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.
228 km from Fujiyoshida to Fujiyoshida, about 3 h 15 of riding. On the way it passes Murayama Sengen-jinja Shrine, Mihonomatsubara pine tree grove and back through Murayama Sengen-jinja Shrine. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 900 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Eight ponds, one hundred yards from the road, and every one of them clear enough to count the pebbles. Oshino Hakkai takes its water from the snow and rain of Mount Fuji, which sinks into the porous volcanic rock of the mountain and takes decades to filter down, so the springs that emerge in the village of Oshino are astonishingly pure and cold. The water holds close to a constant temperature all year, so in winter mist rises from the ponds, and in summer they feel like cool air-conditioning. Carp and trout drift through the plants, water wheels turn quietly, and thatched houses stand behind the ponds, though these days they hold shops selling pickles, soba noodles and sweets.
Read the complete Oshino Hakkai springs write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Oshino Hakkai springs is where the day begins. Next is Murayama Sengen-jinja Shrine.
Murayama Sengen-jinja is the quieter ancestor of the Fuji pilgrimage. Long before the climbers of Edo came in crowds, ascetic mountain priests of Shugendō trained at Murayama on the southern slope of Mount Fuji, and the shrine stood at the beginning of a trail up the mountain. The old name for the place is a reminder that this was a monastery as much as a shrine, a base of mountain monks who practised purification and climbed in rigorous seasons. Large cedars shade the grounds, and a stone path leads between moss-covered stones and old wooden buildings, so the place feels more like a forest sanctuary than a tourist stop.
Read the complete Murayama Sengen-jinja Shrine write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Murayama Sengen-jinja Shrine comes up about 61 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 114 km into the recorded legs you reach Mihonomatsubara pine tree grove. Next is back through Murayama Sengen-jinja Shrine.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Murayama Sengen-jinja Shrine write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Murayama Sengen-jinja Shrine, late in the day. Next is Oshino Hakkai springs.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Oshino Hakkai springs write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Oshino Hakkai springs. That is the ride.
Oshino Hakkai springs → Murayama Sengen-jinja Shrine is 61 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Murayama Sengen-jinja Shrine → Mihonomatsubara pine tree grove is 53 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Mihonomatsubara pine tree grove → back through Murayama Sengen-jinja Shrine is 52 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Murayama Sengen-jinja Shrine → Oshino Hakkai springs is 61 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.