SWIFT
CAMPOUT
REPORT
2023

当日は曇りで、南大隈と言う本土最南端方面へ車で行き、キャンプ場近くに車を停めて、そこからスタートして林道入り口まで自走で。

林道までのアプローチが10kmくらいの登りでそこで体力削られて、予定していた林道入り口の到着時間が大幅に遅れ、お昼前に林道到着。参加者全員の持っている水が全て無くなり、自動販売機探すもどこにもなく、車も1台も通らないような場所で運良く近くにあった農場の近くにあった湧水をボトルに入れて林道ライドスタート。

スタートからゴールまで約15km続く林道の前半はアップダウン少なめでみんな快調にとても楽しく走っていましたが、距離が半分くらい過ぎてガレガレの荒れ果てた道になっていき乗車が難しくなり登りの山道を数キロ押して歩き、その途中メカトラにも遭って時間取られてしまい。

そうこうしているうちに夕方くらいになり周りも少し暗くなり始め、小雨もパラついてきて、みんなが少し焦り始めてきましたが僕だけ平常心を装いながら電波が入るか入らないかの所でgoogle map見たら残り6kmの表示が出てきて、一瞬氷ついたけどヤバイ感じがバレないように笑顔で必死に進んで行きました。

そして休み休み走りながら、なんとか暗くなる寸前に林道から出られて、その途中にあった奇跡の自販でコーラx1本 グングングルトx2本飲みほし10分休憩してなんとか下り基調の道を飛ばしキャンプ場にたどり着いて、日が落ちる前にテント張って、その後ご飯作って食べて飲んでその日の反省会して終わりました。 It was a cloudy day. We went down to Minami-Osumi-Cho by car and left our car near the campsite, then stated pedaling from there.

We had to ride about 10km to reach the forest trail, which took most of our stamina and lead to arriving very late to the trail that we were supposed to ride. All the riders had already drank all their water and there were no vending machines to be found near the location. We managed to find a spring, so we filled our bottles with the spring water and started the trial ride.

The trail was about 15km. The start of the trail was relatively flat, so we had fun riding, but as we go down further, the ground started to get very rough to the point where we couldn't ride our bikes. We had to push our bikes for a few kilometers and had a mechanical problem so we spent a lot of time in the forrest.

It was starting to get dark and a small mount of rain had stated falling. Everybody was starting to get worried. As I pretended to act like everything thing was alright, I opened up google map in the middle of nowhere. Phone signal was barely there, but I managed to find out where we were. Our destination was still 6km away in this hopeless situation, but I smiled told the others that everything was okay and started riding.

We kept riding while constantly taking a break and we finally managed to get out of the forest before it was pitch black and found ourselves a vending machine. I chugged one bottle of coke and two yogurt drinks and took time to catch our breathes. We bombed the hill to the campsite and were able to set up our camps before it got dark. We made ourselves dinner, drank some boose and talked about this trippy adventure we just had.

キャンプしている時その話題で持ちきりで、でもみんなキツかったけどすごく楽しかったって言ってくれていて、本当によかったです。
今回、距離長めのAコースとショートコースのBコースを用意していましたが、前日のミーティンングでみんな長いのを走りたいと言ってくれたのでAコースになりました。次回から長めの林道走るときにはしっかり補給食と水と全てのコースの高低差の確認などをしてから走るようにしたいと思いました。久々身の危険を感じた。15kmくらいって聞くとそこまできつくなさそうなイメージありますが、未舗装路の15kmってオンロードの40km走るくらいの疲労感だと思いました。
時間もかかるとは予想していたけど、乗車しないところも入れると大幅にかかりますね。

最後は過酷なライドになってしまいましたが、みんなが林道から無事に出られた瞬間のあの達成感と安堵の表情が今でも鮮明に。
でも実は僕が一番喰らっていたかもしれません。

次の日は朝から雨も降っていたので、予定していた近場のライド中止して、キャンプ場で朝ご飯作って食べて、片付けして市内に戻る途中お昼ご飯食べて夕方くらいにお店到着して解散しました。

1泊2日のキャンプライドなので持ち物の不安もあって、案の定足りないものいっぱいありましたが、協力してみんなでご飯作って食べてる時に、お客さんからまたやりたいですとか、キャンプ道具チェックしてみますとか、お店帰ってからは入ってきたBMCフレーム気になって見てる人までいらっしゃいました。
本当に嬉しい言葉いただいて、開催してよかったなと同時に本当に皆さん何事もなく怪我もなく無事に帰ってこれたのがよかったなと。

予想していないcamp outになりましたが、また素敵なライドを開催できればと思っています。
それまでにまた色々経験値積んでおきます。 Everybody kept telling me that the ride was brutal but fun at the same time.
I had two routes in mind for this trip. My team mates told me that they wanted to ride a longer distance, so I chose the longer route. From now on, I will make sure to bring snacks and more drinks when I'm going to riding a long forest trail, because I thought I was done. 15km may sound like it's not that much of a long distance, but riding 15km of unpaved ground is pretty tough. I felt the same fatigue when riding 40km of paved road. I knew it was going to be a long ride, but I completely forgot to keep in mind that we aren't always on our bikes.

Again, the ride was tough, but I can't forget the joy and everybody's faces when they realized we made it out safely. I think I was the one who was freaking out the most.

It was raining the next day, so we canceled our plan of riding another trail, ate breakfast, packed up and made our way home. We stopped for lunch on our way back and got back to the shop in the evening. We said good bye and headed back to our homes.

I was worried if I had brought enough stuff to a two day campout. There were definitely more stuff I should have brought, but I felt something special when we were helping each other out during the ride. My team mates/regular customers of the shop kept on telling me how they had a lot of fun and it made them want a new bike or camping gear, which made me very happy that I hosted this trip. I'm so glad that we made it out in one piece.

The trip turned out the way I had never expected, but I would love to host another ride soon.
I'll make sure to have more exprerince until then.