Elevation:Lowest: 1,220 m Highest: 2,145 m Total Ascent: 1,229 m Total Descent: 1,229 m
Technical considerations/difficulty: It's fairly straightforward. It would be hard to get lost. There are some steep spots but nothing that necessitates chains or ladders.
Facilities:There is water at the Wada Hut 和田小屋 and at a point on the trail by the name of 雷清水. There is a lodge at the top that also has some food, a pay toilet and some stuff for sale. I bought a pin badge there.
Thoughts/observations/recommendations: I'll have to go back on a clear day. It was so cloudy all day that I have no idea what this place looks like!
Today's listening:
Bible in a YearI had several episodes to catch up on and it was great. I started with the Messianic checkpoint overview podcast. That's an introduction to Matthew. That was cool. Ever wonder what the deal is with all those begats? Listen to that episode to get a clue. That was posted around September 14, 2023. Episode 259 is worth listening to also. It's about the Sermon on the Mount.
Great Detectives of Old Time Radio Before Dragnet, the TV series, Jack Webb appeared in Dragnet the radio series. Even before that, he acted in the radio in a few roles as various hard-boiled characters trying to scrape by on the mean streets. On this trip I listened to one of his performances as Jeff Regan, a private investigator show. I love the hokiness of these old programs and the dialogue is really funny. Think Phil Hartmann or Leslie Nielsen talking very seriously. One of my favorite lines from yesterday was something like this; "She was pushing fifty and it showed. She looked tired."
This is what the lay of the land was.
As I glance out the window at a beautiful blue sky while writing this blogpost, I can't help but reflect, "Why wasn't it this nice yesterday?"
The other thing on my mind is, "Why are you such an idiot? Why did you trust googlemaps again?"
Why is it that I forgot so quickly that google's motto no longer is "Don't Be Evil."
I really should know better, but this is the second time that I trusted googlemaps to get me to the mountains and it took me somewhere I didn't want to go. I would have been better off just committing the route to memory; I would probably have gotten there. Instead, I unthinkingly turned on googlemaps and followed its directions. It wasn't until the gas light turned on that I realized something was amiss. "Gaslight? I should have had more than enough gas. Wait a minute, where am I? . . ." Anyway, I had been shooting for a mountain in Gunma but changed plans when I realized I'd blown by it and ended up in Niigata.
Thank God for the car's gaslight. It made me aware how google was gaslighting me.
At least google didn't send me into a lake so I guess they're not that evil.
Usually on these rants, I merely digress. Today I'm afraid that I've digressed from digression into dissing. It is 'dissing', right? I really wish it was 'dission.' That would sound more clever.
Anyway, here are some pictures from yesterday. I'm sorry to say that I really don't have many good pictures because of the weather. It was still nice to be in the woods, but it just wasn't as visually beautiful as usual.
This parking lot is about 5 km up a very narrow road from Route 17. Small~medium cars are 1,000 yen/day.
I wonder why I took a picture of the restroom instead of the parking lot.
Well, it was the end of a long ride.
Owada Koya/Kagura Ski Area Lift
In the morning (only) the lift operates from here, (I think.) You can take this part of the way up the mountain and cut an hour off your hike. It doesn't go all the way to the top and you must walk down.
Like I said, I think this is where the lift is. There are several chair lifts and gondolas around but I wasn't interested so I didn't look that closely into it.
Much of the trail is like this. It would be hard to get lost.
Lots of bamboo grass on these mountains. Bear and deer both like this stuff.
I kept coming upon these scenic overlooks and was left to wonder what I was missing.
The (木のトレイル) wooden trail is long. Much of the flora is wetland and they are protection.
This is Kaguragamine, Mt. Kagura. If the marker wasn't there on the side of the trail, I wouldn't have thought it is a mountaintop.
Behind that marker on the side of the trail denoting Mt. Kaguragamine is a narrow path through the thick bamboo grass leading a few meters up to the top of a ridge. It seemed like the likely spot for the actual mountain top and I wanted to take a peek and see if there was a nice view, or another marker.
All I encountered was what I stepped in under the bamboo grass.
