Welcome cave dwellers to a leaf-peeping extravaganza.
"Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth." Mike Tyson
I agree with Iron Mike. You can never count on a plan to go, well, according to plan.
That's where contingency plans come in.
As far as the mountains are concerned, I tend to have a lot of contingency plans up my sleeve because I spend so much time daydreaming about the mountains.
I hadn't been for a long hike in a few weeks and had planned a long one for Saturday. I planned it so as to get to the top of Yatsugatake before the snow flies.
Then I looked at the weather forecast. Rain. On Sunday. You may wonder why the forecast for Sunday was so important. Well, Sunday is the day I was going to take Mrs. Caveman leaf-peeping. It just wouldn't do for me to go play outside on Saturday and leave her at home knowing that she'd probably be stuck inside on Sunday.
Plan 2. An earlier start on Saturday for a shorter hike with an early enough return to come back and get the little woman. (Don't be getting on my case about calling my wife the "little woman." She's short. Got a problem with it? Take it up with Peter Dinklage. Nothing wrong with being short. [Unless you want a part as a dwarf in a Disney movie.] "Good things come in small packages" and all that, you know.)
Anyway, I got up early Saturday and drove to the target area only to find the last 5 miles of the road were closed. Drat. Foiled again.
Plan 3. Thankfully, I had another hike of a similar length already planned. It was just a case of punching a few buttons on my iphone and driving 10 minutes to another trailhead.
I'm writing this tongue-in-cheek, but I do offer this vignet as a service. I love the mountains and enjoy spending time out there--but I do take it seriously. On the fly, I was able to make a change and still do something fun and safely because I had put in the time previously to study maps and figure out the logistics for this type of situation. If only I could apply this level of attention to work or to retirement plans . . .
Before I get going, let me apologize ahead of time if there are too many pictures. It was one of the most photogenic days I've experienced in weeks. It was really beautiful and I couldn't stop snapping away. Now I find it hard not to post every single picture I took.
Peaks bagged: Nyu (ニュウ) ~~ Naka (中山) ~~ Takamiishi (高見石) ~~ Maru (丸山)
(First-time) peaks #832, 833, 834 and 835
Getting there/getting around: I drove. Parking is difficult at this time of year. The parking lot at Shirakoma Pond is insanely crowded. People wait overnight! Some people parked several kilometers away from there and walked along the highway to get to a trailhead. There is no parking on the side of the road. You will be towed. There is a bus from Chino Station (1 hour and 6 minutes). There is a shuttle bus from the Yachiho Kogen Ski Area on Saturdays and holidays. That service ends today (October 15, 2023) but the link to shuttle bus info for this year will perhaps be updated next year. You'll have to do your own research.
Elevation:Lowest: 2,099m Highest: 2,494m Total Ascent: 688m Total Descent: 688m
Technical considerations/difficulty: Some of this is steep and there are some boulder fields but there aren't a lot of chains or ladders. Not too much of this is above the treeline. It is colder up there. It was below freezing when I started in the morning. The trail for the descent from Maruyama has a lot of small boulders. If they get wet, I think it would be slippery.
Facilities: There are lodging with toilets and selling various food items, etc at Mugikusa Pass, Shirakoma Ike, and Takamiishi. There are no other water/toiletry facilities on the trail.
Thoughts/observations/recommendations: Shirakoma is pretty. It's some of the best fall foliage I've seen in Japan. It really was crazily crowded on the road. I don't know what to recommend. TBH I don't know if I would come go to this area at this time of year if I didn't live so close by. I was shocked at the ong line of cars on the road waiting to get into the Shirakoma Parking Lot at 6:45 am! They weren't waiting for the parking lot to open. They were waiting for someone to leave! Although I did take in the pond on my hike, I arrived there by walking through the woods first. My plan started at Mugikusa Pass. As it turns out, parking there is not really an option either. I parked behind one other car at the entrance of the Mugikusa Hut off Route 299. When I returned to my car in the afternoon, there was a sign placed in front of the front car saying "No Parking. Park here and we'll fine you 20,000 yen. We take license plate numbers."
When I was driving home, as I was driving past the Shirakoma Parking Lot, I asked one of the old guys directing traffic how early you need to get there in the morning to get a parking space. He said, "In the morning? People are here all night!" It's like a Grateful Dead concert, I guess. Or Black Friday.
It was just freezing when I started. By noon, it was 17 celsius/ 62 fahrenheit.
Shirakoma Pond 白駒池
They say this is the highest pond in Japan. I'm quite sure that "they" probably means the local chamber of commerce. It's a popular place for leaf-peeping. Probably because consumers are easily led around. (Just kidding! It is beautiful.)
BTW, where I come from, we call looking at fall foliage leaf-peeping. Sounds kind of pervy in an arboretical way, now that I think of it.
