Caveman does another of the 💯 Famous Mountains. Mt. Myoko in Niigata Prefecture


Kogane no Yu gif
(黄金の湯 Kogane no Yu)


S'up, Cavedwellers?

The Caveman here.  I got the chance to climb Mt. Myoko (妙高山) in Niigata today.  It was great!


Location:  

Starting and stopping point:

Peaks bagged: 

Mt. Myoko Minami Mine and Mt. Myoko Kita Mine

(First-time) peaks 

#888 and 889

100 Famous mountain peaks

#31

Getting there/getting around: 

 I drove.  

You can get to the trailhead from Tokyo Station in about 3.5 hours.  Take the Hokuriku Shinkansen to Nagano.  Change to the Shinano Tetsudo Kita-Shinano Line on platform 2 and go 7 stops (45 minutes) to Myokokogen Station.  Then take the Myoko Haneuma Line 1 stop (9 minutes) to Sekiyama Station.  Then take the Myoko Sanroku Line (妙高山麓線)of the Myoko City Bus 20 minutes to the Tsubame Onsen (燕温泉).  (Just researching that makes me tired.)  In 2024, that trip costs ¥9,930.

Map: 

Search for 山と高原地図 妙高・戸隠・雨飾 火打山・高妻山・信越トレイル on the Mapple web site to get the latest Yama to Kogen Map.

Weather Information: 

Stats

Time

Total Time:  6:31 Break time: 1 hour   Distance:  13.3km

Elevation  

Lowest: 1,083 m Highest: 2,454 m Total Ascent: 1,550 m  Total Descent: 1,506 m

Stuff to think about

Technical considerations/difficulty:  

This is a steep climb.  The trail is very sturdy and well-maintained but much of it is exposed and there are many areas where you must use chains to climb and there are several places where you must walk next to a sheer drop.  Now, at the end of May, there are still many snowy parts that made for slow and slippery going.  For much of the trail along the Jigokunodani (Hell Valley), your are walking on the snow cover over a stream.  The snow has melted through in spots, and in some spots you can find the snow give way beneath your feet and plunging you into the water below.  There is a fair amount of scrambling over boulders to be done, but really not that much.  Care must be taken but I saw people of all ages, from elementary school kids to grandmothers, on the trail.

Facilities:  

There is free parking for about 30 cars just below the Tsubame (Tsubame means Swallow) Onsen and there is a public restroom at the parking lot.  

There is a box to drop off a hiking plan notification at the restroom.  There is also a box there requesting donations for upkeep of the trails.  They are asking for ¥500~¥1,000.

There are 5 or 6 hotels clustered together just below the trailhead.  There are waterholes marked on the map.  I would normally be a bit nervous about drinking from a stream in such a volcanic area, but they were on the map so I gave them a shot.  I haven't keeled over yet.

There is a really cool outdoor bath (rotenburo) just before the trailhead.  There's nobody manning it but there is a small hut to change in and there is a box for donations.  That was great to make use of before going home.


Thoughts/observations/recommendations:  

The weather is really warming up and the mountains here in my corner of Nagano have had the majority of their snow disappear so I forewent my crampons on this trip.  It wasn't the end of the world, but I should have brought them.  Niigata gets more snow than my part of Nagano.  I found out today that Myoko gets 14 meters of snow annually.  I'm thinking of leaving my crampons in my rucksack all year round.  I was making snowballs on Mt. Makihata in July last year.  I'm glad I had gloves.  I had to climb hand over hand in the snow in places today.

If I were living in Tokyo or coming here from overseas, I think I would make this a two-day trip and incorporate Mt. Hiuchi--another of the 100 Famous Mountains--into the plan.  This is far and expensive to get to from Tokyo.  

I was tempted to do both of those mountains today because I got a very early start.  I decided against it though because the snow conditions made for a bit slower going than if it were a late summer day.

