In keeping with my goals for 2019, in addition to putting in time toward 500 hours of guitar practice in hopes of finally learning to play, I have just completed the second of five articles for magazine publication. The first article was a salmon-centric piece about life here in Chignik Lake. The second article was an introduction to our 65-day, 1,300 mile bicycle trek in Hokkaido, Japan last summer. While putting the article together I came across a few GoPro videos I’d nearly forgotten. One of those videos is below.
So what makes Japan’s northernmost island a nearly perfect bicycle trekking destination? Great food, clean inexpensive campgrounds, courteous motorists, abundant wildlife, rolling farmland, beautiful seascapes, terrific people, opportunities for hiking, fishing and even hot-air ballooning. The icing on the cake is bike rides like this! Leave a “like” and a comment or question. We’ll be posting additional video material from our Hokkaido Trek, so hit “follow” to make sure you don’t miss the next one!
xx
CutterLight 
Have you ever considered leading a tour (bike) trip to Hokkaido?
Yes, but I haven’t discussed it with Barbra :). In all seriousness, I think it could be a lot of fun – as long as the group agreed to go with the flow and not strive for any big mileage goals.
i would love to join…..is it possible to do on a brompton folding bike???,
Hi Miriam. Well, your question depends on what you mean by “it.” Yes, you could easily ride many places in Japan on a folding bicycle. The advantages are many, including that you could very likely break such a bike down for train and bus travel between rides. But no, it would not be practical to do an extended bicycle camping trek on one – though, as with most things in life, I’m sure there are people who have done so.
wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee….. reminded me of being lifted on someone’s handlebars as a kid!
Then of course there was the thought of how much uphill slog you must have done to achieve such a long descent. Sound was great.
Yes, we used a windsock and the sound quality surprised us – it was pretty good. Parts of the trek made us feel like 10-year-olds on our old “spider” bikes coasting down hills. Uphill pushing was generally pleasant – we just had to put ourselves in the proper Zen state of mind. Thanks for watching.
Oh, Mark! This brought back so many memories of the 2 summer holidays I spent in Hokkaido almost 30 years ago. Great commentary! Yes, I could hear the birds as you whizzed past the trees. Beautiful!
I will always remember you telling me that you found glass floats on a beach on one of your hikes… and didn’t have room in your pack to carry them back. In retrospect, your stories of hiking all over creation in Japan have been quite inspiring. (In the day, I was more interested in visiting all the bars… I think you had the more interesting story of it as I look back.) Always happy to see hear from you Gerowyn.