13 October 2014

Riding the Rindos

I happened to go onto the Tokyo Cycling Club (TCC) site this morning after a fairly long absence and was glad to see it is going strong with the usual ride postings, items for sale, and chat about all things road-cycling-related.

There was a thread for a Saturday October 11 ride in the Miyagase-ko area that left me shaking my head and wishing I had read it sooner, as I was nearby there on Sunday and followed only a well-trodden path.  The posts show a ride plan (complete with RidewithGPS route) that would cover at least 3 "dead end" forest roads (rindos) near Lake Miyagase that I have never ridden (plus 1 or 2 that I have).   There is even a video from the ride showing about 7 minutes of a gradual climb along one of these rindo, beside a river.  The ridewithGPS route shows this little "detour" is 12 kms each way.  In the video, I counted only 2 slow moving motorbikes over 7 minutes.  No cars (except one or two parked at turnouts).  Ideal, except for some places where there is some gravel or mud on the road, no doubt a result of recent typhoons and something that should be clearer in other seasons.  And a river runs through it.

Maybe a future group ride will go to Miyagase-ko, then riders can head up the rindos, as many and as far as they want, while others relax at the michi-no-eki?  A great way to ride with people of varying degrees of interest or ability.

3 comments:

Manfred von Holstein said...

I think I have done all of these rindos. Nice to discover a bit more of the area this way, but none of them struck me as being particularly spectacular. They all end on gravel one way or another. The most northern one is ultimately almost impassible, but even those that are better maintained become quite steep which was tough with my cyclocross at the time. I would recommend an MTB for all of them, at least beyond the paved part.

AK said...

Pardon, but what exactly is a "Rindo"?

David Litt said...

"forest roads (rindos)"