One thing that recurred to me today is how often I meet people I really like in the mountains.  Maybe it's the same among other people with common interests, but I find hikers to be ready and happy to chat with strangers to a degree I don't usually see in society.  It's not just the atmosphere of being in nature because it's only the mountain enthusiasts who are like this.  Meeting the typical day-tripper in the mountains doesn't usually result in any kind of interaction at all.  I met and interacted with three or four groups of people today that reinforced my feelings on this.

Here are some maps and stuff.  

Mt. Miyoko Hike Google Earth screen grab


Here's a silly video in case you're interested.




OK, let's look at some pictures.

I got this one from the road on the way.
Myoko from the street




Tsubame Trail Trailhead




Flowing water gif

Hell Valley (Jigokudani)
The snow was quite slippery and the slope is steep for a few hundred meters along Jigokudani.  
It was the most arduous and nerve-racking part of the hike.  It was also a bit worrying to know that a stream is running beneath the snow and that the snow crust might cave in without warning.

Tsubame Trail Jigokudani

The river . . .


The river is visible through these holes



Kaza Ana Sign

That's one of the holes . . . but there wasn't any wind coming out.

Kaza Ana

Note where the picture was taken from; "Chinoike."  That means blood pond.  Shiver.

Chinoike kara

There were some blue skies when I was on top, but this was one of the few views I got of the mountain from below.

Myoko from below

Kusariba sign






rope and chain


kusari




Myoko Minami Mine

From Myoko

Myoko View

More from Myoko's top


Yari from Myoko

Okuho from Myoko

Time to head back down


Chains on Myoko

More chains on Myoko



Birch?

Flowers

More flowers



More water

Dandelions

Dandelions2


"Mt. Myoko Trailhead outdoor bath
Kogane no Yu"

Kogane no Yu Sign



Men to the left, women to the right.  The women seem to have just a bit more privacy because of that screen.

Kogane no Yu Entrance



Oh, yeah.  That's the place to end this day! 👍 ♨️








That's all for today.  If you want to see another of the 100 Famous Mountains, check out one of these:

Want to see more from this area?


Caveman out
































Caveman hikes and bikes. Saku City to Mt. Otake via the twin ponds

 

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.

Weather Information: Kitayokodake English Mountain Weather Forecast Yokodake

Time and elevation:

Total Time:   9:41 Break time: 1:36  Distance:  bicycle: 52.5km  hiking 5.7km  

Elevation:  Lowest: 672m Highest: 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

Tateshina Skyline

🥶Brrr🥶

temp. of 3 celsius (37f)

rice field looking at Tateshina

Looking at Mt. Asama

rice field looking at Asama

sunrise over spring rice field

beginning of the Tateshina Skyline

"Road closed ahead"

"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.

JAXA dish

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

Google earth of hike to Otake from Futago Ike

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.

Futago Ike Hut


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.
Boulders near futago ike

More boulders near Futago Ike


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.😉)
Akadake from Otake



Lunch was peanut butter on homemade banana bread on the top of Mt. Otake.  Oh my God, that was good.

hiking lunch

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

Akadake from the top of Otake

Looking east toward Mt. Arafune and Gunma

Arafune etc from Otake on Yatsugatake


Looking southwest toward Saitama and Yamanashi.  The pond in the foreground is Amaike.  (Rain Pond)
Amaike below

Mt. Tateshina, one of the 100 Famous Mountains, is the one on the left

Tateshina from Otake

Back down to the twin ponds.  This is the eastern one.

futago ike

Futago Ike

Well, that's all for today.  If you want to see a similar excursion, check this on out.


Make sure you subscribe.  Google is trying to pretend I don't exist.  I think they've overheard me talking (or thinking) about them and aren't happy.

Caveman out














Caveman hikes Mt. Fuji for Sunrise

Forgive the Caveman for reposting old stuff.

I was playing with some old pictures the other day and realized that they really deserved video treatment.


Fuji Sunrise



Check out the original blogpost here, if you like.  If you plan on climbing Fuji this year, you really need to know some new information I shared in the updated version.

Have a good one!

Caveman out