A couple of weeks ago I had a nice 130km (80 mi) ride with Manseki and Gorm, in an area to the south-east of Kyoto I'd never been. Here's the trip as seen at Strava:

Our exit from Kyoto was on the riverside path toward Osaka. We used my new egress route to avoid the bone-jarring mud and bumps of the riverside route in the southern part of the city, then continued on the riverside path that I first posted about here.

After crossing some big rivers, instead of heading southwest toward Osaka, though, we headed southeast toward Uji. It was my first time on this route.

We were suddenly in tea country...

In the background of the photo above you can see the Kidzu River Nagarebashi (木津川流れ橋), a simple wooden bridge known for being swept away by rushing water fairly often. It just reopened this year after having been closed all of last year after it had been swept away the year before.

I'm not quite sure what the wire rope is for. The bridge gets swept away fairly often.... of late, it was swept away in 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014. After 2014 there was apparently some resistance to spending money to replace it yet again, so it took until this spring for it to be replaced. I was told that this time they used thicker wire ropes, but in looking how they're lightly attached, I'm not sure what they're for. I'd think they'd want them parallel to the force of the water, not perpendicular.

This is normally the kind of situation where I'd think “well, someone must know what they're doing.”, but considering the bridge's recent track record, perhaps not.

We eventually made our way back to civilization and stopped by a convenience store. They had a bike stand for road bikes, where you hook the seat over a bar. One doesn't see this at convenience stores often, so it's an indication of how many frequent this particular location.

Finally, 35km (22mi) in, we get to the start of the real ride, a 360m climb (1,170') though what seemed to be a jungle...

Most mountain roads in this part of Japan pass through forests of farmed ceder trees. They seem rough and wild, but the trees are all ceder and are well spaced and exceedingly straight. They don't “feel” farmed in that it might be 20 or 40 years of human non-interaction between harvests, but once pointed out, the wildness and variety of an area like the one seen above is stark in comparison.

As I went past, I slowed a bit to chat. Never having ridden a recumbent bicycle, I'm left with the impression that it looks awkward and scary. He said it does take some getting used to, but one immediate benefit, he said, is that your butt doesn't hurt.

On that tangent, I usually don't wear “real” cycling pants because I don't like the “bun pads” they have. I think they look ridiculous but would use them if I felt they were needed, but I guess my rear is whatever-enough to not require them. I've done multiple 200+km rides without them and I'm fine. But you wouldn't believe the crap other cyclists give me because I don't conform to the diaper-pants norm.

Anyway, Gorm, Manseki, and I eventually made it to the top, where other cyclists were already resting.

Continuing down the other side, we soon came to our first nice view of the day...

The view spot was at the top of a mountainside tea field, and at the edge was a little monorail used to bring equipment up and down. I would have loved to ride in it. 🙂

The descent down the other side seemed ridiculously steep, and I was glad at the moment to have done it the longer, less steep way.

Our route then took us up another climb to a “plateau” (sort of) where for the next 30km the road undulated up and down with many short (50-100m) climbs.

The highest point for us was a little viewing area near where three prefectures come together (Kyoto, Shiga, and Mie).

There was some drama in getting here, involving a bit of mis-communication and a wrong turn, and Manseki had mistakenly gone down the other side of the mountain past this point. He'd descended 100m of elevation before realizing his mistake when I asked him where he was (thank goodness we both had cell reception), and paid for the mistake by having to reclimb that 100m.

So we were all ready for a little break.

Other than to cartographer geeks, I'd think that the point where three states meet would be fairly uninteresting, but the name of the area (三国, meaning “three countries”, or perhaps more properly in this case, “three kingdoms”) implies that it has a long history dating back to before Japan was a single unified country.

Considering the work it took us to get here on nicely-paved roads, I can't imagine what it must have been like 1,000 years ago, and why they wouldn't pick a more congenial location for inter-kingdom diplomacy.

As well as the highest point of the trip, it was the furthest, and we headed back north. We stopped in one of the small villages for drinks, which had a small traditional market that was the 50-years-ago version of a convenience store.

The day's route was one that Manseki had done by himself recently, but for part of the return home I suggested some roads he wasn't familiar with, and it turned out that they were lovely.

In particular, this descent was one of the most beautiful I've ever done. I've no photos because I was just enjoying it too much. It's a descent that one wants to savor and enjoy, so it's not a segment you want to PR on.

After working our way through Otsu and Yamashina and into Kyoto proper, I parted ways with Gorm and Manseki, to head to my corner of Kyoto. On the way I popped up to Shogunzuka, which I used to go to often to (try to) photograph the sunset....

One of my first posts from the area is “Views of Kyoto From Shougun-zuka”, nine years ago, but the list is long. You can get a sense for the variety of views on my photo-proximity search page.

This day the view didn't have anything special in store, with lots of haze and relatively flat light.

It's just as well, since I didn't have a real camera with me.

I felt great when I got home, but soon fell asleep in my La-Z-Boy, so I guess the ride took more out of me than I first realized.

All and all, a great ride with great people.