Surveying the damage 2: Hiyoshi Dam edition

Today Kory, Steve and I decided to take a "quiet, chilled-out ride" on the classic route up to Hiyoshi Dam and back. Get a good lunch, maybe a craft beer, job done.




It didn't turn out quite that way, as it happens - the effects of STS Man-Yi are still quite apparent here...

Check out the high water mark (the mud on the trees) in the reservoir!

And in this river channel. Must have been a sight to behold in full flow.

Turns out this was the correct choice of bike for this ride...

Bikes in front of the dam

Lunch: the best fried chicken donburi (rice bowl) in Japan.

Past Hiyoshi Dam, we started to encounter debris on the road...

...and then we came to this. Shit!
Left to right: Steve, Kory, me.

When we encountered the debris pile above, we went into full adventure mode. I carefully climbed up onto it and we passed our bikes up, then carefully picked our way through it. We helped another cyclist out as well - although we didn't see him later so he may well have chickened out and gone back the way he came!

Finally past the huge pile.

Kory, attempting to clean his brand new white Fizik (road) shoes after some
mud-based misfortune.

The storm knocked out power in this tunnel - the other way it was pitch black. We had to
navigate by iPhone flashlight.

And of course, the end of the tunnel was half-buried.

Steve picking his way along the side of the mud... 

...which I rode through on the CX bike...

...but it turned out to be like glue!

Both my bike and myself needed quite the clean afterwards...

115 km of riding, lifting, carrying, climbing, sinking... and laughing. A grand adventure was had by all - it's days like these that make me not only remember (as if I had forgotten) why cycling is so great.