Location: Mt. Rockhead (That's not really the name, but it's close.😂)
Starting and stopping point: Taguchi Pass 田口峠
Peaks bagged: 兜岩山 (Kabutoiwa)
(First-time) peaks # XX
Getting there/getting around: I drove. There's no public transportation.
Map: Yama to Kogen Chizu #21 西上州 妙義山・荒船山
Weather Information: Mt. Arafune's weather (not too far away)
Total Time: 2:00 Break time: 0:00 Distance: 5.8km
Elevation: Lowest: 1,107m Highest: 1,368m Total Ascent: 464m Total Descent: 464m
Technical considerations/difficulty: It's not a terribly demanding hike. There are no chains, ropes or ladders. Much of it is along a very steep ridge. I would not want to fall off the ridge! The trail is not marked or traveled very much. I would encourage not coming on this hike without some sort of GPS because you could get disoriented and start following the wrong ridge.
Facilities: Nothing.
Thoughts/observations/recommendations:
This was a hike to 兜岩山 (Kabuto Iwa Yama). Kabuto means helmet and Iwa means boulder. That's why I think of it as Mt. Rockhead.
It's almost a scenic hike. There are gorgeous scenes hinted at all along the way but the trees are just a bit too thick to ever give an unobstructed view. It was fun, nevertheless. I did see some wildlife on the way. As I pulled up to where I parked, there was a smallish critter on the trail I was about to hop on. I think it was a marten, but I did not get a good look. On the trail, I caught a glimpse of a bevy of about 5 does about 100~200 yards away. They gave themselves away by barking at me.
There wasn't enough snow to necessitate wearing crampons but it was frozen crisply enough that it gave a satisfying crunch when stepping on it.
Mrs. Caveman bought me a nice pair of winter boots for Christmas. Wow. I like them. When I think of all the years of my life having cold feet in the snow and cold, I feel spoiled now.
This trail is not used much so it was pleasant to see no (two-legged) footprints other than my own. I did see plenty of pawprints on the trail.
I chose this route for the distance and time available. I frequently go for short hikes before work but was getting bored with the same areas. I wanted to do one that was a bit more substantial--yet still get to work on time. So I decided to pick just one of the peaks near Arafune for a piston (out and back on the same trail) hike. The trailhead is a half-hour drive from home and the route I chose was about 6km (about 3.5 mi.). I figured that if I started before sunrise, I could make it there and back and get to work by about 9:30. It worked out fairly well. I was able to do the hike and get home with about 10 minutes to spare to get ready for work. Perfect. Score one for the caveman.
The trailhead is just before the prefectural boundary between Nagano and Gunma at the Taguchi Pass** on Route 93. (**One of the reasons I like hiking is that I get to use the word, pass. I always feel like I'm in a western and my posse is going to head some black-hatted bandits off at the pass. But I digress.) Route 93 is a very narrow mountain road and is a great place to go spotting deer at dusk. I had reason to get worried on the road this morning, though. There were signs saying that the road was "closed end to end between the hours of 8-12 and 1-5 for maintenance for this week." I decided to push my luck and try to drive on to the trailhead. I didn't see any construction equipment on the road and hoped that all of the maintenance was going to be on the other side of the pass and wouldn't actually affect my side. I knew I wouldn't finish my hike before 8 so I was taking a risk. I was imagining how to beg in Japanese for passage back out of the mountains in case they closed the road behind me. ("Road closed sign? Is that what that sign meant? I'm sorry. I don't read Japanese." No. I can't lie so well. [That's a lie, in case you're wondering.] Maybe I would go with "Please, let me out. I'll never do it again.") Then I was imagining not being allowed passage back to civilization. What would I tell my employer on the phone--assuming there was a signal out there by which to make the call?) Thankfully, I had no problems getting home. I didn't see any road crews on my way home and no gate or anything was blocking the road.
OK. It's official. I'm doing the thing bloggers do that I hate--telling me about themselves. You don't need to know all this--the same way I don't need to know about how every time Sally the baker makes cornbread she remembers how her grandpa used to talk about his boyhood days back in Nebraska when he used to sit on his grandaddy's lap on the tractor and really loved the smell of the cornfields of the back 40 in July . . . I just want her stupid recipe for cornbread!
I swear. Sometimes you have to wade through about 20,000 words before you get to a recipe on a food blog. I shouldn't subject you to that same kind of treatment.
So, without further ado, I will shut up.
Today's listening: Just the birds in the air and deer barking on the ground.
These are the details:
Sunrise was at 7:00. I started at about 6:45.
