Old Love. A sturdy couple in its golden years. Jiji and Baba Iwa.

Greetings cave crawlers and spelunkers of all ages.  Welcome back for another adventure.  This time our hero-🦸‍♀️ (Mine, too.  I am not much but I'm all I think about.)--like I was saying, our hero ducked over the prefectural lines for a hike in Gunma.  Actually it was up one of Gunma's 100 Famous Mountains--Mt. Mido (御堂山).  Here are the stats and details.

Location:  Gunma Prefecture, Shimonita

Starting and stopping point:  Mt. Mido Trailhead (御堂山登山口)

Peaks bagged: Mt. Mido and Mt. Amemiya 御堂山　雨宮山

Getting there/getting around:  I drove but there is a bus stop here.  You can get more information about the buses at this link.  Shimonita Municipal Bus info  That page is in Japanese but does have a link to automatic translation.

Map:  Yama to Kogen Chizu #21 西上州　妙義山・荒船山

Weather Information: Mt. Arafune's weather (not too far away)

Total Time:  4:18 Break time: 32  Distance:  9.4 km

Elevation:  Lowest: 340m Highest:  879 m Total Ascent: 805   Total Descent: 805 m

Technical considerations/difficulty:  

It's not high but there are a lot of steep parts.  There is quite a bit of climbing up and down through streams.  Slipping and falling are to be avoided like the plague.  Beware of leeches.  I'm glad I had a shaker full of salt with me.  It's a great leech repellant.  

You need to have a good nose for the trail as it isn't always marked so well.  The trail I came down wasn't the greatest.  It is a dotted-line trail (ie, not used much) on the map.  It was slow going because I had to pick my way down the stream.  

Even when the stream ended and the trail joined an "improved" road, the going wasn't any faster as the road has obviously been abandoned for some time and is covered with deadfalls and strewn with rocks.

Facilities:  Nothing.

Thoughts/observations/recommendations:  This was a great hike.  I had planned on doing one of the big boys of Yatsugatake on this day but decided not to because of weather considerations.  Instead, I chose to wait until the afternoon to start and do this shorter hike.  It's a bit out of the way so I didn't meet any other hikers.  That was great.  There weren't wonderful views throughout the hike, but the views there were were spectacular.  Jiji Iwa and Baba Iwa are really great.  I had hoped to get a great view of Mt. Myogi from Mt. Mido but was disappointed to find the view completely blocked by trees.  I was actually surprised to learn that Mido is one of Gunma's 100 Famous Mountains.  I thought the aforementioned rocks (Iwa) were much more interesting than Mt. Mido.  I did get some obstructed views of Mt. Myogi later in the day but none were as clear as I had hoped for.  Mt. Amemiya also had bupkis for views.  I added it on to the day's hike as an afterthought just because I had the time to bag another peak and add a few more miles.

Here are some pictures.

This hike was the day after a typhoon so the streams were high.

This was neat.  There is rope to the right of the falls to climb it.

The rope.

The unfortunate result of walking along and through so much water was leeches.  I am glad I had my trusty shaker full of salt.  I detected the little bloodsuckers early on and only one had attached before I got him to depart by assaulting him with salt. (Her?  How would I know?  I'm not a biologist.)  Even though I got rid of him right away, my ankle was still bleeding 4 hours later when I got home.  Leeches inject you with an anticoagulant and the bleeding will go on for a day or two if you don't keep a bandaid on it.  

Just around the corner from this I encountered the Jiji Iwa and Baba Iwa.  This hike was starting to get cool.

Ta da!

By the way, "Jiji" is a colloquial way of saying "old man" or "granddad."  "Baba" is for "old woman"/Grandma."  "Iwa" means "boulder."

These two are quite a couple, don't you think?

On the way down, more water.

And more water . . .

Almost back to civilization . . .

Thanks for joining me.  This was another great day.  I hope you can have this much fun yourself in your particular cave, whatever it is.

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ps  Almost forgot.  This was my best view of Mt. Myogi all day.

pps Oh, yeah, when I wasn't listening to birds chirping and brooks babbling, this is what I listened to:

Today's listening:  

Bible in a Year  "In The Bible in a Year podcast, Fr. Mike Schmitz walks you through the entire Bible in 365 episodes, providing commentary, reflection, and prayer along the way."   I was listening to stories about Kings David and Solomon.  Very cool. 

Warfare Podcast Episode Last letters of French Resistance Fighters  The Warfare podcast is related to History Hit.  They have a lot of great stuff.  These letters were the farewell letters of resistance fighters before they were executed.

and a ppps...  I saw this from the street on the way home.  It is a cool rock.

Revenge on the boat. Second time to Arafune. Peak #751

 

S'up, cave dwellers?  It's a glorious spring here in Nagano.  Last month I got to Mt. Arafune for the first time.  This week I dropped by again from a different trail.  It was great.  

Location:  Straddling the prefectural boundary between Gunma and Nagano.  Saku City, Nagano and Shimonita, Gunma.

Starting and stopping point:  Minaminomaki Parking Lot

Peaks bagged: Mt. Kumakura (熊倉峰)

Getting there/getting around:  There is a parking lot for 4 or 5 cars at Minaminomaki.  There is also a large lot at the Arafune Trailhead.

Map:  Yama to Kogen Chizu #21 西上州　妙義山・荒船山

Weather Information: Arafune Weather

Total Time: 3:49  Break time:  30 Distance:  9.4km

Elevation:  Lowest: 1,063m Highest: 1,342m Total Ascent: 956m  Total Descent: 956m

Technical considerations/difficulty:  Much of this hike is below the treeline and on a gentle trail.  There are some steep spots with chains or ropes, but not too much exposure.  The viewpoint at Tomoiwa is not somewhere I would like to fall from--but you'd have to be pretty dumb to get close enough to the edge to fall off!

