / 2,350') took almost an hour. I was surprised to find that I got the “KOM” on this segment as well, not something I ever get on long climbs, but here it was because I was apparently the first and only to have ever done it, at least among those using Strava. I didn't expect it to be super popular, but no one else? That surprised me.

Oddly enough, after all these years of no one having ever done that route, someone else did do it two days after I did, a few seconds slower than I had, so I keep my cheap “KOM” for the moment. 🙂

I got 3rd-overall on the long descent from Hanase, out of 682 folk that have ridden it. I don't think I have what it takes to eke out the half minute I'd need to be the fastest on this one.

Some of these last few pictures serve to illustrate the haphazard nature of, well, nature, with various blossoming tress here and there often randomly. It's a lovely aspect of the season.

But this part of my trip was to see a specific tree...

I had remembered that some time ago I had seen some “100-year Cherry” tree during a drive up north, so looked it up on my blog. Found it here. Turns out that it was 10 years ago, and that I had since cycled by it many times without realizing it.

The guy who took the photo for me said that the tree was 300 years old, according to a sign board that I couldn't read because it was too faded. This Kyoto City web site says that the name was given in 1967 when it was assumed that the tree was about 100 years old, making it now 150 years old.

Overall it was a great ride with a lot of nice blossoms, and a bunch of lovely descents for me to enjoy myself on.