Mostly Japanese Mountains: Caveman climbs Mts Kurodake and Junigatake around Lake Saiko. (May 2022 repost)

Greetings cavedwellers.

Thanks for dropping by the cave. Pull up a rock to the fire. Get yourself a smore.

One million

I passed a milestone of sorts on this last trip. According to the smartphone app I use for hiking, I’ve climbed 306,010 meters in elevation. Meters doesn’t mean that much to me since I’m American. (I still think it’s cold when I hear the temperature outside is 25 degrees.) Translated into American, that distance could be expressed as 190 miles. That seems even less impressive.

Converting it to feet, however, now that is a horse of a different color. It’s almost like it's a unicorn to consider the elevation in feet. No, not even a unicorn. It's a multi-colored fire-breathing pegasus. On this past excursion, I passed the 1 million feet mark. (1,003, 969 feet and 9 inches to be a bit more precise.)

Maybe I should delete this app. It might be giving me O.C.D. with all these stats it tracks.

Anyway, here’s my report on what was a great hike.

Hat tip

h/t to David Lowe for inspiring this route. I was tossing a few ideas around my head for this overnight when I read this report he'd just posted.

https://ridgelineimages.com/hiking/kurodake/

I've spent a bit of time in this area recently and hiked Kurodake in March but wasn't rewarded with clear weather to see Fuji so his post was a welcome inspiration.

The hike

For this hike, I started on the north side of the mountains at the trailhead for Himine Shrine/Otochiyama Trailhead on Route 137. From there, I hiked up to Mt. Kurodake via the shrine and a few peaks and spent the night in my tent right by the overlook. On Day 2 I hiked along the ridge over the north shores of Lake Kawaguchi and Lake Sai (西湖 "Saiko" in Japanese) before descending to Lake Sai. From Kurodake until the end of the hike there are unparalleled views of Fuji.

Details

Getting there:

There are a few ways to get there from Tokyo. One way is to go by train to Isawa Onsen Station and take a bus toward Mt. Fujisan Station and get off at the trailhead. Another route is to get to Kawaguchiko Station either by bus or by train and then take the Kofu-bound bus to the Himine Jinja Mae Stop. For me, each time I’ve gone to the area, it’s turned out that the most economical and easiest way to get to this area is to take the highway bus to Kawaguchiko Station. That bus starts at Shinjuku but I can catch it on the way. This time it wasn't the cheapest or easiest way. An accident on the highway delayed my highway bus and therefore I could not catch my connecting bus. This would cost me about 2 hours if I were to wait for the next bus. Please don’t tell Mrs. Caveman. (This is a test to if she reads the blog.) I took a taxi to the trailhead and that taxi cost more than I'd budgeted for the whole trip. (I love you, Mrs. Caveman. You're the best.)

Staying:

I stayed in a tent about 10 meters from the observation point just below the top of Kurodake. I didn’t know it until a guy I met on the trail told me—but you’re not supposed to stay in a tent except in campgrounds. I’m not telling you that you should follow his advice and do the same thing that I did but his advice was to wait until no one was around before setting up the old homestead.

Huffing and Puffing:

From beginning to end, it was just over 23km (about 15 miles) with a rise of 2,400m and a drop of 2,138m. I spent about 11 hours hiking and about 2 or 3 more on the trail taking breaks. Getting up to Kurodake on Day 1 entails some climbing. Day 2 is a lot of walking on a ridgeline. There is still some up and down on that stretch, but most of it is not too extreme. The last 3~4km was the toughest of the whole trip, though. Just before Mt. Juni (十二ヶ岳), I started to encounter some pretty hairy boulders and a lot of ropes. The first boulder I came across was a challenge and I had to really think about how to get around it. From that point on until getting to the street seemed like it was just one more rope, chain or ladder after another. I was cursing the route by then but could take comfort in the thought that at least I wasn’t going up.

Looking for a wimpier (smarter?) route?

Going to Kurodake from the Tenkachaya (like the rest of the world does) or other shorter routes are possible. I met a woman on top of the mountain who started hiking at a parking lot by the 日向坂峠. She got to the top and back with only 3.2km walking. She's a local and knows the ins and outs.

Check out her Instagram. She specializes in taking pictures of Mt. Fuji. Her instagram is miko0201. She does have some amazing pictures.

Another idea is to walk up to (or even take a bus!) to the Fujiyama Terraces that the city of Fuefuki has built. Those viewpoints are spectacular.

https://www.fuefuki-kanko.jp/scontents/fujiyamatwinterrace/

Here's a play by play of the action

Starting out was pretty boring actually. It was paved for a while and the theme for the next couple hours was "up."

The Himine Shrine. Not much to look at. No commerce. No vending machines. There is a water source, though.

Two people were doing maintenance there. They told me someone had spotted a bear nearby that morning. David Lowe mentioned seeing one in his blogpost, too. The guy I mentioned who told me about the no tenting thing told me he saw a big steaming pile of scat. (He didn't say it was actually steaming, but I thought that way sounds more interesting.)

The first sighting of many.

One of the peaks on day 1 was Shakagatake. The next two pictures foreshadow the rest of the trip. Kurodake was day 1's goal.

That's much of the route for Day 2.

This is the last waterhole before getting to Kurodake. (It's between Suzuran Pass and Kurodake.) I often drink running water in the mountains here without worrying too much but there were a lot of frogs croaking in this stream. It sounded like an old Budweiser commercial.

I boiled every drop that I gathered!

From the observation point near the top of Kurodake. I got there around 4:45pm.

Home, sweet home.

It was absolutely perfect sleeping weather. Just a very slight breeze. Temp was between 9~10C (46~50F).

Still, I couldn't sleep. I sleep horribly in the woods.

I overslept. Woke up at 4:30.

All along the ridge, there were beautiful views of Fuji. Fuefuki City recently created two big viewing decks called the Fujiyama Twin Terraces. When I came in March, this is what the view was. It amazes me how the largest object in this country can hide so well when it wants to.

This time was much better!

Still plenty of azaleas around.

After the Twin Terraces, I was looking forward to starting to head down. I still had quite a ways to go, though, and the going was slow. I hadn't slept much and fatigue was taking its toll. After a few more miles, I was really ready to start heading down when I encountered this

and then this:

That picture doesn't give that rock the terrifying* respect it deserves. It's about 4~5 feet high (150cm) and there is no way around it because each side is a sheer drop of 10~20 meters.

*(Maybe "terrifying" is a bit of an overstatement. Let's say "concerning".)

At this point I was thinking to myself, "Now I have to do this? This had to wait until I was tired?"

I was reminded of something I learned in the army. The most dangerous part of a mission often is on the way back, not on the way out.

It took me about 15 minutes to overcome this obstacle. I was not about to climb over that rock. Not alone with an overnight-sized pack on my back. I backed up the trail and detoured around it a bit below the top. I was lucky I was able to do that. There were very few handholds and it was mostly loose dirt and leaves.

That obstacle was just before the last mountain of the trip, Mt. Juni (十二ヶ岳"Junigatake"). It was an omen of what was to come for the last mile or two. The remainder was just about all like that--or at least really steep. It was characterized by rock walls, ropes and ladders . . .

but of course there were still some spectacular views to be had!

That is Lake Sai down below.

Incidentally, the view from Lake Sai wasn't that great. Being one of the smaller lakes, its view of Fuji is mostly blocked by the mountains in between.

Not long after hitting the bottom, I rewarded myself with a steaming bowl of Houtou. That stuff is scrumptious. I've been craving it since the first time I shared a bowl with Mrs Caveman a few months ago.

https://www.foodinjapan.org/kanto/yamanashi/houtou/