CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
174 km from Fujikawaguchiko to Fujikawaguchiko, about 2 h 32 of riding. On the way it passes Shiraito no Taki waterfalls, Mihonomatsubara pine tree grove and back through Shiraito no Taki waterfalls. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,050 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It strings together lakeside roads.
Slow enough to look. The surface follows the shoreline, so the corners arrive where the water decided, not where an engineer did. Water arrives beside the road and stays for 36 km. The line follows the shore because there is nowhere else for it to go.
You can ride around Kawaguchiko in a morning and spend the next three days waiting for Mount Fuji to come out of the cloud. That is the local joke, and it holds a grain of truth: the volcano, at 3,776 metres, makes its own weather, and the summit often hides until the cold, clear hours just after dawn, especially in winter. Lake Kawaguchiko is the most visited of the Fuji Five Lakes, sitting at about 830 metres on the north side of the mountain, in the town of Fujikawaguchiko, and the classic view is from the northern shore with the cone reflected in still water.
Read the complete Lake Kawaguchiko write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Lake Kawaguchiko is where the day begins. Next is Shiraito no Taki waterfalls.
The water that falls at Shiraito has spent a long time underground. Rain and snowmelt seep into the porous volcanic rock of Mount Fuji, travel through the layers for years, and emerge from a cliff face southwest of the mountain as hundreds of thin streams, pouring over a curved wall about twenty metres high and some one hundred and fifty metres wide. The name means white threads, and the effect is just that: a curtain of silvery strands falling into a clear pool, with the Fuji-ko pilgrims once performing purification rituals here. The falls are part of the Fujisan World Heritage Site, and the neighbouring Otodome falls, a single powerful cascade, roar a short walk away.
Read the complete Shiraito no Taki waterfalls write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Shiraito no Taki waterfalls comes up about 38 km into the recorded legs. Next is Mihonomatsubara pine tree grove.
Miho is a thin hook of land curling out into Suruga Bay, and Mihonomatsubara is the pine grove that covers it: tens of thousands of dark pines behind a long beach of grey, pebbly sand. People come for the view. On a clear day Mount Fuji sits on the other side of the bay, framed by the trees and the curve of the shore, and that image has been painted, printed and photographed for centuries. It is why the grove was included in the UNESCO listing for Fuji in 2013, as an artistic setting for the mountain rather than as a piece of nature in itself.
Read the complete Mihonomatsubara pine tree grove write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 88 km into the recorded legs you reach Mihonomatsubara pine tree grove. Next is back through Shiraito no Taki waterfalls.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Shiraito no Taki waterfalls write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Shiraito no Taki waterfalls, late in the day. Next is Lake Kawaguchiko.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Lake Kawaguchiko write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Lake Kawaguchiko. That is the ride.
Lake Kawaguchiko → Shiraito no Taki waterfalls is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Shiraito no Taki waterfalls → Mihonomatsubara pine tree grove is 50 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Mihonomatsubara pine tree grove → back through Shiraito no Taki waterfalls is 49 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Shiraito no Taki waterfalls → Lake Kawaguchiko is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.