Towadako, or, If we can survive this, we can survive anything

What a day.

First, a combination of Sumi, who can be a bit directionally-challenged and a bad GPS signal, had us wandering through Aomori for about an hour before we found our way out of the city. Japanese cities have yet to actually try modern urban planning. As such, roads randomly turn, change names, have no name, end, turn into mud paths for a few hundred meters, sometimes roads are alleys between buildings that a car can barely pass through. Without good GPS (or knowing where the sun is), it is easy to get turned around.

When we finally left the city, we found ourselves climbing up the first of our two big mountain peaks of this trip. Most of the way up was on very small roads that vacillated between one lane and 1.5 lanes. The rain was holding off (though it was a bit chilly-low 50's), and the ride was beautiful.

Then the first crash came. We had made it up about halfway, and there was some downhill in between climbs. The grade was very steep (12-13%), and we were riding our brakes, but still moving pretty well. As I approached a sharp turn, I was braking, but hit a patch of wet leaves, and my rear tire slid out. I recovered, but in the process was going too fast for the curve, at this point. I grabbed the brakes, forcing the bike into a skid, and attempted to bail, but with a 25 lb backpack, I couldn't get off the bike completely, and down I went. A lot of scrapes, and a jammed thumb, but nothing serious (and the bike was fine). My first incident in all of our trips.

As we neared the top of the long climb (1 mile up, 15 mile ride), we came across Sukaya Onsen, and saw our first snow drift. In June.

This one was about 10 ft tall and 40 ft long

Apparently they get so much snow up here, it doesn't melt until July. Notice the area around the electrical box is melted away. There was snow (not on the road) for the rest of the day, until we finally descended on the other side. The scenery was still pretty spectacular, despite frozen water.

Snow in the background, blooming flowers below, and an underground volcanic spring flowing across the whole thing.

As we neared Lake Towada, the second crash occurred. The roads were narrow and wet (rain had started on and off), we were being passed by tour buses and trucks. On one such occasion, Sumi moved closer to the side of the road as we were being passed and rode into a puddle that was hiding a huge pothole. Her bike stopped, she didn't. More scrapes, a whole lot of mud, but thankfully nothing severe. The bike was also, thankfully, mostly unharmed. A spill like that could have bent the wheel, which would have been the end of our trip. Our wheels are not common sizes. We'd be lucky to find one in Tokyo, but out here...but other than a little brake adjustment, all was good, though now we were both sore, slightly bleeding, wet, and really looking forward to ending the day. Which was a shame, because the whole route up to the lake had been along a river with a ton of waterfalls all around us, and with all the rain, the rivers were swollen and the waterfalls were spectacular. But it was too cool and rainy to stop and take pictures.

At this point, of course, the rain started really coming down. We donned our rain gear and discovered the one-size-fits-all rain pants only fits all if you have less than a 30" inseam. The shoe covers, on the other hand, did a remarkably good job. For about an hour, we slogged through some rather insistent rain, fortunately under the cover of a lot of trees for most of it, but when we arrived at the lake, it was pretty open. And wet. But we didn't melt, so that was a bonus.

As we neared our hotel, we had one last obstacle to face: a big-ass tunnel.

Big-ass tunnel

This tunnel (about 1.1km), had great acoustics, and acted like a "natural" amplifier. I was standing just inside the tunnel, Sumi was about 40 feet away, taking this picture, and I was able to talk with her in a normal voice, while the tunnel echoed and amplified my voice. You could hear the echo traveling down the tunnel. It was pretty cool. It was also very wide with a good sidewalk and, most importantly, dry.

We limped into our hotel, Hotel Towadasou, we were wet, muddy, hungry, but in one piece. We parked our bikes, got to our room, showered (painfully, with all the raw scrapes), and went downstairs to try and find some food. This is a resort area, and all the restaurants were either closed or only open for lunch.

This hotel is enormous, and the baths look amazing, but with fresh, open wounds, we wouldn't be allowed in there (and frankly, the idea of bathing in acidic sulfur water didn't sound too appealing, anyway). There was a large, three story waterfall that ran inside the building and down into the basement, where the baths were located.

They had a single washoku (Japanese style) restaurant, which usually means lots of fish, and not a lot else. Desperate times and all that, we braved the restaurant, which, as it turned out, wasn't serving their main meals yet (fish with sides of fish), but were only serving some diner food, like curry and gyoza. Oh darn!

An old fashioned restaurant inside the hotel

Nice and clean. And empty. Apparently no one wants dinner at 4:30, unless you've been biking since 5:45

Not original, not highbrow, not sorry.

We crawled back up to our room, sore from our adventures, but warm and full. Tomorrow we have a short day (~30 miles) and a much shorter climb (1000 ft, rather than 5600). It will be another wet one, but should be the last day with nothing but rain. The forecast has it down to 50% by Monday and gone after that. So, one more day with our rain gear as we start crossing the mountains to Yuze Onsen.