70.9km. 3h 43m 23s of wheel spinning tunnel praying time. Avg Spd 19.0kph. Max 59kph
I slept a full TWELVE hours last night along the shore of Toya Ko. Some crazy waves were coming in yet again last night, sounded like they were almost hitting the tent.. it reminded me of last summer when camping along the shoreline of Shikotsu Ko. I had thought it a great idea to be as close as possible to the lake edge, just to sleep near and wake up with the full view of the lake out of the vestibule. Of course by 2 am, the waves are coming in hard (Ill remind you, its NOT the ocean, its a lake). I couldnt sleep without waking up from the thoughts of water coming into my tent, so I re pitched it in the middle of the night on higher ground.
The ride started out rough after yesterdays metric century. I had a weird pain in the groin so I was probably paranoid that I'd pushed too hard and half my guts were coming out. I swung around the lake planning to cut up the hill but didnt see a single sign. I ended up at the Seico mart stocking up when an old man in a 05 Toya Marathon Shirt (I had same one) sparked up a conversation about where I'm going. Nice guy, and he got me onto a shortcut local road that led me towards the ocean where I needed to go. He looked in his 70's but runs in the Toya Ko Marathon every year he said proudly. Damn rights, Id be proud too. The old people in this country always amaze me.
I climbed up past Usu-zan, which last blew in the year 2000 causing a mass evacuation of the town and area. At about the summit I swung past the Nishiyama crater which is still smoking pretty good (like all you ciggy freaks). From there to ToyoUra it was downhill and sweet. Once I got to ToyoUra town, I realized I had to follow route 337 now all the way along the coastline, but it also meant crossing two mountain passes en route. There was many tunnels, which as Ive said before and will say again, are a double sided being. On one hand they save you from a massive hill climb, but on the other, youre stuck in a damp, dark, muggy, smoggy, little rock cylinder with no way out when that one moron driver decides to keep using his cell phone to email someone about a new Glay (gray?glay?gray?). There was one tunnel, where I secretly made a wish NEVER to die in a tunnel. It was narrow, the small 'sidewalk' was wide enough just barely for my handlebars while my left forearm (remember, driving on the left here) scraped the dirty wall. Sketchy is putting it lightly. I hammered through a few of those tunnels and at the other side woud pull over gasping with a racing heart. I made many of those wishes of not dying in a tunnel, can you imagine anything lonelier? Trapped, seeing the light far down at the other end, stinky, etc...
The two passes today took a bit out of me, not that theyre like Rogers Pass in Canada or anything, but the uphills were solid. I passed by alot of other cyclists today, all of whom always wave and say a bit as they pass. Motorbikes seem to also think theyre in the same 'brethren' as pedal bikes so they wave alot as well. When they pedal the same 1000k as some of those cyclists do, then theyre in, until then...
The road leading up to Oshamambe was right along the ocean. I could imagine it'd be pretty steady easy pedalling from here all the way down to Hakodate (an uber popular route). Its right along the water, nice. I recharged in Oshamambe with a 711 Omurice and latte before the last few K up to the campsite. I think it was called Oshamambe Koen, but either way its super green, really nice. I crashed by 930pm...
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