October 9, 2025
Day 37 — Lake Hibara to Aizu-Hongo
Marilee here.
We had planned a short day today, to give our legs a chance to recover from the previous day’s exertion, and to rest up for more big hill days ahead. So it could have been an opportunity for a relaxing morning, but the intermittent bang-bangs of the bird/monkey deterrents didn’t really make us want to linger at the campsite. Plus we had the food deficit that Tom described in yesterday’s post — breakfast was coffee, crackers and peanuts, until we could get to a 7-11 somewhere up the road.
Luckily for our legs, yesterday’s onsen had worked its miracles on the lactic acid and they felt fresh and strong. Also luckily, today was mostly going to be a level or slightly downhill cruise.
For the first dozen or so kilometers we were following a narrow twisting lakeside road, with occasional viewpoints out across the lake.
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Okay, it was really an avalanche warning, we get it.
After leaving the lakeside we rolled into a small resort town (which had a 7-11, so yeah, there was second breakfast!) which seemed a bit deserted— probably in the midst of shoulder season, waiting for the skiing to start. All day long we passed the occasional log chalet, reminding us of Whistler. There were also big fancy (and empty, if the parking lots are anything to go by) hotels along the roadside, adding to our sense that the place gets livelier once snow falls.
We rolled into our campground for the day by mid-afternoon, and we were pleased to see that it was much more of a going concern than the forlorn lakeside site of the day before. Also, we were already well provisioned with food from a grocery store in the nearby town.
The place was run by a small elderly man who greeted us very enthusiastically and ushered us into the administration building to fill out forms and get a thorough briefing. We were in site b-12; he pointed it out several times on the map, tracing the route from the administration building slowly with his finger. Then for good measure he gave us a plastic binder which contained a large card reading “B-12”, and pointed that out to us. Yup, we get it!
A little while later he came down in person just to be sure we hadn’t got lost.
We had a good chat with our neighbor, a man in his seventies who has been to Whistler twice, once twenty years ago and then again ten years ago. We are quite astounded at the number of people we’ve met who have been to Whistler.
Had a good soak in the onsen just up the road, some grocery store sushi, and we were in bed by 7. Another great day!
Today's ride: 55 km (34 miles)
Total: 1,873 km (1,163 miles)
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