Usui pass down hill(E-11)⭐⭐⭐ ‘24.18th, Aug

2024年9月1日

This route E-11 is in Area-E, Chubu-hokuriku. See Area-E map/ See Japan map

Sight & Entertainment ⭐⭐⭐

Food & Drinks – (no chance in this time, but Kamameshi is famous)

Easiness ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐(Even hill climbing, not so tough slope)

Road condition ⭐⭐⭐

Safety ⭐⭐⭐

Day-2 of my summer vacation cycling trip(ref. my article E-10). To avoid heat and to reach home as early as possible, I took the 1st Shinkansen from Nagano and reached Karuizawa at AM6:43. Today, again down hill from Karuizawa to opposite direction, Gunma prefecture.

It was a little cool again in Karuizawa, which is the reason why it was very popular as a villa area. After a slight up hill, soon I reached the Usui pass and down hill started.

It was very comfortable to cycling in a shaded mountain road(pic.3). There seemd over 150 corners in this hill road since I found number plates counting down at every corner. And the slope seemed not so steep, so it will be suitable for enjoying hill climbing ,though this time it was only down hill.

After a few KMs, I could see some brick constructed bridges along the route(pic.4). The most famous one was seen after 10km from Usui pass which is called Magane(glass) bridge(pic.5). These bridges were built in Meiji era, 19C after Japanese revolution and rail way toward central Japan was drawn. It’s so steep, so Abt system was taken. Now it’s not in use and standing just as one of a heritage site.

Still the down hill continued. Then gradually Mt.Myogi(pic.6) appeared. It’s a very odd shape made of lava and selected as one of the 3 oddest landscape in Japan.

Then after 12km from starting, I came to the corner No,1(pic.7). It was still down hill after this No.1 corner. Gradually the road became flat and the temperature became higher.

Finally I came to a big and busy street toward Takasaki city. Maybe 20km remained toward my destination, Maebashi station when I hit some protruding object and with feeling some resistance at rear tire, I heard blowout sound for the first time with this bike.

I found over 5cm tear on the tire surface and I gave up cycling there. Of course I didn’t carry a spare tire. Fortunately there was a local train station, Annaka station(pic.11) 4km ahead. I trailed my bike in a hot sunshine(pic.10). The train comes once an hour but I thought I was lucky because the puncture didn’t happen in the mountain. I took a Shinkansen from Takasaki to Ueno ad reached my home at noon.