Facilities:  There are portapotties at the Uchiyama Pass Parking lot.  There is a waterhole not far from the top.  It looks a bit dangerous to access, though.  There is an emergency hut at the Tomoiwa.

Thoughts/observations/recommendations:  This was my second time to the area.  The last time I went from the south, this time from the north.  I had hoped to obtain some better views looking up at the Tomoiwa from this side.  In fact, I did, but I do wish that there was more to see along the way.  The Tomoiwa (the big rock) was only visible from the trail once or twice.  The view looking out from that point is spectacular, though.  The trail was fairly pleasant but for most of the hike, trees obscured any views.

Here are some pictures:

One of the precious few views of the Tomoiwa (Tomo Boulder) from the trail.

Much of the trail was like this.  Pleasant.

The Arafune trailhead at Uchiyama Pass.  Large parking lot.  Portapotties.

Arafune Trailhead

More gentle trails

It was heavy.

Better call Brother Maynard!

Tomoiwa 艫岩

Today's listening:  

Bible in a Year  "In The Bible in a Year podcast, Fr. Mike Schmitz walks you through the entire Bible in 365 episodes, providing commentary, reflection, and prayer along the way."  Very listenable.

For You The War is Over  True WWII POW escape stories.

BBC The People Against J Edgar Hoover  15 minute episodes about Hoover's history.

Well Cave Critters, that's all for today.  Have a great spring or summer or winter or fall--whenever it is you happen to be reading this.  Subscribe, leave a comment, tell your friends, buy me a coffee, etc.  More soon.

Caveman out

Cleaning up my computer today . . .

I found some neat pictures and videos.

The picture above is of baby wild boar (inoshishi).  Baby inoshishi are called uribo.  

The next few videos are from a place in Yamanashi called Ookami Hira--"Wolf Plateau".

The first video is one I took in my tent at night.  That's why it is so dark.  Turn the volume up.

What is it?

This guy was hanging out at Ookami Hira all night--probably because I was squatting in his living room. 

That's all from the cave today.  Subscribe, etc.

Have a good one!

Caveman out

 

Mt. Morai~Akabanenoto~Yomohara

Location: Nagano Prefecture, Sakuho off Route 299

Starting and stopping point:  Forestry Road along the Kirikubo (霧久保沢) 

Peaks bagged: Morai (茂来山), Akabaneto　(赤羽の頭), Yomohara (四方原山)

Getting there/getting around:  There is parking.  No public transportation.

Map:  The Yama to Kogen Chizu maps don't cover this hike but you can print a map of the area from this site: Where I parked next to the river

Weather Information: Mt. Morai's weather forecast

Total Time:  7:48 Break time:  :50  Distance:  18.9km/11.7mi

Elevation:  Lowest: 958m Highest:  1,717m Total Ascent:  1,630m Total Descent: 1,630m

Technical considerations/difficulty:  The hike up to the first peak is steep but fairly straightforward.  It's very well-marked up to there. There are no chains or ladders.  From Mt. Morai to Mt. Yomopara also has no chains or ladders but, as the trail is less-frequented, is hard to follow in many places.  It's covered in leaves and there are no signs in some areas.  I relied on my GPS at more than one point.  Also, this portion of the trail is often on the narrow ridge top.  It's quite steep on both sides.  This hike is all below the treeline.  Because of the nature of the trail, progress was slow.  

Facilities:  There's a parking lot at the trailhead.  The trail follows a stream for quite a while so there is water available.

Thoughts/observations/recommendations:

This was fun.  It was not the most breathtaking mountaineering experience but it was still worth it.  Though it's not a major mountain it does have some prominence.  I noticed it looking out the window from school one day and knew it had to be conquered.  

I didn't see one other hiker on this hike.  :-)

The trail I took to Mt. Morai is a bit longer than the other options.  There are two other trailheads in the area that are closer to the top.

Just off the top of Mt. Morai, at a place with a great view of Yatsugatake, I saw the remains of a campfire and near to that a nice spot for a tent.  I'm sure the campfire is frowned upon but it is an attractive site for a wild camping experience.

Since this is not in the league of one of the 100 Famous Mountains or something like that, I'll keep the writing to a minimum and just put up some pictures.

The parking lot.  I parked and walked about 1km before I got here.  Google maps doesn't have this on its map and the steep road I was on seemed like it was getting a bit too off-roady for my little K-Car ("light car").  I could have made it this far, though.

The trail is very well marked up to the first summit.

The top of Mt. Morai

Mt. Morai has a nice 360 degree view.

Mt. Asama

With binoculars, I could just about pick out my house from here.

You can see the Cosmos Tower (that's a white rocket) in the Inariyama Park in this picture.

JAXA's Deep Space Research Dish

I'm glad I got an early start.  Rain was forecast for the afternoon.

Today's listening:

Bible in a Year

We Have Ways of Making You Talk

I listened to the first episode on the Battle of Luzon.  

Nostalgic Mystery Radio 

I listen to a lot of OTR (Oldtime Radio) podcasts.  Nostalgic Mystery Radio consistently has the best sound quality.

I listened to an episode of The Adventures of Philip Marlowe on this hike.  Hard-boiled action at its finest.  Haha.  I love Philip Marlowe.  I'm pretty sure he is the character that Phil Hartman modeled his detective character on.

"Crime is a sucker’s road and those who travel it wind up in the gutter, the prison, or the grave."

Well, cavedwellers, I think that's all for today.  Thank you for dropping by.  Subscribe, leave a comment, etc.  OK?