Veteran's Day tour of Yamaguchi, Day 3

Final day of the long weekend and I was not ready for the trip to end.  As nice as it is to use the weekends for short tours it inspires me to want to be on the road longer.  Can't wait for the next trip.

Day 3 was overland from the Japan Sea back to the Seto Inland Sea.  I've been wanting to ride route 315 since it's one of the most direct roads from coast to coast.  It was a great road with very little traffic, surface was in good condition and the scenery was stunning.  There is a fair bit of climbing as you leave the coast, in the first 20km you gain about 400m of elevation.  Overall distance for the day was 137km.

Sunrise from the campground looking east, the temperatures were rather warm for this time of year with the overnight low at 12 C.  

First order of business for the day was to address my now completely flat front tire.  After a thorough inspection of the tire I could not find anything sticking through that would have created the leak, it appeared as though it was a valve stem leak. It's always a little troubling to put a fresh tube in a tire when you can't positively identify the source of the failure, especially this far from home.  But glad to report I made it back without incident, however I will be carrying two tubes with me from now on.  Generally I only carry one spare and a patch kit but the additional tube will give me a little more peace of mind.

Entrance to the ECO Village campground.

Protected bay between the village of Susa and the campground.  There was quite a bit of activity on the water even before sunrise, I guess the wanted to take advantage of the calm warm weather this late into autumn.

Once I climbed off the coast and cleared the first mountain ridge I found myself cycling across some rolling hills with small farms interspersed.  It was perfect weather for cycling but the lack of cold nights meant that the trees weren't very colorful this year.

A dilapitated farm home, for Pearl.

Still another 30km to home but it was good to see the city limit sign.  From here into town was all downhill.