MTB with Mitch #2

After spending about an hour trying to get Mitch to wake up we finally got it on and went up Minegata for a Little Downhill action. We had my wife drive us up to save time and off we went.
Mitch knew about 5 trails up at Minegata and I only know 1 or 2. So Mitch took me to the start of a few trails to give me some beta. Mitch riding past with Goryu in the Background.Mitch up at the Lavendar farm showing me how to get to one of the harder trails up at Minegata. He says that there are stairs of rocks on that trail. Might not be ready for that but I am willing to try.

Mitch at the main trail head starting point at Minegata. You can se the trail from the parking area.Mitch flying down the trail. Mitch is such a better biker than me. My bike is way better than his but its not the bike its the rider. I love the start of this trail cause its a nice sloping single track for about 1km. You get really warmed up before the steeper Downhill sections.

At the bottom of the course I asked Mitch if he had seen Stew's house yet. He had not seen it so we rode 2 minutes out of the way to Stew's. After hanging out at Stew's for less than 2 minutes the man himself drove up, funny. Stew, his wife Yoko and daughter Nene (cutie) bought a 92 year old house and gutted it to the frame. They will rebuild the house and parts of the frame in a sort of Japanese Fusion style. I think its going to look sick! some of the Mtb bike trails actually end at his house! Can you say beer time loud enough after a sick ride? Anyways as I write the foundation is being laid.

Hannah and Papa at the Lake

Lake Aokiko has been in fine form as of late. Prefect hot weather has really warmed up the lake. The day before I was down at the lake with Mitch and thought that my little girl Hannah would love the water. Hannah loves water, she loves water so much that it is scary.
The lake is super clean but a bit rocky on the bottom. It is hard for me to carry Hannah without my water shoes so we used here blow-up sit toy. We swam and played spin the Hannah! LOL
Hannah looking at mama on the dock. The dock isnt used anymore and the person that used to use it left 3 complete (old) wind surfing kits.
There is my little girl loving life and trying to swim. I might have a National champion.
Everyone had the same idea as us as well. Jason and his girl were there., Steve and his kids for the second day in a row, Andy, Dan plus 4 friends and Timmy his better half and daughter showed up. In all I spent about an hour in the water swimming and playing great day.

Painting after a biking

Just when I thought that I put in a good ride a friend out did me 8 fold. The guy road from Nagano to Hakuba about 120 kms here and back. Missed him by about 5 minutes too as we were late getting back. The day was just too nice to camoe home on time. Got to painting the enterance or genkan in Japanese. Somehow the enterance got missed in last years big painting mission. Hiro moved all the stuff out and off we went... srot of. The shoe box was warped and wouldnt come out! about 30 minutes of thinking produced nothing other than just push it back into place.... for now!
Im actually a good painter and enjoy it. I maybe should do it instead of teaching English, lol.

Biking with Mitch

After starting some fires to burn some grass and tree branches around the house I got on the bike and rode with Mitch to Aoikiko lake. We did a mix of trails and pavement to get there. When we got there we ran into Jon having a picnic with Evergreen guests.

Mitch riding by the lake. Aoikiko is one of the nicest lakes in Japan.
Looking out towards thecheap Downhill course. Its 500 to 1000 yen a day for access and rides to the top of the course.
The lake was so warm... well at least the top meter was warm. We had about a 20 minute swim. After getting out Steve and his kids showed up just as we were talking about him.
On the way back we did a climb 1/3 up sanosaka ski resort onto a DH single track. If you climb higher you can get a sweet run down. Great little ride and swim.

Minagata revenge

This time I would not miss the course! I asked Steve to join me for a bike ride. Steve is a good mountain biker so I knew we could figure things out.

We got super lucky and met Koji-san up top who was leading to Evergreen clients on a Down hill tour. Koji pointed out the course and off we went. For me the course was a bit scary but I’m still new to this crazy Down Hill stuff. Not scary enough to never do it again cause I’m going back soon.

After a bit we grouped up and Koji showed us the original trail. The trail was more single track than down hill. My bike didn’t like the single track climbs but it loved anything with a bit of decline.

Thanks to Steve for putting up with my slow climbing bike and to Koji for showing us a sick area.

Mountain Biking with Dan!

So I’m back on a Mountain bike after a good number of years just riding a bike to work and back. Hakuba has quite a few really good trails but they can be tricky to find as I found out.
I got some beta on the Minagata Downhill course so we tried to head up and hit the course.
The key word is tried!

Dan was in fine form and loving being back on a back again. Last summer He rode coast to coast in Canada and since that ride he just didn’t feel like biking. Dan being Dan though he was back in form within 2 minutes.

Dan was so far ahead at one point I screamed at him to stop. We then proceeded to climb 2 private mountains, meet one lady with the worst breathe I have ever encountered and still have a ball.

We found quite a few cool easy fire road climbs and easy Down hills. Not exactly what we want to ride but heck it was fun.

Fact though my Downhill ride climbs like a pig!

Korenge

The tour was supposed to head way behind Mt. ShiroUma but,,,, as things turned out that just couldnt be done. We went with plan C and toured behind Mt. Korenge instead. This by all means wasnt a let down.Ive always wanted to ski Korenge's North facing spines and chutes. A sick area that will have to be skied again for sure.

As it turned out the snow wouldve been dangerous for our planned route down shakushi. Too much of the old snow from the week before that still had not slid of of the faces.

To Bruno who hopefully can do one more tour thanks for coming out I had a blast. I wish that you would stay but Im happy that you are moving on to bigger and better things.
Not a bad plan C

My first line of the day!

Sunsets at 2300 meters are nice.
Jer finding a sweet hole again Maching away from a sluff slide man what a line

I like this pic cause it shows both of my lines from the weekend. Look close and youll see where I dropped into a steep face chute thing. I dont know what to call it but nice.

Big phat open spring corn! Dont put the boards away come out and freaking play!