北海道自転車旅行：Jul 11 大雪山/然別湖へ

It was a very nice morning at Shintoku (新得) rider house, snug and cozy, in our sleeping bags. Well, apparently someone doesn't want to get up...

Well, this was our glorious day of challenging Daisetsuzan (大雪山), yet we still got a little hill and some flat roads across the plains before we get to the foot of the Daisetsuzan mountains.

After some packing and preparations, we once again hit the road, yet this time, with out the bright sun light, it was cloudy, cool and moist, kind of a nice and comfortable weather. The road through the hills separating Shintoku (新得) from the great plains of Tokachi (十勝) had many interesting scenes.

Well, cows weren't a big deal from some people, but most of us were city kids, and I am from a fishery village. So, cows, we liked them.

Hokkaido has a lot of interesting road side stuff promoting driving safety.

Here's a sign next to a down hill that said "watch your speed". Real nice illustrations.

Wow, this traffic safety promotion used a real police car. Yet I'm not sure what that "SS campaign" is.

En route, we met a road construction that left only a one way lane open, so natually, there were officers directing the traffic, letting both directions take turns passing. Apparently, bikes are much more respected on Japanese roads then any other place that I know of. Upon our arrival, the officers stopped traffic of BOTH ways, used the walkie-talkie to tell the officers at the other end: "We have 4 people on bikes crossing", and then cleared the whole section exclusively for our safety. It was only after all 4 of us passed that the cars could pass again. I thanked the officers upon passing, never had this much respect for cycling safety anywhere else!

Soon we were in the Tokachi (十勝) plains riding straight toward Daisetsuzan (大雪山). Well, it's actually a very slight slope, the kind that you could maintain a reasonable speed yet your energy gets exhausted pretty quickly. And I found myself chewing on a piece of chocolate every 3~5 minutes. Not a good situation as we were going to be relying on our own supplies all the way to the peak, and no significant stores were expected along the way. I didn't take a lot of pictures of this part since the plains are all grass, trees, and farms, pretty much the most seen scene through out Hokkaido. And also, the all straight, tiresome slope makes us drowsy, forcing us to slow down and maintain a conversation to prevent dosing off.

The part of the plains right at the foot of Daisetsuzan (大雪山) was called Shikaoi (鹿追). The Chinese origin of the Kanji Characters means "chasing dear", though we have no idea where that name really came from. Here, our map book once again marked a near by "food attraction", called the "Shikaoi Cheese Factory" (鹿追チーズ工房), and commented: "great free cheese samples".


And so, with great trust of our map's gourmet guides, here we are!
It's a cheese shop that makes their own cheese right in the shop. Stepping in the store, we smell a slight hint of disinfectant in the air, kind of like that in hospitals. I guess bacteria infestation would be disastrous in making cheese. We, despite the sizable house, the actual shop was quite small, most of the area walled off to cheese manufacturing. Posters, news clips, and ads posted all over the place praising how good the cheese here was. A woman stepped out of the inside and greeted us at the counter, asking us what we would like. Although we know a little Japanese, most of us were not familiar with cheese names, especially when written in Japanese. Well, I do know some of them, yet it too me some time to realize what English equivalent those Japanese sound like. There were: モッツァレッラ (Mozzarella, sounds more like "MotTsaRerRa" in Japanese), チェダー (Cheddar, "CheDa~" as in Japanese), and ゴーダ (Gouda, this one sound the same in Japanese); and then there are smoked, black pepper, のり(seaweed), and various combinations of the variations of each kind. I am not very familiar with the difference between the 3, and had a very hard time explaining it to my friends after "decrypting" the Japanese cheese names. Well, I tried my best, like "Cheddar is the most common cheese that you sometimes see in cheeseburgers", and "Mozzarella might be slightly bitter, but real great with wine...". Well, most people in Taiwan only know cheese, and have know idea of all the variations as in most places there's only Cheddar. Noticing the difficulty we were having in that cheese discussion, the woman just silently started cutting samples for us to try. Whew, that's much easier. A taste is worth a thousand words in this case. Well, actually it's all very good, we only have to pick our favorite from all the good ones. I liked all the variations, either smoked, pepper or seaweed. In the end we left happily with 2 chunks of different flavors.

There was a "Station of the road" (道の駅) near by. Yet other then paid horse rides and horse related souvenirs, there really weren't much. We had lunch at a curry rice house next door. Very hungry at the moment, we finished our cheese during the wait for the curry. Seems like 80% of the food we tried in Hokkaido were downright delicious, and this curry was once again a winner. The rice was just right, not soggy, not too soft, and we could feel the beads and slight rice sweetness during chewing. The volume of curry to rice is 1:1. And there was also some kind of pickled vegetable served with the meal that we never seen and couldn't identify, yet the taste fits just right with the curry. If my words can't convince you how good it was, how about a picture of my friend licking his plate?


