April 4, 2009
Weekend for our team means training. This week our team planned to hike 46km from CP5-9. From Tokyo, Jenny, Raj and I took Shinkansen to Odawara, changed to Daiyusan Train to Daiyusan and then a bus to Saijoji.
We started our hike at 8.30 a.m. CP5-6 was not as boring as usual. This time we have Raj, our newest team member. So we filled in Raj with our team's strategies for fundraising and training plan while we walked. Time flew and we reached CP6 as planned (1 hrs. 32 mins instead of 1 hrs. 30 mins) but we made a rest room stop at the beginning of the hike without stopping our stop watch.
We have to keep checking our time as we had very tight schedule if we don't want to get stranded at Lake Yamanaka. Last bus is at 7.35 p.m. and we can't really start much earlier due to lack of bus to go to CP5. Based on our plan, we had an hour buffer if we stick with our hiking plan.
Without any breaks, we continued to CP7. Just an hour after CP6, we were hungry. Time for brunch. I forgot to tell you that since we started our training, our metabolism increased. We are hungry all the time. But don't worry. We didn't gain weight. Actually, we are slimmer. (Yeah, I love the by-product). We ate our brunch and enjoyed sakura and view for 15-20 mins before we continued. From there, we had to walk uphills to the first open area. I'm very happy that so far there was no incident. Then, Jenny screamed and jumped. I was about to ask her what's wrong. Then, I screamed and jumped. A live snake crawled on the road. We don't know if it's poisonous. I have to ask Oxfam. Think about what if there're snakes at night when we can't see that well. We will definitely walk around this area close to midnight at our current speed.
We did better for our second round from CP6 to CP7. It took us 3 hrs 55 mins. (plan 3.5 hrs.) for our brunch and my short (10-15 mins) stop at Suruga Oyama Info Center. People in Suruga Oyama town are very friendly to Oxfam participants. I stopped there to get some brochures for nearby hotels in case we need one during our dry run. They immediately made a few calls around to check for hotel availability and wanted to chat with us on our training. I don't have a heart to cut them short. When we were about to leave, a lady at the info center gave us bottled tea to all of us (just a gesture to encourage us). From there, we stopped another stop at a convenient store to buy drinks to refill our CamelBak/Platypus bags and continued to CP7. We had a quick lunch and left CP7 at 2 p.m. We were 30 mins later than plan.
From CP7, we walked uphills for several kilometers on gravel road. I tried to push everyone to walk a little bit faster to make up on our 30 mins lost time. It was tought to walk uphills on this surface and it was a very long walk. We started to show some signs of tiredness when we reached trail entrance. I learned this time that last training I made mistake here but that's because I didn't have picture map. There was similar sign post a few meters earlier. Not a big deal as both trails are connected. From there, we were still climbing up. There were several places that are very steep. Even that, we didn't take any breaks. We all kept going, going and going. Finally, we reached the top where we had to make a turn. Since I made wrong turn here last time, I knew what to look for. We still went up and down. We became so quiet.
Then, Raza called when we reached another downhill. We were so happy that finally we can use different leg muscle. Without checking the map, we made a right turn while I passed my phone to Jenny so she can talk to Raza. For your information, Jenny likes to carry dead phone when we go hiking. Next time I will remind her a day before to charge phone battery. After a few minutes fast speed downhills, I kind of have a second thought about the turn we made so I asked Raj and Jenny what the sign said. Both, without the map, confirmed that we did the right turn so I had no further questions.
We came down to the road like in the picture map. The problem is the sign in the picture map looks completely different. I forgot to mention that we walked in light rain before we reached the top. Besides, we are not sure if we go back to the junction where we got the call, we will go to the right way. I remembered from last time that I cut across the second electric pole and there's one around there so I told them to walk towards the electric pole and see if we will find any sign posts directing us to the right trail. The more we walk, the further away we were from the electric pole. We decided to walk back to where the road was and walked towards the Suruga Oyama station. I didn't want to go back because we will need to move much faster to make up lost time. Otherwise, it will cost us a fortune to hail a cab from Lake Yamanaka to Gotemba as we may miss the last bus back to Tokyo.
No pressure this time. We actually found a nice park along the way. It was a nice find. We took some pictures and headed back towards train station. We discussed whether we should stop at cafe that we ordered yakisoba last week and make it Omori (super size) this time. When we were close to town, I checked train schedule and found that we have 5 mins to catch the train. The next one is 45 mins after. We didn't want to wait so we ran like mad people to train station. After 9 hours and 15 mins, we ran and made it to the station, where it will take us 10 mins by walking.
I'm so proud of our team. We are still strong and have energy. Maybe I should use that trick when we walk on the event that we are about to miss the train/bus, we can sprint and cross the finish line in an impressive time.
Next one, we will make our 2nd attempt for 100k dry run. Hope the weather be on our side this time. Until then, please enjoy spring and sakura (for those who are in Tokyo now).
Weekend for our team means training. This week our team planned to hike 46km from CP5-9. From Tokyo, Jenny, Raj and I took Shinkansen to Odawara, changed to Daiyusan Train to Daiyusan and then a bus to Saijoji.
