{"id":1875,"date":"2019-03-09T23:54:30","date_gmt":"2019-03-10T07:54:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mountainbikebill.com\/blog\/?p=1875"},"modified":"2019-03-09T23:54:30","modified_gmt":"2019-03-10T07:54:30","slug":"ogusuyama-wanderings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.mountainbikebill.com\/blog\/?p=1875","title":{"rendered":"Ogusuyama Wanderings"},"content":{"rendered":"

For my second outing on the trails near Yokosuka,\u00a0 I paid a return visit to Ogusuyama<\/a>.\u00a0 When I lived here in Japan for most of 2004 this was my twice a week lunch time loop.\u00a0\u00a0 On this trip I was loosely going to follow that same route.\u00a0\u00a0 That was the plan anyway.\u00a0\u00a0 Things went a little off kilter right from the beginning.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I am staying at a different hotel than I have in the past.\u00a0\u00a0 Instead of riding from my hotel back to the my well known starting reference point I decided to just cut through some side streets and connect up to my known\u00a0route “mid-stream”.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 So off I went cutting this way and that, cross checking with my phone.\u00a0 (More on the phone in a future post).\u00a0\u00a0 After working through some unfamiliar side streets, I came out to a junction where the memory banks fired off and I knew where I was at and which way to go.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I stopped looking at my phone at this point.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0As I am rolling along, visual cue, visual cue, bang, bang, bang, I have been here before kept clicking in my head.\u00a0\u00a0 I was rolling.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 A fair ways down the road I noticed that the route had not turned uphill yet.\u00a0\u00a0 I should have been climbing by now.\u00a0\u00a0 I checked on my phone and realized I\u00a0had been going off a tangent for\u00a0over three miles.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Looking at my phone I realized there was no corner to cut\u00a0to get back\u00a0on track.\u00a0 Three miles and change back the\u00a0way I had came was the quickest way.\u00a0 WTF happened came to mind.\u00a0\u00a0How did\u00a0my eyes fail me?\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 A bit of further reflection and it dawned on me.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I was following the visual cues from memory\u00a0towards the wrong trail system.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I had clued in on the streets I taken in the past to head over towards the Takeyama Trail System<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0That is what I get for being too cocky about my recollection of the streets and roads of this area.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

So after backtracking and getting onto the route for the trail I wanted\u00a0to ride on\u00a0things started clicking properly.\u00a0\u00a0 There was climbing to be done and the good news was I was warmed up.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Visual Cues<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Bamboo along the side of the street<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One thing about riding on the residential street here in Japan as you start getting up in the hills they often will be single lane.\u00a0\u00a0 I kind of did a snicker while shaking my head at the thought that many of our San Diego County multiuse “Trails” are nearly twice as wide as these residential streets in Japan.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Ogusuyama looking to the west towards Segami Bay<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Once onto the dirt I made my way over to the summit that included some hike-a-bike up some stairs. \u00a0Once on top I was surprised to be\u00a0treated to some signs of spring.\u00a0\u00a0 This was quite a contrast to the beginning of the week where it had snowed.<\/u><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Cherry Blossums<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Signs of Spring<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After getting my fill of the sights on the summit I backtracked a bit and got on what was supposed to be my main trail to shed off some elevation in nice single track fashion.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I was quite bummed to see the trail I was looking to take was well blocked off.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 None of the other options I knew were appealing as they would put me on the other side of the peninsula, involve hundreds of steep steps carrying a bike or go back the way I came.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Ain’t No Engrish here!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There was a map nearby that clearly laid out in Japanese what to do with the situation.\u00a0 It was a real bummer to see how much of the trail was closed.\u00a0\u00a0 I was hoping that the reroute would not be some hike a bike down BS.\u00a0\u00a0 Just when I was about to roll out a hiker came up and was looking bewildered into her phone.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 She clearly asked me for directional help but my Japanese has atrophied down from his highpoint of bad some number of years ago.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0After a couple\u00a0of\u00a0 rounds of\u00a0international charades and collective pointing at her phone I figured out where she wanted to go.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The trail down the mountain she needed to\u00a0take was no shown on her phone.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It was not much of a back track for me so I rode back with her following and got her on the right trail.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I remembered the trail as it is a calf burning hike-a-bike\u00a0on the way up that is not\u00a0easily\u00a0forgotten.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
My reroute goes through here<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

My good deed for the day done, I started off on my reroute.\u00a0\u00a0 The trail it\u00a0took me on started out quite flowing but soon turned quite steep.\u00a0\u00a0 Luckily it was not also slick so some technical roots and crotch riding the rear wheel took\u00a0me down to a street.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The reroute then took me\u00a0through what looked like somebody’s\u00a0backyard farm before\u00a0I was back on\u00a0a micro-sized residential street.\u00a0\u00a0 After a bit on the street I was off onto a single track and then back to gravel road.\u00a0 Shortly thereafter I popped out at the bottom of the closure and familiar ground.\u00a0\u00a0 While I was bummed about the section of trail I could not ride, the forced route finding and new bits of trail I went on was a nice bit of unplanned adventure.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Such a nice bit of trail<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The next section of\u00a0trail was just as nice as I remembered it and it popped me out near the entrance to a couple of shrines and temples.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Checking these out were not on the agenda today (I have toured them before) so I continued along the remainder of my old lunchtime loop route.<\/p>\n

Here is the spot on Google Maps<\/a>.\u00a0 There are four pins in area for the shrines and temples that\u00a0include photos as well.<\/em><\/p>\n

The remainder of the ride was street riding back to my hotel.\u00a0\u00a0 There were not further\u00a0navigational misdeeds on my part.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It was great day to be wandering around on Nippon dirt!<\/p>\n

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