Into the Furano Valley

We were up early as usual and headed out confident the ride shouldn't be too long.  Our legs were stiff from the day before and the climb from the lakeside up into the mountains was tough until we warmed up and found our pace.  We climbed for most of the morning before hitting a tunnel which we assumed was a three km megalith we had seen on the map that marked the highest point for the day and the start of the descent into the valley proper.  After turning on our lights and psyching ourselves up for the sound of oncoming vehicles, we raced in only to find that the tunnel ended a hundred metres away after a curve.  So five more  sapping kms followed up hill before we finally hit the big one.  Fortune had it that it was a mostly deserted mountain pass with a slight downhill grade and relatively few cars. 
The run down from the mountains was excellent, we covered ten ks in as many minutes and were just finishing remarking on how we had second winds and could ride all day when we hit the flat and a foul head wind that plagued us all the way into the Furano valley.
Despite this, we loved the views of the mountains all around us, some of which still had snow on their peaks.  Seeing the ski runs carving their way through the hills in the distance was also interesting.  We stopped for a bite to eat in Furano town itself, then headed north up the valley to Kamifurano to our campsite for the night.  The site was awesome - we had our first showers in almost a week and the kids had a great time running around on the lawn.