100 Famous Mountain, Mt. Hayachine in Iwate

S'up?

For my last mountain on my swing through Tohoku, I climbed Mt. Hayachine. It was the 6th excursion in about 10 days, the 4th excursion in as many days. What a great trip. What a great mountain.

I am going for another trek this afternoon, so this post will be abbreviated.😃

. . . about Mt. Hayachine

At 1,917 m it is the second highest mountain in Iwate and the highest in this range. It's on the list of 100 Famous Mountains. It lies on the boundaries of Tono, Hanamaki and Miyako Cities in Iwate.

It's home to 200 species of mountain flowers.

Location:

Map: ***If you want a link to the latest Yama to Kogen map, comment and I'll get you a link. This link is to a printable topo map of this area.

Starting and stopping point:

Kawaharanobo Parking Lot 河原の坊駐車場

Beward of Bears

Bear Information kumamap

Peaks bagged:

(First-time) peaks # 1,139~1,140

100 Famous Mountain #65

Getting there/getting around:

I drove. There is parking at the Kawaranobo Parking Lot. The only trailhead open now is the Odagoe so you must walk uphill 2 km before actually starting the hike.

There are restrictions on the road between June and August 2. During the restricted time, there is a shuttle bus. See Hanamaki City's page for more information.

Helpful Info

Weather Information:

Tenkura (Japanese)

Mountain Forecast.com (English)

Time and distance

YAMAP's Estimate Time: 6:08 Distance: 11 km

The Caveman did it in: Total Time: 4:50 Break time: :26 Distance: 11.2 km

Elevation: Lowest: 1,040 m Highest: 1,917 m Total Ascent: 969 m Total Descent: 969 m

Technical considerations/difficulty:

Steep. Some chains and ladders. A lot of this is above the treeline.

Facilities:

They really want you to carry a portable toilet.

There is an emergency hut at the top.

There are portapotties at the trailhead.

There are no commercial enterprises nearby. Get food and water well in advance of getting to the mountain.

(Along with all the regular stuff such as maps, headlamps, boots, feet, and brains, . . .) don't forget:

Bandaids, disinfectant, etc. I have almost never needed anything from my first aid kit, but I'm glad I have it. I used a lot of cotton swabs on the hole in my head to staunch the bleeding. If I didn't have them, I would have had to ruin a t-shirt or something.

Pictures

This was taken from the road.

Unfortunately, I didn't get many chances to take a clear shot of the whole mountain.

Things were really pleasant . . .

. . . until I slammed my forehead into a low branch.

Who knew there was so much blood in the forehead? It was just pouring out, and I needed to wash my shirt and bandage my cranium before I could move on.

The wound is actually at my hairline, where I part my hair. It had just bled down to my eyebrow.

Truth in advertising, it hurt you more to look at this than it hurt me to experience it. It was just enough of a cut to bleed. I didn't even bump my head.

My brother commented on this pic, "Is that the face of someone you'd want to teach your child?"

Wisea#!

Someone else said I looked like Ryu from Streetfighter. I don't know who that is, but I'm sure he's a badass handsome devil.

Thoughts/observations/recommendations:

Do pay attention to your compatriots on the trail. It's most common for people to watch out for each other on the trails here. When we meet people in the mountains here, we usually ask each other about where we started and where we're going. I didn't realize it at first, but this isn't idle small talk. We're really interrogating each other in case something goes wrong and someone disappears. We gather that information with an eye to each other's safety if the information is ever needed.

When I was bleeding on the trail the other day, two young boys blew by me oblivious to the life-giving bodily fluid rapidly spurting out of my body. They gave me a super cheerful greeting and went right on. It really torqued me off. I am sure they didn't mean to be so callous. They were just clueless because of immaturity.

A few minutes later, I caught up with them and they tried to make conversation and asked me to take selfies with them. I don't think they had any idea why I gave them the cold shoulder.

Later on, I met someone on the trail and as we were chatting, I told him about the cut. He immediately offered some disinfectant and a bandaid. (I refused both because I'd already applied both on my own.) This is more of what I've come to expect and appreciate in the mountains here.

The top

Emergency Hut

Shuttle bus schedule in the hut

So many flowers

When people saw my bleeding noggin, they assumed I fell off this ladder.

I was tempted to let them keep believing that.

I took the spur over to Mt. Kengamine from here.

It was tedious. I like adding peaks to my count, so I was ok with it. I'd skip it if you

don't care about your peak count.

On the return from this trip, I didn't need an onsen because this river was handy.

Man, it was cold, though!

And there were horseflies.

I bought this rather expensive treat at a convenience store in the middle of nowhere on my way back. Man, everything there was expensive. I don't know how the locals get by.

I bought this because it is called oyaki. Oyaki is a local delicacy of our corner of Nagano.

This was different, though. It was ok. This is like anpan.

That's it for today.

If you are interested in Iwate, why not check out my report on Mt. Iwate?

Before I say goodbye . . .

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100 Famous Mountain, Spectacular Mt. Hakkoda in Aomori

(Taken from Mt. Iwaki)

S'up?

Trigger warning. Discussions of nudity ahead.

This summer vacation's goal was to come do some hiking in areas of Tohoku that I had not yet touched. I had never hiked in Iwate, Akita, or Aomori and wanted to knock off all of the 100 Famous Mountains that are located here. Unfortunately, when I planned this trip, I was really bummed out because one of those mountains was off-limits. Mount Hakkoda was closed because of a bear attack, and I resigned myself to having to skip that one. Fortunately, Mayor Vaughan took the bull (bear) by the horns and managed to open the mountain.

As it turns out, I didn't meet any bears. Phew. I encountered far more dangerous creatures, though. Naked women. Read as far as my report on facilities below to find out.

