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Usui Pass & Takamine Kogen
In the hot summer weather, some of the best places to escape to are the highlands in Gunma and Nagano. On this trip I used my Seishun 18 Kippu to bring me to Yokokawa, the last station on the JR Shinetsu Line which starts in Takasaki, Gunma Prefecture. In times past this line ran up through Karuizawa but was discontinued in 1997. Yokokawa lies right at the base of Mt. Miyogi, featured in the banner photo on the main Gunma page.
About 3 km from Yokokawa Station, you come to the beginning of the beautiful curvy Hwy 18 up Usui Pass. This old Hwy 18 is one of my absolute favorite stretches of road in Japan. It has been largely forgotten about since the opening of the Usui By-pass which lies just to the south and also climbs up to Karuizawa. This old Highway 18 climbs about 550m over 15km as it winds its way through 183 curves and passes through some beautiful forest. The grades here are moderate, rarely exceeding 5%.
One of the main attractions along the way is Megane Bashi, an old brick railroad bridge lying next to the road. It’s about 1/3 of the way up the pass. The bridge’s 3 arches give it the appearance of eyeglasses (hence the name). It’s worth the small hike up to the trail that now runs along the abandoned railway.
Coming up over the top of the pass you are dropped right into the east end of Karuizawa not far from the train station. Karuizawa is famous for being a summer get away with its cool highland climate. It is situated between 900 and 1000 meters, depending upon what part of the town you are in.
I continued on Hwy 18 climbing up and over the small pass before Komoro City. I then went toward the mountains and rode along Hwy 80, the upper road which parallels Hwy 18 until I got to Hwy 131 and turned north on the road up to Takamine Kogen on the western shoulder of Mt. Asama.
The climb up to Takamine is no picnic. It has a 900m elevation gain over 13km with much of the grade running up to and occasionally exceeding 10%. The day of this ride the top of the mountain was covered by clouds so I didn’t get the fine views I had hoped for. It did get some pretty nice misty views looking back down toward Komoro.
As you come up to the top you see Takamine Kogen Hotel with a visitor’s center just beyond it. A few km down the road to the west lies Takamine Onsen perched at over 2000m overlooking the highlands. The pictures I’ve seen of this area are spectacular. I had to rely upon my imagination as the clouds obscured my view. The winter pictures I have seen on the web look especially nice. It looks like a great place for snowshoeing or cross-country skiing. I saw a few fat bikes stored in the visitors center. I’m wondering if they use them on the snow as well.
Though I didn’t get to enjoy the panoramic views up top I did feel satisfaction upon accomplishing this climb. My original plan was to continue over the top and down into Gunma where I would ride to one of the train stations on the JR Agatsuma Line. I decided against this after discovering that a large section of the road would be gravel. I didn’t have the tires for that on this ride so I returned by the way I came back down to Yokokawa Station.
One big positive from the ride were the nice cool temperatures I enjoyed. There is a certain grace and beauty to this area of Japan that makes it a very pleasant place to be during the hot summer months. It’s also very nice in the autumn.
Usui Pass & Takamine Kogen Gallery