Well, after lunch, we finally started to make the long anticipated climb up Daisetsuzan (大雪山). Our first stop was the camping site next the the lake half way up the mountain: Lake Shikaribetsu (然別湖). Well, for me I felt much more tired on hill climbing when riding too slow, and the others preferred to ride slowly. So once again, I was in the front riding for a distance and then stopping to wait for them.

After sometime, we reached the first "Daisetsuzan National Park" (大雪山国立公園) sign, of course it's picture time.

Well, as we ascended, the temperature dropped fast, much more then we expected (afterwards, we've heard that it was bad timing as there was a slight storm forming). Soon I was forced to cut back on those stops to wait for friends, as continually paddling at a steady rate became a necessity to maintain body temperature. Also, I had to cut back on pictures to avoid the building moisture leaving water drops on my lens. I tried to wait on a resting spot where there was a road side public toilet, in vain as no one showed up for as long as 15 minutes (as I recall). It was then that I noticed two orange fury animals curled together on the parking lot of the public toilet. No fuss here, took a picture before I proceed.

(You could imagine the cold and foggy situation from the photo.) They were the size of stray dogs, yet something didn't seem right. Then one of them stood up, starred at me and slowly came walking toward me. It was then I realized: "That beautiful orange fur, looks exactly like that on the Firefox browser icon! Could it be? It's not a dog?" Half panicking, half excited, I pulled out my camera again. I've never seen a fox in my life, and I am not sure if these carnivals will attack people. I quickly took 2 pictures, not satisfied.

It's still walking toward me, those thin eyes staring straight at mine. Afraid, I put away my camera and slowly rode out of the parking lot. It kept following until I left the lot and got back on the road, then it turned back and again slowly strolled back to it's mate for warmth.

On after thought, I think it really just wanted me to feed him though.

I rode on with mixed feelings. Half of me just went, wow, that was so beautiful. The other half was worried that the other 3 were way too far behind, maybe an hour or two's difference, and it was getting colder and darker. An estimate by reading my map showed that I might be the only one who could get to the camping place before it went dark. Yet I don't have a phone, and I lose some serious body heat if I stop and wait in this weather for an hour. I rode on, slower.

Lake Shikaribetsu (然別湖) was in a valley in the mountains. And so naturally I would pass a peak, and then down hill into the valley. When I came to the peak, it was much worse. It may seem foggy on this side of the peak, yet it was a world of white on the other side.


It seemed like a huge cloud was blocking right in front of me. I got even more hesitant. Packed my camera into my backpack with all the moisture & shock protection, put on more clothes, and zipped my wind breaker's zipper all the way to the top. I waited for another 15~20 minutes, still no one. Well, at least there would be stores next to the lake, or I might be able to check in the camping site or a hotel first. So I sent speeding downhill into the white. The fog soon thickened into rain drops, which made it even colder. My wind breaker was water proof, but my legs were simply freezing cold.

After a long ride down hill, I stopped at the first souvenir shop, put my bike at the most noticeable spot next to the road, and went in, shivering, dripping water. The shop clerk looked at me in shock, then kindly hurried over to the heater, turned the level way up, and told me to stand next to it. I spent the next hour walking around in the store, gaining body heat. I wanted something hot. There was only snacks and candy in the store, the noodle store upstairs seemed to be closed years ago. All I could get was a can of hot coffee from the vendor machine outside, and I had no choice but settle with that.

An hour or so later, 3 more soaking wet figures entered the shop, drawing surprised looks from everyone in the store except me. Whew, at last they arrived. After all that, we hoped to find a real indoor place to stay, yet all there was were 5 star lake side resorts with prices way out of question.

Upon leaving, we bought some strange candy (BBQ and tree trunk flavored caramel anyone?) from the store as a thanks, and set off to the only choice left: the lake side camping site. the camping site was owned and managed by the national park service. There was a huge warehouse storing all sorts of canoes and other lake side recreation gear. We asked upon checking in and paying the fee if we could camp in there due to the cold weather, the ranger answered no, but he sad we could camp under the roof sticking out of the warehouse, and bid us good luck. After a simple dinner, we started looking for alternative solutions for the night.

(Lake Shikaribetsu/然別湖)
We found that the near by wooden built restroom was very new, clean with the aroma of wood, and we could fit a tent in each of the Men & Woman's side. Best of all, with thick walls and doors, and a roof, it was very warm and cozy inside. There was only another group camping there that night, with a minivan and a gigantic tent the size of a 2 car garage. As they also had a right to use the rest room, we went to ask them for permission. They were, shocked at first, and then started laughing. "Yes, it is really cold, just go!"

And so we moved our tents in. There was a knock on the door before we were going to sleep, it was one of the other campers. Just as we started making way for him to use the rest room, he said he just came to see us, bid us "good night, and take care".

Hmm, interesting guy.

I must say, although it's a public toilet, there is no smell other the the pleasant soothing aroma of wood.

July 10th 新得 << | >> July 12th 大雪山から逃げる