Mt. Rokuman and Mt. Sashio in Ishikawa

 

Mt. Haku

Area:  Mt. Haku vicinity.  Haku City in Ishikawa Prefecture in the Hokuriku Region.

Location:  Ichinose Visitor's Center ~ Mt. Rokuman ~ Mt. Sashio ~ Betto Deai

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

Starting and stopping point: 

Ichinose Visitor's Center Hakusan City, Ishikawa Prefecture

Peaks bagged: Mt. Rokuman (六万山) ~ Mt. Sashio (指尾山)

(First-time) peaks # 1,068 and 1,069

Getting there/getting around:  

I drove and slept in my car.  

It is possible to get there by public transportation in 4~5 hours from Tokyo or Osaka.  See this link for details.  Special note should be taken of the season when looking at the transportation options.  The actual date for closing the Visitor's Center and the access road to Betto Deai changes "according to snow."  (There was no snow at all when I went there but I missed the closing for the season by a day or two.)  Call ahead if you plan to go after about the middle of November.

Helpful Info

Weather Information: 

Mt. Bessan Weather Report 別山天気予報 (Mt. Bessan is the nearest mountain weather forecast from Tenkura.)

Time and distance

YAMAP's Estimate Time:  6:49    Distance: 12.5 km

The Caveman did it in Total Time: 5:23  Break time: :42  Distance: 13 km  

Elevation:  Lowest: 816 m Highest: 1,666 m Total Ascent: 1,006 m Total Descent: 1,006 m

Technical considerations/difficulty:  

Some places are steep.  There are stairs that are really as steep as ladders.

Facilities:  

The Ichinose Visitor's Center seems nice--but is already buttoned-up tight for the winter so I don't know what it looks like inside.  There is nothing on the trail.  Betto Deai has a very large parking lot (and shuttle service between there and Ichinose during the green seasons) but also is closed up for the season already.

Thoughts/observations/recommendations:  

If you can get here, by all means, do it.

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

. . .  to double and triple check the transportation situation.  I stupidly assumed that, since the access road was open on the Friday before the Sunday I went, it would still be open for me.  No such luck.

Let's look at some pictures

I drove 4 hours or so to get there, just to find this about 5 km before my final destination--the parking lot at Betto Deai.

The road had just been closed for the season.  

Because of a tight schedule in the afternoon after the hike, I wouldn't be able to 

carry out my planned hike and would have to choose something shorter.

I drove back to the parking lot at The Ichinose Visitor's Center and slept in the car.

It was not too cold when I woke up.  38 Fahrenheit is 3 degrees Celsius.

This is the same spot from the picture from the night before.  My hike would take me up the road for a while.

The trailhead

Nice

The marker on the top of Mt. Rokuman.  Not too exciting.

The top of Mt. Sashio with Mt. Haku in the background.

Kamisori Iwa (カミソリ岩) "Razor Boulder"

The day's snowball

Finishing the forest portion of the hike and arriving at Betto Deai.

From here I still have 5~6 km to go, but it was on the road.

The sign announces this as part of the Hakusan National Park.

Bridge is out of order

Betto Deai

As I got lower, the colors got better.  The leaves at higher and colder elevations were gone for the most part.

This monument is just before the Ichinose Visitor's Center

At the end of my hike, I had lunch in a small park behind the visitor's center overlooking the Tedori River.

After the hike, I drove to Kanazawa and stopped to do some sightseeing along the way.

The first place I stopped was the Hyakumangan no Iwa.

This rock is supposed to weigh about 5,000 tons.

Then, I dropped into a really cool village called Shiramine.

This is the Shiramine Onsen Soyu.

After my ablutions, I wandered around a bit.  It wasn't all bad that my initial plan of tackling Hakusan was thwarted.  If I had climbed it, I would not have had any daylight at all to do any sightseeing and this was my first time in Ishikawa.  (I still want to climb Hakusan sometime, though!)

This little hamlet is called Shiramine, which means "white-peak."  It's a section of a city called Hakusan, which means "white-mountain."  Clever, ain't it?

There are a lot of historical buildings and markers here.  It was fun to explore.

Note the ladder on the left.  They get a lot of snow here and removing it from the roofs is imperative.

Back in the car . . .

The next stop was the Wataga Falls (綿ヶ滝) at the Tedori Gorge (手取峡谷)　.

I made it to Kanazawa about 4:30 and had about 30 minutes to look around.  I wish I had a whole day there.  It seems to be a really happening place.

These pics are of the remains of Kanazawa Castle.  I didn't have time to go into the grounds, but I gather there is a beautiful garden.

This scene made me feel like I was in a Hitchcock movie.

Some shrine

And my final destination for the day was Kanazawa's Catholic Church.

(This trip was basically planned around the church because they have a 6 pm Mass on two Sundays of each month.)

This is a statue of Blessed Ukon Takayama

("Blessed" means one step more to being declared a saint.)

Ukon was a daimyo about 300 years ago.  When the shogunate turned against Christianity, he renounced his samurai status to affirm his faith and was persecuted by Hideyoshi, who banished him to Kanazawa.  

While there, Ukon built churches in Kanazawa and Noto. 

In a later persecution, Ukon was exiled to the Philippines by Tokugawa Ieyasu, where he died just a few months after reaching Manila.

(Christianity went underground for about 250 years because of the persecutions.  The present church in Kanazawa was built in 1888.)

Well, that is all for today.  I hope you enjoyed that.

It was nice to get to some places I'd never been before.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Caveman out