Hikes around Sakurae

Mizunokuni to Kawado, via Kannon Falls
April 17, 2004

At some point I had suggested to someone that Sakurae would be a good place for bike riding tourists. Most of the roads follow rivers, so are fairly flat, and many roads are hardly travelled by motor vehicle. The old narrow road that runs along the south bank of the Gono river would be especially good I thought.. Sometime later I received a phone call from the Town hall. They had decided to test my theory and had organized a bike ride. A motley group of men (why only men?) met at Mizunokune with a motley group of mountain bikes. One of the Town Hall employees had produced a map showing our proposed route, and not only were the distances between points marked, estimated times were also included.
We started off upstream along the main road Route 261. 2K along the road we crossed the river on a recently built bridge, a concrete affair supported by a single pillar in the center of the river. Passing through the village of Shikaga we head up a valley running away from the river. There are no habitations on the single track road, and after about 3K we pass a big quarry on the left, and then we reach the car park for Kannon Falls. We walk a few hundred metres along a sun-dappled path, passing the remains of an old charcoal oven, then round a corner we come face to face with the queen of Sakuraes waterfalls. The water falls almost 200 feet in 2 stages before making a large pool at its base. Kids come to swim here during the summer, but no-one comes here ast night, not even adults. A long time ago someone committed suicide by jumping from the top, and the ghost haunts the place now. Japanese are very fearful of ghosts.
Back to the bikes, and we can freewheel down the 3 kilometres back to the river and continue on south, along the narrow road on the southern bank. It was a pleasant cycle, punctuated by a break in Kawagoe, where one of our members was the postmaster. For more details about theis section of the road, please see the Kawamoto hike.