By Popular Demand
The story will Get Finished tonight.
After belting down what felt like hours (but was actually more like 40 minutes) of fun-tastic trail, I pop out on a fireroad, and while I stop and work out where to go next, a family shows me where the trail continues by (noisily) walking towards me out of the bush. A brief chat, and on I go, up where they'd come down, then around, up a bit more, another turn, then down for a few hundred metres to arrive at...almost the exact same spot. The trail had done an almost perfect u-turn in half a kilometre, and spat me out about 200m down the firetrail from where I met the family. I can't complain though, as this was what greeted me on the other side of the road:
and in it there were these:
It was a beautful, tranquil spot that I didn't really want to leave, and it'd have been much harder to do so if there wasn't more trail singing its siren song just for me. I headed out after a brief adjustment of my homemade rack attachment (more on that later) and rolled back onto the trail.
The next, and last section of dirt riding was long, but as previously, left me with little to talk about, except to say that it started steep again, then turned rocky, then leveled out and became straight and fast. I think by this stage it may have been an old small-gauge train line, as the gradient was not more than a few degrees down, and it was very smooth, with substantial stone work building up corners,
old bridge pillars and retaining walls. Far too much effort to be just for the hiking trail, and out of character with the rest of it. The photos once again don't show much, but I hope you can get an idea. It was still great fun riding, interspersed with a few bridges that required walking and bike-carrying, and I was glad that my setup was reasonably light.
Before long, sadly the section of trail I had come to ride ended with a long, gentle run beside a river, and I found myself in a beautiful little valley a short climb from the town of Shitara and the road home. On riding up into Shitara, I found this amazing old corner store - I love the signs!
From here on there isn't much to say - I had a longish slog home on the road, it was still pretty, but quite painful. I stopped back near Asuke on the river for a late lunch, then rolled the last 20km back home at a very sedate pace. I do have a few more pictures I'd like to share and a few comments on my gear, as I know (hope?) there is at least one reader who might like to hear about it.
I had a great trip, only a little disappointed to have cut it short, but I live to fight another day. I'll be back there soon enough.
thanks for reading.
After belting down what felt like hours (but was actually more like 40 minutes) of fun-tastic trail, I pop out on a fireroad, and while I stop and work out where to go next, a family shows me where the trail continues by (noisily) walking towards me out of the bush. A brief chat, and on I go, up where they'd come down, then around, up a bit more, another turn, then down for a few hundred metres to arrive at...almost the exact same spot. The trail had done an almost perfect u-turn in half a kilometre, and spat me out about 200m down the firetrail from where I met the family. I can't complain though, as this was what greeted me on the other side of the road:
and in it there were these:
It was a beautful, tranquil spot that I didn't really want to leave, and it'd have been much harder to do so if there wasn't more trail singing its siren song just for me. I headed out after a brief adjustment of my homemade rack attachment (more on that later) and rolled back onto the trail.
The next, and last section of dirt riding was long, but as previously, left me with little to talk about, except to say that it started steep again, then turned rocky, then leveled out and became straight and fast. I think by this stage it may have been an old small-gauge train line, as the gradient was not more than a few degrees down, and it was very smooth, with substantial stone work building up corners,
old bridge pillars and retaining walls. Far too much effort to be just for the hiking trail, and out of character with the rest of it. The photos once again don't show much, but I hope you can get an idea. It was still great fun riding, interspersed with a few bridges that required walking and bike-carrying, and I was glad that my setup was reasonably light.
Before long, sadly the section of trail I had come to ride ended with a long, gentle run beside a river, and I found myself in a beautiful little valley a short climb from the town of Shitara and the road home. On riding up into Shitara, I found this amazing old corner store - I love the signs!
From here on there isn't much to say - I had a longish slog home on the road, it was still pretty, but quite painful. I stopped back near Asuke on the river for a late lunch, then rolled the last 20km back home at a very sedate pace. I do have a few more pictures I'd like to share and a few comments on my gear, as I know (hope?) there is at least one reader who might like to hear about it.
I had a great trip, only a little disappointed to have cut it short, but I live to fight another day. I'll be back there soon enough.
thanks for reading.
posted by kurisu at 8:37 PM
1 Comments:
Sounds like a great ride, and I love the corner store.
What do they want us to drink - Pepsi or Coke?
:-)
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