I went out on a leisurely photo-expedition drive the other day with Paul Barr and Anastasiya Bulkavets, whom Paul and I met a couple of years ago in a story I've been meaning to tell, during this outing when she happen to recognize Damien and his red hat from having seen them on my blog. We all occasionally get together since.

I've lived in this area for more than a decade and have driven in the mountains many times over the years, but until I started cycling through them last year, I didn't really have a sense for locations and [...]

Smiling Norwegian Gorm has returned to Kyoto for a month-long visit after a year's absence, and a few of us whole-heartily welcomed him with a short ("half-hearted" one could say) ride.

Manseki couldn't join us for the ride, but he saw us off and we'd return to join him for coffee later.

Our plan was to do a clockwise Kyoto Heart Loop, which starts out on a route that I first did a year ago, that time Gorm having lead the way.

This time we all knew the route. We took it easy, as Gorm was still suffering jetlag, Kumiko [...]

この間、金光万石さんと一緒に六甲山を登りました、神戸空港から924mの山頂まで。 乗ったルートは距離は長かったので、坂はだいあいマイルドでした。楽しかった。 (ポートアイランドと神戸空港のサイクリングはつまらなかったけれども。) 一番キツイ道は16号線から山頂までの300mの丸形滑り止め道。15%の凸凹坂ですが、行って良かった。山頂からの景色は本当に良かったです。

On Thursday I made my biggest single bicycle climb so far, at least mathematically, by riding from sea level in Kobe Japan, to 924m (3,030') near the summit of Mt. Rokko some 25km (16mi) distant.

Despite its mathematical ranking, the route I took was apparently the easiest route, and wasn't at all challenging. It was just fun. Overall, the day saw 78km (48mi) with 1,800m (6,000') of vertical climb. (Activity at Strava)

But the fun belies how totally stressed and apprehensive I was in the week leading up to it. Mt. Rokko is hundreds of meters [...]

Manseki and I rode into the mountains of northwest Kyoto to check out some roads I found on the map that we'd never ridden, but in trying to continue after a rest pause, I found my rear tire was flat. It must have been a slow leak of some sort.

Once on our way, we came to the first road to check out, which starts here.

Like so many of Kyoto's rural roads, it was lovely.

We tried both. The one toward the left quickly became gravel so we abandoned it.

The other continued nicely...

And then I got a [...]

Saturday was a NORU group ride with 14 people, my first big group ride this year, I think. (The first NORU group ride was this lovely ride last fall.)

Vincent was doing something that looked quite strange... can you notice it in the photo?

Vincent suggested we take a short alternate to the planned route, down a lovely descent. I had the camera and so took it slow at first, but still got upwards of a safe 70kph. So fun.

The route brings us past a picturesque lake with a cemetery on the hillside opposite. It was pretty hazy so [...]