More of Saitama; Shiroku Station to Bushu Nakagawa Station via Mt. Toridani

 Greetings cave cretins, oops, I meant critters.  Fall has fallen.  

I haven't blogged in a bit because it seems like forever since I've had a really good day for pictures in the mountains.  I really want to share the beauty I get to experience out there and therefore want to post the best pictures I can.  

Real-life isn't your typical "influencer's" instagram account, though.  There are less-than-perfect days in real life that are still pretty darned good!

The real reason I get disappointed with less-than picture-perfect days is not that the mountains lose their beauty.  They are always beautiful.  My dissatisfaction is mainly because I like to see where I have been before and where I'm going next.  It is frustrating to know that I am facing directly at something I've climbed in the past but that I can't see just because there is a cloud in the way.

This week I got out twice.  I'll post about my longer of the two hikes here.  

I left home early and was on the trail from about 8:20 in the morning til nearly 8 that night.  It was a longer day than planned!  I was hiking in Chichibu City in Saitama.  I parked my scooter at Shiroku Station on the Chichibu Line and hiked in a counter-clockwise semi-circle to Bushu Nakagawa Station.  There I hopped on the train and rode the two stops back to where my bike was.  I took my bike to Shiroku because it worked out that I could get there earlier by riding than I could if I took trains.  I'd have to change trains several times to get out there, and some of the lines out in the country don't run that often.

As you can see from that picture, this path took me over a lot of peaks.  It turns out the stats on this hike are more impressive than the typical climb up Mount Fuji.  This hike was much longer in distance. There was more gain and loss in elevation on this hike than on Fuji.  It's harder to make time on this trail than on someplace like Fuji because the trail isn't marked so well.   Also, there are lots of "iwaba"; areas with lots of rocks and boulders which necessitate using hands as well as feet.

Let's look at some pictures.

This is Chichibu City

It's like a wrinkly carpet, or a pug's face.  Or a pug's butt, now that I think about it.

I am not sure what this is but I found a nice set of bear bells inside it.

This sign gave me pause for thought.  It has a flyer on it detailing accidents in the area in the last year or so.  There were several fatalities on mountains I've been on multiple times.  Yikes. 

I love rocks and roots.

In case you are wondering what was in that last picture.

Mt. Toridani was the furthest mountain in my plan for the day.  Just past that, I just had to turn left so I could start heading back to civilization.  It was already after 2pm when I left Toridani so I was a bit concerned about time.  I was relieved because the trail flattened out and I started to really make up time.  I started to think I might get out of the woods before sunset!

Then I realized that I'd missed my turnoff . . . about 45 minutes after I'd blown past it.

Making good time when you're going in the wrong direction is not a good thing.  

(Musing on what is good reminds me of a Chesterton quote.)  

“The word "good" has many meanings. For example, if a man were to shoot his grandmother at a range of five hundred yards, I should call him a good shot, but not necessarily a good man.”

― G. K. Chesterton

I realized that if I wanted to get where I wanted to go, I would have to take advice from another giant of letters.  As C.S. Lewis said, 

“Progress means getting nearer to the place you want to be. And if you have taken a wrong turn, then to go forward does not get you any nearer.
If you are on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; and in that case the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive man.”

I did end up hiking in the dark.  Thank God I had a headlamp.  (Actually, I have two.)  It was so dark in the woods, and the trail was so rugged I would have had to spend the night but for that light.

People sometimes make fun of me because I seem to carry a lot of stuff in the woods.  Screw 'em.  Carrying heavy stuff is good exercise and you just don't know when you might need that stuff.  

I don't want to end up a cautionary statistic on a flyer on a billboard in the middle of nowhere.

Can you spot the tanuki (raccoon)?

Chichibu City

I was pleasantly surprised to reach the station just 10 minutes before the next train.  Only about one an hour runs by here.

This train line is so quaint.  There was nobody manning this station or the one where I got off.  The train itself is limited to just one staff person, the driver.  You can't use an electronic pass here.  You buy a ticket, even though there are no ticket gates to pass the ticket through.  I guess it's the honor system because there is just a box to drop your ticket in at the destination.  

That's all for this hike.  It was, as always, a great day in the woods.

More real soon.  I went for a hike the next day too--and there are a few I've been on since I last blogged.