This post is dedicated to Michael B., a legend of mountain biking. He left us too soon.
Welcome to the mancave. I trust you are beating the heat this summer.
I decided to drop by a cooler part of the man-cave today since the heat of July is upon us. It has been quite a while since I ventured up to the Sayama Hills and Tama Lake area and since today was a better day for a bike ride than a hike, I headed up there.
The Sayama Nature Park is a sprawling wooded area surrounding two large lakes divided between two prefectures and spreading across several cities and towns.
The two lakes, Sayama Lake to the west in Saitama, and Tama Lake to the east in Tokyo are both drinking water reservoirs. Both lakes offer great views of the mountains to the north, west, and south.
Since they are sources of drinking water, there is no boating, swimming, or fishing. The area surrounding the lake does have plenty of opportunities for leisure. As I already said, there are LOTS of hiking and biking trails. The trail surfaces range from rocky and bumpy mountain trails to smooth, level hiking paths to paved dedicated bicycle paths to paved roads for car traffic. Along with those pathways, there are numerous picnic spots, restaurants, onsens, and love hotels. (Rest ¥4,000! Stay ¥8,000. You can imagine.) The Seibu Lions (pro baseball) play at the Belunna Dome and kids of all ages can play at the Seibu Yuenchi (Amusement Park). There are too many shrines and temples to count.
I can get to the general area from home in about a half-hour. To take a trip around both lakes is about 20 km. You could cut the trip more than in half by circumventing only one of the lakes. There are also too-many-to-count minor trails you can detour on. As a matter of fact, I should tell you that a GPS is a good thing to have here because it's easy to get twisted around.