Caveman hikes and bikes. Saku City to Mt. Otake via the twin ponds
Greetings, cavedwellers!
Here's a hike after a long up-hill bike ride for you.
Location: Saku City, Nozawa ~ Mt. Otake, Sakuho
Starting and stopping point:Riding, Saku City, Nozawa. Hiking, the Futago Ike Hutte ("Twin Pond Hut")
Peaks bagged:Mt. Otake (大岳)
(First-time) peaks #886
Getting there/getting around:
I took my bicycle up the Tateshina Skyline. That road is closed to cars because of snow until about June.
I'm not sure where people who stay at the Futago Ike Hutte park. There is a parking lot near the hut, but that is accessed by a 林道 (forest road) that is off-limits to regular cars. Perhaps their patrons park at the Ogawahara Pass. That's about a 3~4km walk away, back on the Tateshina Skyline.
Map:
山と高原地図 八ヶ岳 蓼科・美ヶ原・霧ヶ峰 2024 **Please note that the publisher makes updated maps every year and therefore this link might become obsolete. If you copy and paste the Japanese characters into Shobunsha (Mapple)'s site, you should be able to find the latest version.
Total Time: 9:41Break time:1:36Distance: bicycle: 52.5km hiking 5.7km
Elevation:Lowest:672mHighest:2,380m
Total ascent/descent 2,041m/2,037m
Ascent: bicycle: 1,592m hiking: 449m
Descent: bicycle: 1,606m hiking: 431m
Technical considerations/difficulty:
This ride is a pain in the butt, literally. It's a long bike ride! Saku City is in a river valley and the goal is high up in the mountains, so it's a long, up-hill climb. The Tateshina Skyline, which goes from Saku on the east to Ikenotaira on the west via the Ogawahara Pass is unrelentingly steep. My average speed going up was about 7.5 km/h, going down, it was 37 km/h. Often, I was going 48 km/h downhill. Zoom. 🚀
The hike is fairly arduous. It's steep and much of it is across boulder fields. You can't make very good time because you really have to choose where to put your feet for each step. There is still snow between the boulders in May, so it is necessary to be especially cautious.
Facilities:
This is the link to the lodge and campground and hut at the Futago Ike. It also covers the Tateshina Sanso. If you want to stay there, you need reservations. They're open from the end of April to November. Tateshina2531 They have food. Pay toilets. They're fairly serious about keeping the two ponds clean. The campsites are well away from the shores and they don't allow you to bring food or any bags near the water.
Thoughts/observations/recommendations:
That was fun. I didn't go nearly as far on this trek as I had planned. My plan was to go beyond Otake to Kitayokodake and to make a wide loop back to the Futago Ike. That seemed similar in distance and elevation to a biking/hiking trek I made last year to Futagoyama and Tateshina. See last year's post. The hike up from the Futagoike was more arduous than the hike up to Tateshina though so I cut it short. That's ok. I don't want to exhaust all of my hiking opportunities too quickly. As it is, I probably have only 2 or 3 more hikes on the Yatsugatake Range until I've walked it from one end to the other.
Bring water. There are waterholes on the map that don't seem to exist on the ground. There is one stream on the Tateshina Skyline between JAXA and the trailhead that is always running. It's in the area where you start to encounter a lot of private mountain retreats.
Let's look at some pictures.
First, the bicycle portion
🥶Brrr🥶
Looking at Mt. Asama
"Road closed ahead"
This is about halfway up the Tateshina Skyline. I would get off it just before the Ogawaratoge Pass.
Lake Misasako (Beautiful Bamboo Grass Lake) is a small pond popular with fishermen. It's a frequent destination for one of my shorter bike rides. There is also an outdoor speedskating rink right around the corner from it. That was a neat discovery.
On the way up the Tateshina Skyline, you encounter the
Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency's (JAXA) deep space exploration site.
There are several dishes like this in the area. The skies here are good for looking at stars.
Just after the JAXA site the road is closed until June because of snow. I don't think they need to worry about that this year. All the snow's melted off the road already.
Just short of the Ogawahara Pass, I left the pavement and took a 林道 --forest road--for another few kilometers to the trailhead.
Now, the hike
After parking my bike, I took a quick look at one of the twin ponds. They're low this year.
Note the snow on the far shore.
You can stay in the hut or camp here. There's a link above.
Starting out . . .
There are a lot of boulders around here. They are cool looking but demand a lot of attention and make for slow going.
I was rewarded with this view of Mt. Akadake (Red Peak) from the top of Mt. Otake (Big Peak). Akadake is one of the 100 Famous Mountains. Check out this post (after you finish this one.😉)
Lunch was peanut butter on homemade banana bread on the top of Mt. Otake. Oh my God, that was good.