There are no dogs around here. I think all I found was Yogi Bear's walkway to his restroom.
The final push up to the top is a steep slope with a climb of a few hundred meters. It is rewarded by this view of this plateau wetland as you pop out of the trail.
Naeba Hut.
Lodging, food, pay toilets.
Note the net wrapped around the blue sheet. It makes me nostalgic for my days doing helicopter slingload operations in the army.
I got off the mountain about 3 pm and piled myself into the car.
You have no idea how happy I was to encounter this river on the road. This type of swimming hole is much more to my liking than an onsen.
This swimming hole is bellybutton deep.
Ice cold.
Perfect.
Oh yeah, that's the ticket.
And no, I will not take a picture of anything above my knees. This is a family blog.
As a bit of a coda/epilogue, here's something I encountered on the road somewhere in Gunma. I have no idea what it is or why it's there but it does seem fitting for the caveman's blog, doesn't it?
Well, cavedwellers, that's it for today. Subscribe, tell your friends about me, send me wads of cash, etc. See you later.
Caveman out.
ps A commenter wanted a picture of the badge I bought on top of Naeba. I'm posting here a pic of my banner listing the 100 Famous Mountains. I pin on a badge each time I cross one of them off. I've climbed 27 of them by now. I'd love to do them all, but I'm not made of money and a lot of them are too far for day trips.
Still waiting for those barrels of cash for being an influencer. How do the Kardashians do it?
S'up, Peeps? The Caveman here with another report from the cave.
I got to climb a mountain in Tochigi yesterday. Straddling Gunma and Tochigi Prefectures, Mt. Shirane is one of the 100 Famous Mountains and is the highest point in both prefectures. The side in Tochigi is located in the resort town of Nikko. Nikko is really a world treasure. Their marketing slogan is "Nikko is Nippon." It fits.
Elevation:Lowest: 1,487 m Highest: 2,577 m Total Ascent: 1,569 m Total Descent: 1,569 m
Technical considerations/difficulty: There are a lot of steep parts and this was a fairly long hike. A lot of it is above the treeline, so it has the potential for adversity in bad weather. It's comparable in the change in elevation and distance to climbing Mt. Fuji from the Fujinomiya Trail. Of course, the top of Fuji is over 1,000 meters higher so the air is thinner but this will give your body similar wear and tear.
I took the longest route I had available--from Yumoto. I'm glad I did. One other choice would have been to go from the Kosei Pass to the north. The most popular route is the shortest and easiest from the west. By using a ropeway on that side, the hike is considerably shorter, but a lot more crowded. I could not believe how many people were on the top when I got there!
Facilities: The Yumoto area has a ski area, a beautiful lake for fishing, many onsens, hotels, and a great visitor's center. On the trail, there isn't much. There is an emergency hut between Mae Shirane and Shirane but nothing else on the trail.
I also listened to a BBC History Extra podcast about the Great Kanto Earthquake. It was fitting because it was 100 years ago on September 1. A link to the online post about the earthquake is here.
Thoughts/observations/ramblings:
Mrs. Caveman is really nice to put up with me.
I hate bear bells. 🐻🔔 With a passion. Please. Just. Stop. Bear bell people use them all the time. There's no need in the middle of the day when there are a lot of people around. The bears already know there are people nearby. Nothing makes me scratch my head so much as seeing someone in a place like, say, Mt. Takao (aruguably the most heavily-trafficked "mountain" in the world) wearing a bear bell.
Incidentally, these people often have brand-new, top-of-the-line mountainwear. All boot and no trail. Yet, I digress.
It's like bringing shark repellant to a swimming pool. It's like using an air horn when pillow talk is enough.
I'm so upset by this topic, I can't even think of a really witty metaphor. Hmph!
Musing on this peeve as I was hiking yesterday, I recalled planning a hike with my friend Mike last week and telling him that if he brought a bear bell I wouldn't take him hiking. As I reflected back on this comment I kiddingly made to him, I realized I really did mean it. If someone showed up with a bear bell when I went to pick them up I would leave them at the station. 😜
Don't get me wrong. Hiking in secluded areas, particularly in the dark, is another story altogether. But a bear bell is as necessary on a busy mountain as one is in 7-11.
