It snowed yesterday. That concerned me. I planned to hike from CP7 to Cp9 today. I was checking weather forecast all day long but felt that we can keep our plan intact as no snow is expected.
I left home for Yoyogi Uehara by Chiyoda line from Nogizaka at 7 a.m. and boarded a 8.27 a.m. Express Odakyu train from Yoyogi Uehara to Shinmatsuda Station. From there, I met Jiyeon, another candidate for the team. We changed to JR Gotemba line from Matsuda station to Suruga Oyama station.
9.40 a.m. we started our hike. We left Fujimi center and followed our one page instruction. The first hour we were walking on pavement or some kinds of dirt road. Then, we found the sign for the trail to Furosan. As usual, there was not much to tell. We just kept walking uphills except on the way, we found a piece of bones. I was a bit scared. I don't want to get up close & personal with bears. I read somewhere that last year there was bear sight at certain part of the trail and I don't remember which part. Here is the picture of the bone.
Finally around noon, we saw the sign that Furosan is 300 meters away. We decided to stop at the peak and have lunch there. About 100 meters from the peak, I saw two deers eating something on the trail. Since I'm very loud (I use my voice instead of bear bell), I scared them away before I had a chance to take photos. They were the same ones that I saw when I hiked in Nikko. We stopped for a quick lunch as it became very cold and continued our hike downhills. Wait a minute. Why were we going downhills? I found out a few minutes later. We missed our turn and headed towards different peak. We had to backtrack. Because of that, we lost about 30-40 mins to the point where we were supposed to turn.
We continued to Yozuku pass and up again to Minesaka Pass. Based on the Oxfam instruction, it should be 1 km. from Yozuku pass. I felt like we walked for hours before we got to Minesaka Pass. Up to now, the trail was clear from snow. Once we pass Minesaka Pass, the trail was
covered in sno
w and the trail is very narrow. Oxfam put a warning on the instruction that "right shoulder may collapse". I completely agreed. We walked very slowly through the pass. Once we reached Yubune, Jiyeon was very tired but she kept walking until we reached CP8. Just to show how tought the trail is. I found pictures posted by someone who did the trailwalker last year. If you think the trail looks steep from the pictures, I would say they didn't do a very good job presenting the trail condition. The real trail is 10 times worse.
CP8 is in the middle of nowhere. I know that if we continue for another 6 kms., we will reach the destination at Lake Yamanaka, where we can get the bus back to Shinjuku. Since I don't think Jiyeon will make it to Lake Yamanaka if we stick to our plan, I suggested to her that we will walk on the mountain road towards Lake Yamanaka and we can hitchhike any cars heading towards that direction. Unfortunately, it is a walk uphills. Not good for Jiyeon. So she asked if we can walk downhills. Though I don't know how far we had to walk if we choose that option, I don't have a heart to say no to Jiyeon. We walked and walked and tried to stop cars but all cars passed us too fast and couldn't stop in time. As I said it was downhills and I think nobody expected that they will be stopped on the way. I started to get worried as I noticed that there are no street lamps at all and it's close to 5 p.m. If nobody gives us a lift, we are going to walk in the dark. I always have my headlight with me and I checked that Jiyeon has hers.
Anyway, one car that passed us came back and the driver offered to take us to JR Gotemba station. We got on the 5. 37 p.m. train back to Matsuda and retrieved our way back to Tokyo. I was exhausted but happy that we both were safe. So CP7-9 will be off limited until April when the weather is better.
p.s. I showed the picture of the bone to my lovely (know all) husband and he told me that it's lower deer jaw bone. Whew!!!
I left home for Yoyogi Uehara by Chiyoda line from Nogizaka at 7 a.m. and boarded a 8.27 a.m. Express Odakyu train from Yoyogi Uehara to Shinmatsuda Station. From there, I met Jiyeon, another candidate for the team. We changed to JR Gotemba line from Matsuda station to Suruga Oyama station.
9.40 a.m. we started our hike. We left Fujimi center and followed our one page instruction. The first hour we were walking on pavement or some kinds of dirt road. Then, we found the sign for the trail to Furosan. As usual, there was not much to tell. We just kept walking uphills except on the way, we found a piece of bones. I was a bit scared. I don't want to get up close & personal with bears. I read somewhere that last year there was bear sight at certain part of the trail and I don't remember which part. Here is the picture of the bone.
Finally around noon, we saw the sign that Furosan is 300 meters away. We decided to stop at the peak and have lunch there. About 100 meters from the peak, I saw two deers eating something on the trail. Since I'm very loud (I use my voice instead of bear bell), I scared them away before I had a chance to take photos. They were the same ones that I saw when I hiked in Nikko. We stopped for a quick lunch as it became very cold and continued our hike downhills. Wait a minute. Why were we going downhills? I found out a few minutes later. We missed our turn and headed towards different peak. We had to backtrack. Because of that, we lost about 30-40 mins to the point where we were supposed to turn.We continued to Yozuku pass and up again to Minesaka Pass. Based on the Oxfam instruction, it should be 1 km. from Yozuku pass. I felt like we walked for hours before we got to Minesaka Pass. Up to now, the trail was clear from snow. Once we pass Minesaka Pass, the trail was
covered in sno
w and the trail is very narrow. Oxfam put a warning on the instruction that "right shoulder may collapse". I completely agreed. We walked very slowly through the pass. Once we reached Yubune, Jiyeon was very tired but she kept walking until we reached CP8. Just to show how tought the trail is. I found pictures posted by someone who did the trailwalker last year. If you think the trail looks steep from the pictures, I would say they didn't do a very good job presenting the trail condition. The real trail is 10 times worse.CP8 is in the middle of nowhere. I know that if we continue for another 6 kms., we will reach the destination at Lake Yamanaka, where we can get the bus back to Shinjuku. Since I don't think Jiyeon will make it to Lake Yamanaka if we stick to our plan, I suggested to her that we will walk on the mountain road towards Lake Yamanaka and we can hitchhike any cars heading towards that direction. Unfortunately, it is a walk uphills. Not good for Jiyeon. So she asked if we can walk downhills. Though I don't know how far we had to walk if we choose that option, I don't have a heart to say no to Jiyeon. We walked and walked and tried to stop cars but all cars passed us too fast and couldn't stop in time. As I said it was downhills and I think nobody expected that they will be stopped on the way. I started to get worried as I noticed that there are no street lamps at all and it's close to 5 p.m. If nobody gives us a lift, we are going to walk in the dark. I always have my headlight with me and I checked that Jiyeon has hers.
Anyway, one car that passed us came back and the driver offered to take us to JR Gotemba station. We got on the 5. 37 p.m. train back to Matsuda and retrieved our way back to Tokyo. I was exhausted but happy that we both were safe. So CP7-9 will be off limited until April when the weather is better.
p.s. I showed the picture of the bone to my lovely (know all) husband and he told me that it's lower deer jaw bone. Whew!!!
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