These are from a hike I did on September 7. Evidently, Mt. Takagawa has a great view of Mt. Fuji. Unfortunately, it was obscured by clouds this day.
The high point of the day was probably the glimpse I got of a kamoshika (serow, looks kind of like a cross between a goat and an antelope). Couldn't get a picture, though.
I don't think I'll do this hike again. The view from Takagawa aside, it was just too noisy. I could hear construction trucks down below all day.
This is the billboard outside Hatsukari Station.
Otsuki
Iwadono. That is behind Otsuki Station. Iwadono has a relatively short hike to the top and it has a great view.
Greetings cave cretins, oops, I meant critters. Fall has fallen.
I haven't blogged in a bit because it seems like forever since I've had a really good day for pictures in the mountains. I really want to share the beauty I get to experience out there and therefore want to post the best pictures I can.
Real-life isn't your typical "influencer's" instagram account, though. There are less-than-perfect days in real life that are still pretty darned good!
The real reason I get disappointed with less-than picture-perfect days is not that the mountains lose their beauty. They are always beautiful. My dissatisfaction is mainly because I like to see where I have been before and where I'm going next. It is frustrating to know that I am facing directly at something I've climbed in the past but that I can't see just because there is a cloud in the way.
This week I got out twice. I'll post about my longer of the two hikes here.
I left home early and was on the trail from about 8:20 in the morning til nearly 8 that night. It was a longer day than planned! I was hiking in Chichibu City in Saitama. I parked my scooter at Shiroku Station on the Chichibu Line and hiked in a counter-clockwise semi-circle to Bushu Nakagawa Station. There I hopped on the train and rode the two stops back to where my bike was. I took my bike to Shiroku because it worked out that I could get there earlier by riding than I could if I took trains. I'd have to change trains several times to get out there, and some of the lines out in the country don't run that often.
As you can see from that picture, this path took me over a lot of peaks. It turns out the stats on this hike are more impressive than the typical climb up Mount Fuji. This hike was much longer in distance. There was more gain and loss in elevation on this hike than on Fuji. It's harder to make time on this trail than on someplace like Fuji because the trail isn't marked so well. Also, there are lots of "iwaba"; areas with lots of rocks and boulders which necessitate using hands as well as feet.
Let's look at some pictures.
This is Chichibu City
It's like a wrinkly carpet, or a pug's face. Or a pug's butt, now that I think about it.
I am not sure what this is but I found a nice set of bear bells inside it.
This sign gave me pause for thought. It has a flyer on it detailing accidents in the area in the last year or so. There were several fatalities on mountains I've been on multiple times. Yikes.
I love rocks and roots.
In case you are wondering what was in that last picture.
Mt. Toridani was the furthest mountain in my plan for the day. Just past that, I just had to turn left so I could start heading back to civilization. It was already after 2pm when I left Toridani so I was a bit concerned about time. I was relieved because the trail flattened out and I started to really make up time. I started to think I might get out of the woods before sunset!
Then I realized that I'd missed my turnoff . . . about 45 minutes after I'd blown past it.
Making good time when you're going in the wrong direction is not a good thing.
(Musing on what is good reminds me of a Chesterton quote.)
“The word "good" has many meanings. For example, if a man were to shoot his grandmother at a range of five hundred yards, I should call him a good shot, but not necessarily a good man.”
― G. K. Chesterton
I realized that if I wanted to get where I wanted to go, I would have to take advice from another giant of letters. As C.S. Lewis said,
“Progress means getting nearer to the place you want to be. And if you have taken a wrong turn, then to go forward does not get you any nearer. If you are on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; and in that case the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive man.”
I did end up hiking in the dark. Thank God I had a headlamp. (Actually, I have two.) It was so dark in the woods, and the trail was so rugged I would have had to spend the night but for that light.
People sometimes make fun of me because I seem to carry a lot of stuff in the woods. Screw 'em. Carrying heavy stuff is good exercise and you just don't know when you might need that stuff.
I don't want to end up a cautionary statistic on a flyer on a billboard in the middle of nowhere.
Can you spot the tanuki (raccoon)?
Chichibu City
I was pleasantly surprised to reach the station just 10 minutes before the next train. Only about one an hour runs by here.
This train line is so quaint. There was nobody manning this station or the one where I got off. The train itself is limited to just one staff person, the driver. You can't use an electronic pass here. You buy a ticket, even though there are no ticket gates to pass the ticket through. I guess it's the honor system because there is just a box to drop your ticket in at the destination.
That's all for this hike. It was, as always, a great day in the woods.
More real soon. I went for a hike the next day too--and there are a few I've been on since I last blogged.
Yesterday was my last hike of the summer. Leslie Nielsen summed it up pretty well.