How I found out about the re-opening of Hakkoda was quite serendipitous. Mrs. Caveman and I were checking out of one Airbnb (in Kuroishi, our base for Mt. Iwaki and for going to the Nebuta Festival in Aomori), about to head to our next one in Miyako which would be the base for my hike to Hayachine. As we were leaving, Mrs. Caveman casually mentioned my thwarted trip to Hakkoda to the host and he told us it was open. I'm sure my face lit up like a Christmas tree. On the spot, we decided to go to Hakkoda on the way to Miyako.

Mrs. Caveman is the best. First, if she hadn't mentioned Hakkoda, we wouldn't have known about the opening. Second, she is the one who said, "Why don't you do it today?"

. . . about Mt. Hakkoda

This is one of the 100 Famous Mountains. It's actually a range of 16 peaks. The highest one appears to be alternatively called Ouda, Ou or Oodake (大岳).

Area:

Nearby Lake Towada seems like a cool place.

Barayaki is the local specialty. Try it out, if you can.

Location:

Map: ***If you want a link to the latest Yama to Kogen map, comment and I'll get you a link. This link is to a printable topo map of this area.

Starting and stopping point:

Hakkoda Sancho Koen (Ropeway)

Beward of Bears

This mountain was closed for about a month because of a bear attack. The dead body of a man who had been picking mountain vegetables was found with evidence of a bear attack at the end of June. Eventually, a bear was captured, and DNA evidence of the man was found on the bear. The bear was culled, and the restrictions were lifted at the end of July.

That incident happened off the trail, near the Sukayu Onsen, but I was thinking while walking through the trail that it was the type of place that a bear could easily be hiding in the thick vegetation eating or doing whatever it is bears do.

Bear Information kumamap

Peaks bagged: Tomoyachi ~ Odake ~ Idodake ~ Akakura

(First-time) peaks # 1,135 ~ 1,138

100 Famous Mountain #64

Getting there/getting around:

I drove. The road up to the Ropeway costs ¥2,000 and the ropeway itself is ¥2,500 roundtrip in 2026.

There are buses from Aomori or Shin Aomori Stations.

Helpful Info

Weather Information:

Tenkura (Japanese)

Mountain Forecast.com for Hakkoda Ski Resort

Time and distance

YAMAP's Estimate Time: 4:18 Distance: 7.8 km

The Caveman did it in: Total Time: 2:55 Break time: :04 Distance: 8 km

Elevation: Lowest: 1,191 m Highest: 1,584 m Total Ascent: 640 m Total Descent: 640 m

Technical considerations/difficulty:

The area around the marshland next to the ropeway is suitable anyone. When you depart from there and head to the higher elevations, there are steep parts and several places with ropes.

Facilities:

Sukayu Onsen is the home of the Sennin buro (一千人風呂)--"1,000 person" "bath." This is a mixed-bathing onsen. (No kidding.) You can rent a bathing suit if you are less than adventurous. One thing to note is that the mixed bathing spot has no place to wash your body. You must do that in a completely different spot, the Tama No Yu (玉の湯). It's quite confusing because the big bath seems like any other onsen. There is a hanging curtain (noren) over the entrance to a changing room. After undressing, you can enter the bath. Well, that's what I did. I went in, disrobed my stinky, sweaty, yucky clothes and entered the bathing area to not find the expected shower/body washing stations. After some confusion and consultation with the locals, I was told to go down the hall to the Tama no Yu to wash up before I could come back to this one. Gross. I had to put my yucky clothes on again to walk down the hall . . . and then, after washing had to get dressed again to come back.

The Tama no Yu is separated into men's and women's sections.

I went down there and took a dip. Then went back to the Sennin buro. It wasn't until I got back in there the second time that I realized it was the mixed bathing area. I hadn't noticed before because I was too busy looking for shower equipment to note the biological equipment the bathers were packing. Sure enough, there were people packing different equipment than I!😏 There were people of all ages. Although clothing was optional, it seemed that only women opted for bathing suits. I think there was only one naked woman in there. TBH, I was glad the ones wearing bathing suits were clad. They weren't exactly runway material. The naked one was a different story, though. Hubba hubba. She had reason to be confident.

So, that's my story of seeing something more dangerous than a bear. I'll wager that in the history of the world, naked women have damaged men far more than wild bears have!

Mt. Hakkoda Ropeway (Japanese Only)

Thoughts/observations/recommendations:

Great mountain. Do it. Fall must be out of this world.

I am very glad we did this in conjunction with a hike to Iwaki the day before. Iwaki was very visible, and very pretty, from Hakkoda.

If I did this again, I might eschew the ropeway and use the onsen as a base. I used the ropeway simply because I wasn't alone and we had time constraints.

Pictures

Just over Mrs. Caveman's head you can see Mt. Iwaki. We climbed it the day before. It was nice to get a good view of it from here.

This is a view of Hakkoda from Iwaki

Back to pictures of the day in question.

The weather made for a picturesque walk.

That's Odake. Today's highest goal.

At the top

The port of Aomori was barely visible. I think on a crystal clear day, you can even see Hokkaido.

Don't quote me on that, though.

Idodake

Akakuradaka

Here and there I encountered these pallets of construction materials. Obviously, they were slingloaded up here by helicopter. It reminded me of when I climbed Mt. Ryokami and met the owner. (Yes, that mountain, like many, is privately owned.) That hard was as hard as woodpecker lips. He was probably 60 but had the physique any 20-year-old would be proud of. Mt. Ryokami, in Saitama, is not very high but it is a rugged mountain that demands respect. I was really amazed at all the improvements on the trail: concrete or cast-iron stairs, chains, ladders, etc. I asked the owner about the expense of getting all that stuff up there by helicopter. He looked at me sideways and said, "I guess they might do that nowadays. I carried all that stuff up there myself." Wow.