Coast to Coast: Summer ‘08 Bicycle Trip
Last week I went on a two-day/one-night 200km bicycle trip around Lake Inawashiro. For those who don’t know, Lake Inawashiro is either the third or fourth biggest lake in Japan, depending on who you ask. It lies to the west of the Azuma Mountain Range, while Fukushima City is to the east of said mountain range.
Fukushima City is in the northeast part of the map, the one with the small mountain (Mt. Shinobu) in the middle. Lake Inawashiro is obviously the big lake.
I woke up bright and early one day, reached the lake and went halfway around, then made camp for the night.
The next morning I once again woke up bright and early and headed back, this time taking the much higher and more scenic Bandai-Azuma Skyline, a very scenic 28.7km long toll road up to the top of the mountain range. I was hoping that it would have the awesome views that it’s known for, but unfortunately I chose a bad weather day, and all I could see for the whole way was pretty much just fog.
While the view sucked, on the bright side it was nice and cool, a reprieve from the hotter air down in the Aizu area (where Lake Inawashiro is). Actually, it was quite interesting to feel the noticeable difference in temperature and climate as I went from the lake at 500 meters above sea level to the top of the Skyline at 1622 meters above sea level. As one would expect, it’s also quite fun to go down from 1622 meters to Fukushima City’s elevation of about 500. Within that kilometer of eleveation drop you can easily feel the different climates within each elevation range as you pass through them. It’s not gradual, as it’ll be cool then you’ll suddenly hit a layer of air that’s significantly hotter. This happens a few times on the way down, to the point where by the time I got to the bottom I was hit with a wall of Fukushima City’s valley’s hot humid air.
Anyway, that’s all not really the point of why I’m writing this. The whole reason for this entry is to say that that was just a practice ride to test out my gear before I head out on my real ride. Tomorrow morning I’m heading out on my planned summer trip. Instead of going to some tourist spot somewhere I figured it would be more fun to do a coast-to-coast ride. Because I don’t have enough time to do a NE to SW coast-to-coast ride, I settled on looping Fukushima and Niigata prefectures, spending a day or two each riding along of the Sea of Japan and the Pacific Ocean.
Even better, I’ve planned it so I’ll reach Niigata-ken in time to take a ferry to Sado Island to attend Earth Celebration, which is a big festival put on by Kodo, the best taiko drumming group in the world. I’ve been planning on going to this since l missed it last year, so it’ll provide a nice three days or so of rest before I head back to Fukushima. I’ll probably also end up riding around Sado Island a bit.
To get an idea of what I’m planning, this is my route to get to Sado Island. I actually haven’t yet planned the route I want to take back. I’ll play that by ear.
So I’m heading out tomorrow morning and will be back in about two weeks.
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