100 Famous Mountain, Mt. Shibutsu hike. No bears today!

 

. . . about Oze and Mt. Shibutsu

Oze is the name of a large National Park which spans parts of Fukushima, Niigata and Gunma.  Oze is also the name of the smaller specific area where Mt. Shibutsu is.  This area is home to beautiful high wetlands.  

Area:

Location:  Mt. Shibutsu

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 Shibutsu.

Starting and stopping point: Hatomachi Pass 鳩待峠

Peaks bagged: Koshibutsu (小至仏山) ~ Shibutsu (至仏山)

(First-time) peaks # 1,040 and 1,041

100 Famous Mountain peak # 52 (Shibutsu)

Getting there/getting around:  

I drove and spent the night sleeping in my car at the Daiichi Oze Parking Lot .  From there, you take a shuttle bus to the trailhead at the Hatomachi Pass.  ¥1,300.  Here is the bus schedule from that parking lot to the Hatomachi Toge.  Note that its last day is November 3.  Click on it to enlarge it.

There are various and sundry ways to get there by public transportation.  Some people start by bus at Shinjuku's Basta.  ("Basta" is short for "Bus Terminal".  It's the highway bus station in Shinjuku.  Others start by taking the Joetsu Shinkansen to Jomo Kogen Station.  

This picture is a bus schedule for the Shinjuku Basta.  That runs until October 19.

More Transportation info at the link.

Helpful Info

Weather Information: 

Tenkura (Japanese) Shibutsu Weather Forecast

(I was disappointed in this weather forecast this time.)

Time and distance

YAMAP's Estimate Time:  6:05    Distance: 10.7 km

The Caveman did it in Total Time:  4:28 Break time:  :18 Distance:  10.9 km 

Elevation:  Lowest: 1,409 m Highest: 2,228 m Total Ascent: 897 m Total Descent: 897 m

Technical considerations/difficulty:  

Some chains.  Some scrambling.  The rocks and the boardwalks can be slippery.

Facilities:  

Nothing on the trail.  The last restroom, etc. is at the Yamanohana Campground/Shibutsu Sanso.

There are a few streams that you cross but not all of the water is potable.

Thoughts/observations/recommendations:  

Yet another beautiful mountain I have climbed but haven't seen.  It started out foggy and misty in the morning and the weather just got worse from then on.  I had planned on tacking two more peaks onto Shibutsu and Koshibutsu but deleted them from my plan because of the rain.

Weather can never be accounted for.  I usually consult 2 or 3 weather forecasts and they almost never agree with each other.  The forecast I linked in this report was calling for a perfect day.  It was wrong.  Thankfully, it wasn't cold.  It was foggy and rainy, though.  (Until I got down.  Shortly after I got back and behind the wheel to head home, the sun came out and it got hot.)

Unless it's obvious there is a typhoon coming or some other inclement weather is obviously coming, I've come to, if not completely ignore, at least not let the weatherman weathergirl weatherperson stop me from hiking.  I've hiked so many times when they have forecast rain only to be pleasantly surprised that they were wrong.  On the other hand, there are many days like this one when they forecast clear skies but were wrong.  It's a crap shoot.  I get to see so much beautiful stuff when in the mountains.  If the price of that is a rainy or foggy day sometimes, it just makes the nice days even nicer.

All that said, I do try to prepare for inclement weather when I'm out there.

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

. . . to be conscious of bears.  There are a lot of bear sightings and attacks in Japan these days.  Even in developed areas such as Tokyo!  This pamphlet has some general advice.  Sorry, it's in Japanese.  It does say to be cautious in the early morning and at dusk.  The area to be especially careful on this hike is around Yamanohana (山の鼻地区) in August.  At the beginning of this hike, I hiked with a local for a while.  He has climbed this mountain 10 times and told me that he has encountered bears twice.  Each time, the bears ran across the trail in front of him and he was fine.

I am not a fan of bear bells, but I do try to make noise when I am alone.  I will talk out loud or sing to announce my presence.

Also, don't forget some money.  Parking costs ¥1,000.  The bus also isn't free, either.  It was ¥1,300 each way.

Picture time

What's up, cavepeeps?  It's been a while since I blogged.  I've exhausted all the mountains nearby and find myself needing to travel farther and farther in order to get to someplace new.  I am still going to the mountains all the time, but mostly to places I've already been and I basically don't want to blog about the same place twice.

This hike was on Mt. Shibutsu in Oze.  I went to Oze for the first time a month or two ago to climb Aizu Komagatake and Mt. Hiuchi.  As the crow flies, the campground we stayed at last time is only about 25 km (15 milesish) from where I parked to climb Shibutsu.  Driving between the two points on the winding roads would take about 3.5 to 4 hours, though.

This is what google earth thinks of my hike.

. . .  and this is what youtube thinks

Here are some pictures:

This is the parking lot when I arrived around 10 pm.  I decided to stay in the car overnight because I'd heard from other people that the parking lot can fill up by morning.  It wasn't full when I got up, but since I'd spent the night there, I was able to get the first bus to the trailhead at 5:30.

The bus goes to Hatomachi Pass and the hike starts there.

This place is the Lucy Ozehatomachi by Hoshino Resorts.  I looked at the t-shirts here when I finished the hike.  The cheapest were ¥5,500!  (About $37.)

The Caveman did not commemorate this hike with a t-shirt.

At the Hotomachi Pass.

There are a lot of boardwalks here to protect the wetlands.

This was as clear as it got all day and this was the only picture I got of a view.

I like chains.

It's not that far.  I was actually surprised when I got to the top of Shibutsu.

Soon after that, I reached Koshibutsu.

The boardwalks didn't seem slippery, but I did slip and fall on my derriere once.

I wonder what the purpose of this measuring stick is.  Is it like the measuring sticks I've seen in some convenience stores in dangerous neighborhoods?  You know, the ones they put there so the clerk can give the police the correct height of the perpetrator after a robbery.  Maybe this is to get a correct estimate of the size of a bear?

(FWIW, it does display the correct height.  I checked myself against this stick and it showed the same height I get when Nurse Ratchet makes me stand on her stadiometer.)

I didn't take many pictures of it, but the trail was like a stream in most places.  It wasn't deep, though.

This was giant.

After the hike, I dropped by the Oze Tokura no Yu onsen right near the parking lot.  (¥600--what a bargain!).

Inside the building is a Nature Center.  That was cool. 

The bears like those white flowers.  They bloom in May and June.

Japan Deer and their antlers.

Only males have them.

They fall off every spring and grow back in summer and fall.

They are the only known complex mammalian organ that can be regenerated annually.

They are displayed in the picture by age:

First pic is under one year, the next is over one year, then over 2 and the last pic is over 3 years old.

I like their displays of footprints.  I wish they had something like this for scat (poop).

Well, that's enough for today.

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What are you waiting for?

Want to see some more mountains from Oze? 

Aizukomagatake 

Hiuchi

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Caveman out