Ninety minutes of riding to and then sidling the foothills of the volcanic mountains took us to Higashikawa in plenty of time to work out the bus timetable, eat at the farmers market inside the bus station, browse the Mont Bell store and work out where to leave our bikes in town for hours. Broad daylight in a public thoroughfare should be fine…
Very poor timing out here.
Nice to see little rail cars still trundling around the countryside.
I dived off the road seeing a sign for Canmore Ski Village. Canmore being the town in the Canadian Rockies I lived in for a year – what is going on here?
Not the Canmore I was used to.
Amused by the replacement of the maple leaf in the flag.
<
Curious.
Curiouser.
Turns out Canmore, Alberta, is twinned with Higashikawa. Makes some sort of sense.
The bus to the ropeway was fair packed, but it beat riding up the narrow mountain road in the heat. The ropeway took us to 1600 m, we had four hours to get back before the ropeway closed. Only 700 m left to climb to the summit of Mt Asahidake – the highest mountain in Hokkaido. Surely that would be enough, it was only three-ish kilometres.
At least it was cooler up here. (That’s the summit elevation, bit misleading.)
Path flat for a little before beginning the climb. Plenty to look at though, misty peak, nice lake and some geothermal activity.
Up we go. Pretty rocky and loose, but easily walkable.
This section was better underfoot!
Pausing to look around most worthwhile.
Volcanic colours starting to show. Also, typically well-covered Japanese hiker.
We, on the other hand, not as nearly protected from the sun in our bike gear.
I do like fumarole fotos.
Misty clouds continually blowing through as we ascended; occasional views.
Fair bit of traffic, but not overwhelming.
Made it to the top to find we were only three hours’ walk from Kurodake – where we’d been two days before.
Not much of a view down the way we came.
But summit lunch wasn’t bad – some views in the opposite direction.
Bit clearer on the way down.
The descent was good fun, trying to stride, or jump, between large stepping stones and avoid the scree. Back to the flatter section, we still had two hours to spare – it was excellent to have the time to wander around the lower paths as the sky was clearer and it was absolutely gorgeous. So stunning in fact, I’m just going to put all these photos here and not write anything for a bit (!).
Easily making the last gondola, we hitched a ride back to town with an Australian couple – nice to avoid the crowded bus and fun to hear their experiences driving around Hokkaido. Six hours later, our bikes and all our gear were still where we left them against a shop wall in the busiest part of town. Touring in Japan so easy on many counts. An easy cruise down to Asahikawa on cycle trail alongside the Chubetsu River.
A bit neglected early on it soon became a top-notch piece of trail and then very well used.
A free campground in a big city park was home for the night – its point of difference in my mind was the absurdly loud music that played in the toilet block when one entered! After bathing at the largest public onsen of our trip, it was up the street for a barbecue dinner. Excellent day, still remains one of the highlights, if not the highlight, of my time in Japan.
Giving the climbing legs another work out trying to get a better view of the falls.
Lack of traffic meant being able to stare more at the impressive canyon walls surrounding us.
A path on the outside of a galleria – more pleasant.
Don’t think that bridge is going to get us across; backtracking involved.
River still looking dirty through these flood control gates.
Another camp visitor at breakfast time. Well, we were the visitors – this one probably a local.
We soon spotted it from afar.
Rachel towering over me as I muck around taking photos.
Looks a prime candidate for a rail trail.
Very tempting to ride along it, but previous experience reminds us that it might be blocked or a bridge out quite soon. Alas.
Back to the highway to find we may have entered a Mad Max world. What is this?!
Many deer around happy doing their thing next to passing cars and cyclists.
Oh, it’s a mower; even we could pass this.
Except one poor young deer got a little close to the traffic; Rachel showing her veterinary side and helping it off the road – little else to be done for it unfortunately. 
Rachel’s photo.
Very cute outside and in. 
Coffee art was also top-notch, I’m told.
Recommended for hungry cyclists, or in general. I’m still disappointed I didn’t find a similarly excellent jug to buy and bring home.
To the tunnel! Relatively short, but cut out over a hundred metres more climbing.
Spotted a lot of these fake-trees – we assumed for avalanche control.
Flattening out a bit.
Water levels definitely low.
Rolling into the small alpine village of Sounkyo – only a few steep streets and some big empty waterways, we certainly wouldn’t be seeing any flash floods.
Typical flood control weir, barrier that we saw all over the country.
After the long cable car, a short walk to a long chairlift – starting to cool down exposed up here.
Village visible just, route of the chairlift obvious.
Suddenly up in the sub-alpine.
And with a bit of walking on the rocky trail, into the alpine.
The cloud kept blowing through, so at times we got a bit of a view of the plateau and then volcanic peaks and craters.
Heading for those buildings, a small lodge and even smaller store (!).
A good little base for further exploring; but we only had a few hours – so return to Sounkyo we must.
From the roof of the ropeway top station.
Most of Sounkyo village.
Jian recommended a ramen restaurant for dinner.
Morning visitor; better outside the tent, as with all other creatures.
This stretch first up another highlight of the Japan riding, following a creek down to a sealed road by which time it had become more of a river.
Used to sunflowers being tall…
But rawan buki was a new one. A large field, with a pleasant path through it, of these single stem plants with a broad leaf on top towered over us.
Roadside cheer squad?
Still finding some nice gravel.
Starting to see some old rail infrastructure.
More campground companions, about eight centimetres long.