On July 28, I dropped by Mount Takigo in Otsuki City, Yamanashi Prefecture. Supposedly it has once of the best views of Fuji, so I was really looking forward to it.
This is what I saw.
Bummer
Not to be deterred by one bad day, I decided to try again.
This is what it looked like yesterday!
Pretty amazing, wasn't it?
It happens. I've finally resigned myself to not expect to see anything on summer hikes. There are mountains I've been on 4 or 5 times from which I've yet to see any view because I've only been on them in July or August.
Despite the poor visibility, I'm often surprised how often I still get satisfying pictures even on days like this one. Let's take a look at some.
This one is just after leaving Hatsukari Station. The corn is all in. So are most of the summer vegetables, but the rice is still in the ground almost ready for harvesting.
The mountain to the left-center in this picture is Takagawa.
This tree was planted the month before my wife was born. That one month makes a difference I guess. This tree is this tall but my wife is still under 5 feet! Maybe she'll have a growth spurt this month.
Regardless of the lack of a distant view, yesterday did have the cool misty vibe going for it. Also, this particular hike had me walking along streams with plenty of falls for about one third of the day. I really like walking along the water.
For this hike, I took my scooter to Hatsukari Station on the Chuo Line and parked there. My plan was to descend to Sasago Station and ride the train back to my bike. When I was getting near the train line, I checked the train times against my ETA on foot and decided just to walk back to Hatsukari. It was only a difference of about 5 to 10 minutes and I saved the ¥200. This hike was 19.6km and took me almost 7 hours. If you look at the map, you can see near the beginning I went on a loop to a place marked with a yellow called 殿平. I could have skipped that. There was nothing there to see.
As I often try to do at the end of a long day, I gave my dogs a treat at the end.
I'll leave you with some more water gifs. See you next time.
Hey there you cave cats and cave chicks. Pull up a tree stump.
Yesterday I popped over to a corner of the Chichibu-Tama-Kai National Park (秩父多摩甲斐国立公園) between Koshu City in Yamanashi and Chichibu City in Saitama. It's an out-of-the-way area as far as hiking goes. There's really no public transportation nearby and it's an hour and a half or so by car from Okutama. It's a great place to be if you like deer more than people.
Some of the highlights of the area are Mt. Karisaka, ("Karisakarei"), Mt. Kasatori, Goindaira, and Ryubiyama. Hikers traversing from Mt. Kobushi ("Kobushigatake") in the west, to Mt. Kumotori in the east need to cover this ground.
I think Mt. Kasatori is my favorite of the aforementioned places. It looks cool from the bottom and the view from the top is spectacular. Hiking down from it has some of the most pleasant stream-side trails around. Near the bottom, you can see the origin of the Tama, Fuji and Arakawa Rivers.
Access to this area on the southside is off Route 411 in Koshu-shi. Nearby is the Ichinosekogen Campground. Also, there are some Minshuku around. If you want to stay on the mountains, there are huts on Karisaka https://karisakakoya.blogspot.com/ , near Kasatori tel +81553339888 and at the
Shogen Pass (将監小屋) tel +81553321044.
From the north, there are a few trails near the Futase Dam. I am not really acquainted with accomodations around there.
Today I came in from the south.
Bambi et al showed up today.
There is a lot of 笹 ("sasa" bamboo grass) in this area. Usually, it's really pleasant to walk through but there is a long section of this trail where it has grown so high that it slows you down because you can't see your feet. It obscures the trail so much you have to look for trail markers in the trees and there is always the danger of tripping over an unseen rock or branch even if you're going the right way.
In sections like this where the bamboo grass is laying across the trail, it's a bit treacherous. The grass is very slippery and the trail is at a steep angle. I slipped more times than I care to remember.
This is the same section of trail with all that bamboo grass. I recall that it was miserable in snow, too. It is very slippery walking on the side of this steep hill and the only signs of the trail were deer tracks.
Hiking in July and August typically doesn't give you the long, clear views that you can get in other seasons, but the skies and mountains can still be beautiful.
The day's ultimate destination, Mt. Wanakura (AKA Mt. Shiroishi). Unfortunately, there is no view. The most photogenic thing at the top was my puss. Shudder.
Another deer. I think I saw about 10 this day. If you want to see deer in their natural habitat, Enzan can't be beat. Just watch out for hunters. They are trying to cull the herd. I heard one gunshot today.
This "peak" is on the map but there is no trail up to it and obviously nothing to see even if you make it up there.
This is what the terrain up there was like. Those rhododendrons were thicker than any jungle.
My dogs were happy to find at the end of this hike.
Giving the dogs a treat. "Who's been a good boy today?"
Be sure to come again next time when you'll read on the cave wall Joseph of Arimathea revealing where to find the Holy Grail.