We started our hike at 8.30 a.m. CP5-6 was not as boring as usual. This time we have Raj, our newest team member. So we filled in Raj with our team's strategies for fundraising and training plan while we walked. Time flew and we reached CP6 as planned (1 hrs. 32 mins instead of 1 hrs. 30 mins) but we made a rest room stop at the beginning of the hike without stopping our stop watch.
We have to keep checking our time as we had very tight schedule if we don't want to get stranded at Lake Yamanaka. Last bus is at 7.35 p.m. and we can't really start much earlier due to lack of bus to go to CP5. Based on our plan, we had an hour buffer if we stick with our hiking plan.
Without any breaks, we continued to CP7. Just an hour after CP6, we were hungry. Time for brunch. I forgot to tell you that since we started our training, our metabolism increased. We are hungry all the time. But don't worry. We didn't gain weight. Actually, we are slimmer. (Yeah, I love the by-product). We ate our brunch and enjoyed sakura and view for 15-20 mins before we continued. From there, we had to walk uphills to the first open area. I'm very happy that so far there was no incident. Then, Jenny screamed and jumped. I was about to ask her what's wrong. Then, I screamed and jumped. A live snake crawled on the road. We don't know if it's poisonous. I have to ask Oxfam. Think about what if there're snakes at night when we can't see that well. We will definitely walk around this area close to midnight at our current speed.
We did better for our second round from CP6 to CP7. It took us 3 hrs 55 mins. (plan 3.5 hrs.) for our brunch and my short (10-15 mins) stop at Suruga Oyama Info Center. People in Suruga Oyama town are very friendly to Oxfam participants. I stopped there to get some brochures for nearby hotels in case we need one during our dry run. They immediately made a few calls around to check for hotel availability and wanted to chat with us on our training. I don't have a heart to cut them short. When we were about to leave, a lady at the info center gave us bottled tea to all of us (just a gesture to encourage us). From there, we stopped another stop at a convenient store to buy drinks to refill our CamelBak/Platypus bags and continued to CP7. We had a quick lunch and left CP7 at 2 p.m. We were 30 mins later than plan.
From CP7, we walked uphills for several kilometers on gravel road. I tried to push everyone to walk a little bit faster to make up on our 30 mins lost time. It was tought to walk uphills on this surface and it was a very long walk. We started to show some signs of tiredness when we reached trail entrance. I learned this time that last training I made mistake here but that's because I didn't have picture map. There was similar sign post a few meters earlier. Not a big deal as both trails are connected. From there, we were still climbing up. There were several places that are very steep. Even that, we didn't take any breaks. We all kept going, going and going. Finally, we reached the top where we had to make a turn. Since I made wrong turn here last time, I knew what to look for. We still went up and down. We became so quiet.
Then, Raza called when we reached another downhill. We were so happy that finally we can use different leg muscle. Without checking the map, we made a right turn while I passed my phone to Jenny so she can talk to Raza. For your information, Jenny likes to carry dead phone when we go hiking. Next time I will remind her a day before to charge phone battery. After a few minutes fast speed downhills, I kind of have a second thought about the turn we made so I asked Raj and Jenny what the sign said. Both, without the map, confirmed that we did the right turn so I had no further questions.
We came down to the road like in the picture map. The problem is the sign in the picture map looks completely different. I forgot to mention that we walked in light rain before we reached the top. Besides, we are not sure if we go back to the junction where we got the call, we will go to the right way. I remembered from last time that I cut across the second electric pole and there's one around there so I told them to walk towards the electric pole and see if we will find any sign posts directing us to the right trail. The more we walk, the further away we were from the electric pole. We decided to walk back to where the road was and walked towards the Suruga Oyama station. I didn't want to go back because we will need to move much faster to make up lost time. Otherwise, it will cost us a fortune to hail a cab from Lake Yamanaka to Gotemba as we may miss the last bus back to Tokyo.
No pressure this time. We actually found a nice park along the way. It was a nice find. We took some pictures and headed back towards train station. We discussed whether we should stop at cafe that we ordered yakisoba last week and make it Omori (super size) this time. When we were close to town, I checked train schedule and found that we have 5 mins to catch the train. The next one is 45 mins after. We didn't want to wait so we ran like mad people to train station. After 9 hours and 15 mins, we ran and made it to the station, where it will take us 10 mins by walking.
I'm so proud of our team. We are still strong and have energy. Maybe I should use that trick when we walk on the event that we are about to miss the train/bus, we can sprint and cross the finish line in an impressive time.
Next one, we will make our 2nd attempt for 100k dry run. Hope the weather be on our side this time. Until then, please enjoy spring and sakura (for those who are in Tokyo now).
A snake crossed our path while we went from CP6 - 7 couple of weeks back. From what I hear most snakes are not poisonous and the few that do carry poison tend to be shy. Best to wear thick hiking boots and full trousers, plus carry bear bells - they do have a purpose after all but you'll need to get used to their constant din :-)
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