I cut through the mountains east of Kiso to make it to Suwa. I'm glad I left it for the morning because it was quite an isolated forest road. I took it fairly chill, having to walk a decent amount, but still keeping my pace. The descent into Suwa was nice and it was cool seeing the lake again after a few months! I got Hotto Motto in Suwa and was dreading the next section, but I left at 1:30 and sent it. The first part was soooo steep, I couldn't cycle it I had to walk in the blazing heat. Once it evened out enough where I could hop back on my bike, it was still a long way to the top. In total this was a 900m straight elevation, which is huge. It was also really sunny and hot and, although both water bottles started filled, as I reached closer to the top I had already drank all of them. I was on a time limit to get to the campsite before reception closed at 5pm. In my last few hundred meters I really locked in and kept going. As I approached the top, I was yelling out loud to get myself to push further. I got to my campsite at 4:15pm and collapsed on the floor. What an awesome challenge! At the campsite I was able to buy some snacks too and set up camp long before sunset at 7pm. I chilled and watched more of Kiyo's Undertale series in Japanese. Today was a really successful and fulfilling day!