Here, they say "momiji" "gari" which translates to "leaf"-"hunting".
I should incorporate this into my upper-level English classes. "If you were a leaf, would you prefer to be peeped or to be hunted? Discuss this with your partner."
It's nice but to be brutally honest, I wasn't that impressed.
I'm spoiled. I'm from New England.
We have some of the best fall foliage in the world.
The first frost/ice I've seen this fall.
The next few pictures are from Mt. Nyu (ニュウ).
Fuji-san was in the house!
(BTW It was clear and I was able to get quite a few long shots today. I could see Yamanashi, Tokyo, Saitama, Tochigi, Gunma, Gifu, Niigata . . . If you're interested in knowing what mountains I was able to see, the last half of this post is full of labeled photos.)
Mt. Asama is the big one in the middle of the next picture.
I live in that valley about mid-way from where I took this picture and Mt. Asama.
Can you find Cosmos Tower? (In Saku City, Usuda) It's in the lower righthand quadrant.
It's right next to Waldo.
From Nakayama Pass
Mt. Tengu. I was there a week or so ago. It was rainy so I didn't get a good view of it then. I was really tempted to climb it again on this day but didn't want to make Mrs. Caveman wait.
From near the top of Nakayama
That Dai Kiretto is scary-looking even from here.
The mountain in the immediate foreground is Kirimine (Kuruma). That is a great mountain! I want to go snowshoeing there.
This is the Takamiishi Hut, just below the Takamiishi. ("High" "View" "Rock")
They have a lot of food. Their specialty is agepan ("ah" "gay" "Pahn") (Deep-fried bread).
I would have tried some but they only sell it in batches of 5 for 900 yen. 1. I'm a cheapskate and 2. five pieces of deep-fried dough is more carbs than I need so I didn't buy any. I got someone to let me take a picture of theirs.🤓🤓
This is on the way up to the Takamiishi.
From the Takamiishi
Ready for my closeup, Mr. Demille.
Is this the big rock?
The top of Mt. Maru.
Boo!
Is this my good side, Mr. Demille.
Lunch was leftover homemade sausage pizza.
It was ugly as sin but it tasted like a bit of heaven.
I'm quite sure it was better than that agepan.
I know it was cheaper.
Getting near the end of the hike.
I climbed those hills in front a few weeks ago. After 3 or 4 more day hikes, my footprints should span from one end of the Yatsugatake Range to the other.
Total Time: 1:13 Break time: 3 Distance: 6.8km (4.25m)
Elevation:Lowest: 1,113m Highest: 1,373m Total Ascent: 373m Total Descent: 373m
Technical considerations/difficulty: A lot of this is runnable.
Facilities: My run brought me past a campground twice. I suppose there maybe water there. There is a public restroom. I'm not sure if they close in the winter. I just checked and they are taking reservations until December 31. I'm not sure if they close then or if they just aren't taking reservations that far out. Arafune Panorama Campfield
Thoughts/observations/recommendations: This was a great run. It enabled me to connect the dots of my footprints a bit. Even though it was just a short time, running at the golden hour under clear skies gave me better views than I've had on several long excursions lately.
I won't write too much. I've already spent more time on this blog post than I spent in the woods!
Like I said, much of this is runnable.
One of the many great views of Mt. Arafune.
There is a pasture full of cows. I wondered how they kept the cows safe from bears. I did notice that the pasture is surrounded with barbed wire.
Coming down off Monomi, I ran on pavement for a while. Deer love these type of roads, especially at this time of day.
Mrs. Caveman and I first came to this area to look at the field of cosmos a few weeks ago. They're all gone now.
I love this sign! It is actually oriented to what it overlooks.
One of my pet peeves is that signs like this in Japan are often not oriented to the direction they are pointing. You have to twist your head around and try to do geometry in your imagination to reconcile the map with what you are seeing on the ground.
Well done Saku City for this sign!
This song is played in this town over loudspeakers at 5:00 pm every day. I think every town in Japan plays something near the end of the day to signify the time. It's not at 5 everywhere and some municipalities play different songs.
This song is called Yuyake Koyake 夕焼け小焼け. Yuyake expresses the idea of the last bright sunlight before the sun goes down and koyake is the light that remains just after sunset. It's quite nostalgic for me. The first town I lived in in Japan played this song at the end of the day. Doing some research for this blog post revealed that the lyricist was from Hachioji. Not only that, but I also realized that a place I hiked through before (on a long hike from Musashi Itsukaichi to Takao, 26 km) was named Yuyake Koyake Fureai no Sato in his honor because it's near his birthplace.
I really love this song and it was poignant to hear this here at this time of day.
Well, that's enough for now.
If you liked this place at sunset, check it out at sunrise here
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