水曜日もサイクリングをしました。今回は友達６人と一緒に６０kmの山上下いっぱいのルートでした。

Two days ago I did a short easy bicycle ride into the mountains of western Kyoto, but yesterday I did something a bit more ambitious. As seems to be the habit since my first ride with folks from Cycling Kyoto!, we met in front of the Starbucks on Sanjo Street. This time there were seven people total...

Today's route would be a repeat of one that Manseki had done two days prior, so he was group lead. We got moving at 9:20.

We spent the first 45 minutes heading east on Route 1. The route looks horrible in the photo, but the cycling was fairly smooth and easy, without the stop and go of city traffic. I was surprised at how not unfun it was.

That first 45 minutes involved 350m of vertical gain, but it was spread out over 15km, so it was a relaxed ride and we all stuck together. Then we turned south along a river and was greeted by a bit nicer scenery...

An hour into the ride, we stopped by a cafe for a quick tea, but ended up eating and chatting for almost an hour.

I thought the rack for kickstand-less bicycles was ingenious, and I never would have realized what it was for without seeing it in use.

Perhaps because we were a big group, or perhaps because they're cyclist friendly or just nice, they gave us some sweets on the house...

This stuff was great... it's mochi (like I made the other day), with brown sugar and cashews. Highly recommended. The cafe is next to the entrance to the splendid Ishiyama-dera Temple (which I've written about in the past), so if you make a visit to the temple, avail yourself of the chance for some of these tasty sweets.

I ended up buying a bunch to bring home, adding to the weight that I would have to pedal up the mountains when we left.

On the way out of the parking lot, I snapped a quick shot of the temple gate...

15 minutes later, we were finally heading into the mountains for the first (and biggest) of four major climbs...

10 grueling minutes and 140m of elevation gain later, I had arrived at the spot Manseki had said is “where the tough part starts”. Crap, I was already ready for it to end! 🙂

I stopped for a rest, and to enjoy some of the 2.5kg of sports drink I'd bought at the convenience store just before starting the climb. I also removed my already-drenched-with-sweat jacket, sweater, and gloves, and shoved them into my pannier:

I have no idea how I got in front of Manseki, but he likely either had stopped for something, or was just pacing himself smarter than I was, because he came riding past while I was resting....

After a three-minute rest, I headed back up. The slopes were as unrelenting as they were ridiculous, continuing without respite. I had to laugh (figuratively... I didn't have the energy to do so literally) at this scene:

Seven minutes and 64m of elevation gain later, I finally joined the rest of the group at the top, interrupting their long rest... Henry (and others, I'm sure) had made it 10 minutes before me.

The ride up involved 286m of elevation gain in 2.8km (an average slope of 10.3%). It took me 25 minutes, four of which were resting.

Going down was easier, but three more big ascents awaited.

I headed down a bit before everyone else and set up to take pictures of folks as they went past, but it was a mostly wasted effort because I screwed up focus. I seem to have zero ability to learn the focus modes of the camera beyond the basic “S” mode. I thought I had “C” mode down, but the results below are a clear indication that I don't. 🙁

私は先に降りて、途中で止まって、カメラを準備しょました。皆の写真を撮ったが、ピンはかなり間違いました。 🙁

The second ascent was longer (3.1km) but less elevation gain (238m), but it was 23 minutes of pain for me.

The third ascent was insane... 118m of elevation gain over just 880m of distance (an average slope of over 12%). It took me 7½ minutes.

Having followed the others the whole time, I had no idea where I was beyond “mountains south-east of Kyoto”, but just before the pass I was surprised to come across a scene I recognized immediately:

アッ、この神社を見た事ある、４年前。

Apparently I hadn't posted any photos from that 2011 visit, but the photos from “Slightly Mysterious Stairs Into Mountain Overgrowth” came from a short distance away, just beyond the pass I would reach in 30 seconds..

That early-summer outing in 2011, with Paul Barr and Katsunori Shimada, produced a bunch of posts, including

• What It Looks Like When Tiered Rice Paddies Go to Seed
• Pleasant Little Village in Uji
• Pleasant Little Village in Uji, Part 2
• Uji-City Rural Mountain Drive #2: Ice-Cream Girl, Fruit Pizza, and More
• Some Random Japan Desktop Backgrounds From the Past Year
• More Thin Depth Of Field: Retrospective on My First Months with a 300mm f/2

Anyway, I soon arrived at the top:

I probably looked worse than I felt, but I was pooped and appreciative of the guilt-free rest.

As comparison, here's a photo of a somewhat more portly me, four years ago at the shrine near the pass:

I was using the aforementioned Nikkor 300mm f/2 to take this photo:

Anyway, back to yesterday's ride. On the ride down to the next valley, Manseki asked me to go ahead and set up to take a shot of him coming around the corner...

As my lens followed him around the corner and off into the distance, it came across an unexpected sight...

It turns out that she's an acquaintance of Manseki. As I'd been getting ready for Manseki to come around the corner, she'd ridden up from below, and greeted me with “are you Manseki's friend?”. She'd seen the others ride past, and perhaps had known about our plans(?), so just took a guess.

She decided to turn around and join us for a while.

The final ascent was the “easiest” (if one could say that) of the four... 250m of elevation gain over 3.4km. Again I was the last one... it took me 21 minutes.

Ms. Yoshino turned around to continue her original route, and we headed down. There was one more “mini” ascent (112m gain over 1000m)...

The final big downhill was fantastic, with wide sweeping curves that one could take almost wide open. I hit 62km/h (38mph) at one point. It was fun.

Another 13km of city riding and we were back where we started.

Overall the day's 58km route was tough for me, but still much easier than my 90km route three weeks ago, which had almost double the elevation gain, plus snow.

Still, I was surprised when I asked Henry how the route was compared to whatever he normally does. He said “Today's ride was nice, though the pace was...... relaxed.” Doh! But sure, he got to lounge around all day waiting for me at the top of each ascent, so who wouldn't be relaxed. 😉