Usually I don't eat on hiking days until I get to the highest peak of the day--and that was my plan for today. I burned off so many calories on the bike ride though that I dug into my emergency stash of food and started eating long before lunch. That was good, too. My dad always said that everything tastes better in the woods. He was right.
Another view from the top
Looking east toward Mt. Arafune and Gunma
Looking southwest toward Saitama and Yamanashi. The pond in the foreground is Amaike. (Rain Pond)
Mt. Tateshina, one of the 100 Famous Mountains, is the one on the left
Back down to the twin ponds. This is the eastern one.
Well, that's all for today. If you want to see a similar excursion, check this on out.
By the way, this parking lot is by the 長者の森 Campground. ("Choja no mori" Campground) I was curious about the name of this place. The "no mori" part just means "forest." That's easy to understand. The "choja" part is the puzzling part of the name. By itself, "cho" means long, and by itself, "ja" means person. It's the same "ja" as in "ninja."
Together, though, what does the compound word mean? Consulting my favorite Japanese-English dictionary was illuminating.
There are four possible translations of choja. While the first three that appear in the dictionary are auspicious, the fourth is downright scandalous. 😆 👢👯
(n) (1) (ちょうじゃ only) millionaire; (n) (2) one's superior; one's elder; one's senior; (n) (3) (arch) virtuous and gentle person; (n) (4) (ちょうじゃ only) (arch) female owner of a whorehouse in a post town
"Millionaire" to "madame", OK. I think the progression is usually in the other direction.
By the way, if Mrs. Caveman asks, let's just tell her choja means millionaire and leave it at that, ok? Thanks.
Peaks bagged: 前衛峰 (Zeneimine) ~~ 御座 (Ogura) ~~ 前御座 (Maeogura)
(First-time) peaks #842, 843 and 844
Getting there/getting around: I drove. There is a municipal bus from Koumi Station to Sanzunki (三寸木バス停) Bus Stop for 100 yen. From there, it is a 45-minute walk to a trailhead. That isn't the same trail I used, but it's in the general vicinity. n.b. the same place that contained that bus information recommended staying overnight if using public transportation because of the time needed.
Elevation:Lowest: 1,240m Highest: 2,112m Total Ascent: 1,235m Total Descent: 1,235m
Technical considerations/difficulty: It's steep and there are some places with chains. Most of it is below the treeline.
Facilities: The Chojanomori Campground is seasonal. I was the only person there. I assume that during the camping season public restrooms are available. On the mountain, the only facilities I encountered were the refuge hut just off the peak. There is no restroom there. There is no water on the trail.
Thoughts/observations/recommendations: Mt. Ogura (御座山) was the target for this hike. A few months back I spied it from Yatsugatake and thought it looked cool. It is cool. Mt. Ogura is one of Japan's 200 Famous Mountains. The mountain's name is, like many Japanese mountain names, difficult to read and to understand. Most Japanese people won't know how to read this unless they look it up in some mountain glossary. The name is similar to the word used for the emperor's throne and is said to have been named as a place where gods would come and sit.
Today's listening:
Bible in a Year Hard to believe that this audio trip through the bible will wrap up in a few weeks. I've read the bible through a few times. Listening to it was a bit different. And obviously less labor-intensive!
I know how Julia Roberts felt when Richard Gere took her shopping on Rodeo Drive. I had two new pairs of boots arrive yesterday!
(The Columbias on the left are my go-to 3-season boots. I go through a pair of these each year. I get about 400 km (250 miles) out of them and they don't cost much more than $100. The Salomons are a new addition. They are serious cold-weather boots.)
Yesterday, when I laced them up, I was new boot goofing like Lt. Jim Dangle.
On to the hike. This is at the beginning, at the Choja no Mori trailhead.
Even though it was unseasonably warm, the ponds in the area had some ice. I saw one pond with ice thick enough to walk on.
Nice day!
The Ogura Refuge Hut
The silver thing seems to be rescue apparatus. That's good to know.
Mt. Kitadake, near the middle of the picture, is Japan's second-highest mountain and is in the Southern Alps.
Mts. Gongen and Akadake, on the right, are at the southern end of the Yatsugatake range.
This is looking south from the peak of Ogura. Those are some of my favorite mountains.
(They're all my favorites, truth be told.)
Looking west toward the Northern Alps
Looking north.
Looking east
At the top of Ogura, I was enjoying my new boots when I spotted this group and their unusual footwear. I thought it strange that they removed their shoes for a break. Not so. They hike without boots!
It turns out they are really into not wearing shoes and have a business spreading their message. Their business touches on ecotourism, sustainability, barefoot walking/running, etc. They do much more than I could hope to explain in this space. Their website is here. (Japanese)