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<\/p>\nWell I’m back on the right side of the International Date Line and I must say I had a really cool time in Japan but I’m glad to be back at home where I have more “normal” things to fill up my day like leaky facets,\u00a0broken sprinklers, kid’s hockey games and\u00a0other family goodness.<\/p>\n
The last two weeks in Japan were pretty busy so not much time to play online, but I did get in some riding.\u00a0 Specifically I went out to the largest chunk of forest on the pennisula.\u00a0\u00a0Most of my friends\u00a0refer to this area as\u00a0Fugatoyama, but it is actually a sizable chunk of the Kanagawa Wildlife Protection Area that has\u00a0several\u00a0names.\u00a0\u00a0Topology-wise there are\u00a0a series of ridges lines that form a reverse C shaped\u00a0bowl with a\u00a0river that forms and flows from\u00a0east to west\u00a0 of out the outlet of “the bowl” and onward to Segami Bay.\u00a0\u00a0Most of the riding\u00a0occurs and the northern leg of the\u00a0“C” and\u00a0down the\u00a0northeastern flanks of the ridgelines down to the Tokyo Bay side of the pennisula.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
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In 2004, I had done quite a bit of exploring on the southern leg of the reverse C.\u00a0There are nice sections of trail in that area interspresed with hike-a-bike and\u00a0aggressive sections.\u00a0\u00a0 If you\u00a0have ever ridden Bell Ridge<\/a> or Los Pinos<\/a>\u00a0in Orange County it is sorta like that but forested and the trail is often criss-crossed with roots.\u00a0 I had snooped around for\u00a0connections\u00a0between the North and South legs but had mostly found brutal steep hikes that were “Advanced\/Expert Hike-A-Bikes”.\u00a0<\/p>\n I really wanted to\u00a0find a\u00a0connector that only included some\u00a0“Upper Intermediate Hike-A-Bikeage”\u00a0\u00a0After a good bit of research\u00a0I had\u00a0some proposed routes that inlcluded going into “The Bowl”.\u00a0\u00a0 There is an awesome chunk of trail\u00a0going into the bowl.\u00a0 It is\u00a0wonderful sweeping\u00a0flowing singletrack that gracefully looses its elevation into the bowl.\u00a0 I was hoping to find\u00a0such another trail\u00a0leading out of the bowl to the south.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Hope…..Hope on it’s own\u00a0is for idiots who are too stupid to come up with a plan.\u00a0 The plan was to be mentally prepared for a brutal hike-a-bike up to the south or bailout\u00a0on a proposed trail along the\u00a0river to the west.<\/p>\n “The Bowl” is an amazing wooded area that rivals some of the best forested scenery I have ever been in.\u00a0I found myself not making much headway and I was enjoying every minute of it.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n I learned a really interesting bit of information from some of the locals about the snakes of Japan.\u00a0 All of the venonmous snakes have slited eyes while all of the non-venonmous ones have round eyes.\u00a0\u00a0 The drawback to practically applying the information is that you have to get close enough to them to figure it out.<\/p>\n After exploring most of the options in the west end of the bowl I was soon started picking trails that would take me\u00a0towards the southern ridges.\u00a0 The bowl is not as much of a bowl as I had expected as there were some smaller ridges inside of the bowl that proved to be beaters.\u00a0\u00a0 This was by far not the first I had failed to fully appreciate the thin topo lines spaced closely together.\u00a0\u00a0 My payment to the mountain gods would come in the form of burning calves and triceps as I carried, lunged, and pushed my bike up\u00a0the trails\u00a0less traveled.<\/p>\n Once I had gotten up onto these intermediate ridges, I was presented with some trail options that left me scratching my head.\u00a0 It was one of those things were I was pretty sure were the splits would take me but knowing and confirming are two different things.\u00a0 I took a\u00a0couple of these options\u00a0as\u00a0out and back to confirm were they were coing\u00a0before continuing along my intended route.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n The next series of trail options shed off yet some more elevation and took me further down into the bowl.\u00a0 When I reached a point where there was supposed to be a four-way intersection, I only found a T-intersection with my intended direction being the missing leg.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 From pouring over my Japanese maps I figured out that I would have to take a long uphill climb that would most likely be hike-a-bike way to the west to catch the southern leg of the “C”.\u00a0 I already knew the southern leg would also have a bit of hike-a-bike between the riding sections.\u00a0\u00a0 I was feeling fatigue creeping in but more importantly I was mentally growing tired of the hike-a-bike exploring.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I opted to take the trail option that followed the stream\/creek downstream.<\/p>\n Boy was I\u00a0glad I went that way.\u00a0 After a good bit of technical riding, the trail started mellowing out and the riding got real flowing and just awesome.\u00a0\u00a0I now started encountering some hikers here and there.\u00a0 The further west and downstream I went the more mellow things got.\u00a0 This was one hell of a great “bailout”. Eventually the “trail” ended at and old road that has been turned back over to mother nature when the wildlife protection area was established.\u00a0\u00a0 Mother Nature is doing a mighty fine job with this road.<\/p>\n Over the next few miles the trail\/road turned to a dirt road, then a paved road and before long I was back in rural civilization.\u00a0\u00a0 I ended up taking a series of streets and trails back to the apartment.\u00a0 While cruising back I got to thinking that if this was back in the states, it would surely be designated wilderness area or some kind of sensitive area that would be off-limits to bike.\u00a0\u00a0Hats off to the\u00a0Japan and thier outdoor culture.\u00a0 Trails are trails over there.\u00a0 You can ride your bike anywhere you dare too including\u00a0national parks and thier wilderness equivalent.\u00a0 From what I\u00a0understand there are only a few trails in the entire country\u00a0that are off-limits to bikes. One of them is Mount Fuji<\/a> and that is closed only during the busy hiking season.\u00a0 After\u00a0dinner that night\u00a0I\u00a0broke down\u00a0and packed up the bike and got all\u00a0packed up to finish that last bits of work and fly home the following evening.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.mountainbikebill.com\/blog\/wp-content\/imagescaler\/8d1f39508c8938cc93634d306d094f03.jpg?resize=840%2C560\")
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