Dry and mighty

The morning started out with a blue sky and no wind. It was warmer than yesterday too. Yet somehow I just felt lethargic. The motivation only started to kick in after I had done the morning conbini run and put some music on. The road to Obama was pretty straightforward and even had a cycle road surprise near the end which was nice and scenic. At one point a policecar going in the opposite direction passed me, then moments later it overtook me with its sirens on. It drove very slowly for a while, nearly keeping pace with me, but keeping ahead of me a few car lengths. Then it pulled away a bit and stopped at a roadside parking space not too far ahead. I was sure they were going to stop me for something, but before I could reach them they started moving again and went somewhere else. Huh.

Since Tsuruga isn't too far from where I was starting from I took the scenic route from Obama and followed route 162 along the coast. It was a very nice route, with a whole bunch of tunnels that, surprisingly, had quite a wide sidewalk area which was perfect for cycling. This went great for 4 or 5 tunnels or so, and then suddenly the next tunnel's sidewalk was the usual narrowness again. Because I was already in motion as I was approaching the tunnel and didn't want to bother getting off the bike to place it on the road I just kept going on the narrow sidewalk. Then the tunnel got darker and darker and I couldn't see shit. It was like a balancing act. My front light really is only useful for others to see me and did not help me see at all. I somehow managed to reach the end of the tunnel without any issues. Lesson remembered: always stay on the road, never take the sidewalk..

I cycled along the western shores of lake Mikata and lake Suigetsu, intending to take the horribly squiggly scenic mountain road north of the lakes. But when I got to the north of lake Suigetsu I noticed a little path marked as cycling road which looked really nice, so I took that instead. It took me all the way around the lake to the other side, and a tough climb took me back into civilization. I wandered around the Mihama area a bit, exploring some random roads, and eventually cycled on to Tsuruga.

I've changed my plan for the next few days. I had been intending to get to Kanazawa by cycling along the coast on route 305, which is about 200 kilometers of indirect coast line. That will probably get boring, so I decided that tomorrow I'll do about half a day along the coast and then take a semi-direct (but mountainous) road inland towards Fukui. Kanazawa is still a bit away from Fukui, but it should be doable in one day.

Must find chain spray. It's squeaky.

Posted in Spirit of Japan 3

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