Rant over.
Nikko is such a lovely place. This was my first time in this corner of Nikko and I was surprised at how much more there was to see that I hadn't seen before. Here are some pictures.
These little videos are getting cooler. Now you can see pictures I took on the trail.
Starting out, at the base of a ski trail.
That's not the bear bell guy. The bear bell guy is way down the trail where it first becomes visible coming out of the treeline.
I could still hear his bell here.
At one bend it the trail, I noticed a mountaintop on my map that was off the trail. I couldn't help but bag a peak if it's so close. I should have skipped it, though. There *really* was no trail. And when I got there, there really was nothing to see or any marker. This is Mt. Toyama.
My first glimpse of Mt. Shirane.
I wish the clouds didn't obscure these mountains. I just realized that I have climbed all but one of the mountains labeled. From the mountain on the far left, Tanzawa in Kanagawa, to the one on the far right, Asama in Nagano, is a distance of 118 km (73 miles). All the mountains on the left are my old stomping grounds--Kanagawa, Yamanashi and Tokyo. Now I live at the foot of Mt. Asama in Nagano.
I really need to put a dummy cord on these. Yesterday wasn't the first time I took them off at a break and walked away. Thank God they were still there when I went back.
(I do carry an extra pair, but I'd rather never need them!)
That marsh is called Goshikinuma. It literally means "5-color-marsh". I wonder if there is a better translation, though. It's not really 5-colored and I know other places with the same name.
The emergency hut below Mt. Shirane.
I thought this was a dumb idea. I think it borders on animal cruelty.
I guess that guy missed this sign down near the bottom.
The top was so crowded that I was limited to a closeup of the marker lest I capture other hikers in the image. It could be worse. Imagine what it's like to make it to the top of Everest and to have only a minute or two at the top because of other people waiting.
I took this from near the Goshikinuma.
Lunch. What could possibly taste better than leftover meatloaf on homemade bread in the mountains?
This is a very healthy granola I bought by mistake last week. I was at this place where athletes go to train at altitude and there was this vending machine full of all-natural protein/energy supplements. I saw this package and thought I recognized the character for deer and had to buy it. Well, when I got home and checked my Japanese-to-English dictionary, I realized that though the word I was looking at looks like deer (鹿), it is actually part of the kanji for ginseng root (高麗人参の根). Oops.
It was still yummy. And healthier than you'd expect. There are no "~ose"-type ingredients.
I took this from around Mt. Goshiki.
They put this alarm there for idiots like me who don't use bear bells.
Swing and a miss. Strike one.
"Beware:
Bird/boar/deer traps in the area"
Bus stop and some of the businesses around Yunomoto.
I dropped by an onsen. Unusual for me. Finding a mountain stream is more my style.
For any of you uninitiated barbarians, "onsen" is Japanese for hot spring. An onsen is where Japanese bathe communally in super-hot water. This is the path to the onsen.
When you go into the onsen, men and women separate into two different bathing areas and get cleaned up au naturel. Here's me inside:
Get your minds out of the gutters.
This is the actual hot spring bubbling up out of the ground. It smells like sulfur.
Each of the onsen (businesses) in the area has a hut like this covering its particular access point to the hot spring. I'm assuming there are pumps and pipes inside these huts.
My last stop of the day was to the Visitor's Center to get a Tozan Badge. (Commemorative pin. I buy one each time I climb one of the 100 Famous Mountains.)
I was really impressed with this visitor's center. The Japanese tend to do everything well so it is easy to take competence for granted here--but this is the best visitor's center I've been in. When I told the staff, they proudly announced that this particular place was the first visitor's center in Japan. They have great displays. I was especially glad that had exhibitions of animal scat. 💩 Whenever I see poop on the trail, I wonder who left it there. Now I know. Thank you Yunomoto Visitor's Center. You've enriched my life.
I know who to blame (for pooping in my mancave.)
Deer poop
Other examples of poop
Japanese Flying Squirrel----Rabbit
Japanese Marten Mice
Bear poop
I wish I took a better picture of the lake. It is a nice spot.
