We had an eclectic little ride the other day to celebrate Joshua's birthday. Unlike a common ride that makes a big loop through some gorgeous mountains, this ride stayed closer to home, hopping from interesting point to interesting point, at a slow, fun pace.

It was my 16th time to ride with Joshua, since joining him on a NORU bike tour two and a half years ago.

It turns out that one can use this dirt trail to get around having to descent the “Nasty” 21% slope. Personally, I'd rather just descend on the road because neither my bike nor my courage are set up for off-road riding.

This little off-road excursion fit within the spirit of the day, which was to throw caution/inhibitions into the wind and just have fun doing crazy things with friends. (That “crazy things” are as mild as a dirt path and the other things you'll see here speaks to the fact that we've settled down in our maturity.)

The first true “crazy thing” came immediately after descending on this dirt trail: we rode up “Old Kyomi”, a road that is now paved but was likely a trail for 1,000 years prior. A car-friendly bypass road appeared in the 1950s, so this older road is now rarely used.

It's very difficult.

The overall average of the segment — 1.6km (1mi) at 13% — belies the true difficulty of the climb. It's really unfair that the photo makes it look flat; it's very steep.

The 100m leading to the point where I took the photo above averages 22%, which for me would not be an insurmountable problem if the road surface were trustworthy. But it's not... just look at it... the road pavement is rough and crumbling to begin with, and on top of that it's littered with rocks, sticks, leaves, moss, sand, etc., all just waiting to take your tire out from under you.

That's why I was taking photos where I was. I had hoped to complete the climb without stopping (something I'd not been able to do when I tried this climb a couple of years ago), but at this point I wasn't able to avoid a rut or something, and my wheel slipped and I had to put my foot down before I fell down. So, I set the bike aside and sat down with the camera to await the others.

Nigel was the first to arrive, and was pushing his bike. He's probably the strongest among us all, and you might remember him from the outlandishly crazy “Ascending Hanase Pass on a Mamachari”, so might wonder why someone so strong would be pushing. The answer is that he was on a single-speed bike, one that didn't have multiple gears to choose from. My bike has 22 gear combinations; some folks' mountain bikes have 30. His had just one, and the road surface was just too difficult for the one he had.

I don't know who the guy in red was, but he shouldn't have been there. Riding close behind someone on this road is simply dangerous, and to try to pass would be as ludicrous as it is selfish. If the other person is part of your group then at least you have some basis of trust on which you can perhaps negotiate the selfish move, but if you don't know them, wow.

After this bit of fun, we made our way across the northern outskirts of Kyoto toward the next crazy climb, and this involved some short but steep residential roads.

I'm still hit and miss with the small camera I bought for cycling. The biggest problem that I have with it is that the controls get bumped off to some crazy setting, and I don't always notice right away, especially when I'm trying to take an impromptu shot while riding. Most often the exposure compensation gets bumped to the maximum negative, so all the photos (until I notice) end up almost black. I can recover quite a bit in Lightroom, but the loss of quality is noticeable.

Another problem I have is severely overestimating the amount of camera shake I can get away with. Many potentially-great shots are ruined because they're crazy shaky like the one above. I include it here mostly because the smiles shine through despite the quality, and to illustrate the point.

We made our way to another steep climb — 580m @ 15% with sections approaching 25% — but this one is much easier than the first because the road surface is good.

Here's a video of the last half of the segment, after I had gone ahead of the others and rode at my own pace. At the start of the video there's no one close behind me, but then suddenly Nigel and Keven appear on my tail, and then at the start of the super-steep final 120m, in a display of incredible power, Nigel blows by me on his single-speed and rockets to the top.

Remember, Nigel (the first to the top) is on a bike that has only one speed, and it's not a speed designed for 20%+ grades. He's just that powerful.

Also powerful was Tomas, who almost caught me at the top despite my having started so much earlier. In fairness to me, I was just going at a steady pace, and was 30 seconds slower than my best time on this climb. But in fairness to him, despite his speed at the end he was still almost a minute slower than his best time (which also happens to be the “KOM” best-recorded time for the segment).

The photo that leads this blog post shows Joshua and David cresting the top.

At a top is a cemetery (for all the people who have attempted the climb) with a nice view:

This view has appeared on my blog before, here.

I'd made this climb six times prior, but hadn't noticed that the cemetery extends off in one direction, so was happy that Joshua showed me.

We opted not to stop at this spot this time, but as the nearby photos link under the picture shows, I've stopped many times.

Then on to the next steep little climb, just 315m at 13%.

Now we were making our way to the Kuuya-taki Waterfall, a place I've been visiting for years, after having discovered it five years ago. When I got into cycling, it was one of the first rides I did.

It'd been a while since I'd ridden there, and the approach was longer and in worse shape than I remembered.

Everyone else left their bike at the road, which is probably fine because it's essentially deserted anyway, but out of habit I brought mine with me.

The short approach hike is beautiful, and I've posted many photos from it over the years, including:

• Discovery On The Way to The Waterfall
• Interesting Bark Near the Kuuya-taki Waterfall
• Beyond The Staircase Ruins at the Kuuya-taki Waterfall
• On The Way From The Kuuya-taki Waterfall'>
• The Effect of Shutter Speed on the Appearance of Flowing Water

Then on top of that you have the beauty of the shrine/waterfall area itself.

David's pose is a natural one for a waterfall; I did the exact same thing the first time I went in.

We relaxed for a while, then headed out

After returning to the city, a few of us thought to get a cup of coffee in Arashiyama. We went through its famous bamboo groves, which had a lot of people, but, thankfully, no where near peak.

All in all it was a fun day of relaxing friendship punctuated by short, intense efforts, occasionally with a bit of terror thrown in.

Happy birthday, Joshua.