Goose-watching Cycle Tour to Miyajima Pond (short version)

Posted on Oct 13, 2018
0

Posted on Oct 13, 2018

0 0
140km

Distance

4 days

Time

560m

Ascent

67m

Highest point

2/10

Difficulty

100%

Paved

This is a 140km shorter version of the 300km round-trip cycle tour from Sapporo to Miyajima Pond northeast of Sapporo City. It makes for a very leisurely one-, two- or three-night cycle trip to escape the metropolis, without having to use any transport other than bicycle. In early spring or late autumn, Miyajima Pond is home to tens of thousands of migratory geese. Seeing them all take off in unison at daybreak is breathtaking.

Last updated Jun 3, 2019

Route Map

Route Overview

Golden Week (early May) in Hokkaido can be a real pot-luck when it comes to the weather. When we first scouted out this route from Sapporo to Miyajima Pond, it ended up being a cold, wet, and wild Golden Week. Hence all the wet- and cold-looking photos in this route guide. We even still had mounds of snow lying around. But the geese didn’t care – they were still making a stop off at Miyajima Pond in their tens of thousands, on their way back up to Siberia for the summer.

This route guide is a shortened version of a Sapporo out-and-back route that goes via Miyajima Pond, but heads further north still. That route guide is here. In this guide, we utilize Toyohira and Ishikari River stopbanks on the way there to get out of Sapporo City, and then return via the Naganuma Plains.

Other trips

Daily Route notes

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Goose-watching Cycle Tour to Miyajima Pond (short version) Difficulty Rating

Category

Grade

Points

Strenuousness

Vertical Gain

D

25

Time ascending

D

0

Technicality

Altitude

D

0

Hazards

D

Navigation

D

Totals

25/100

GRADES range from A (very difficult) to D (easy). Hazards include exposure to avalanche and fall risk. More details here. Rating rubric adapted from Hokkaido Yukiyama Guidebook 北海道雪山ガイド.