Today's hike was going to be long, so I wanted to get an early start. I'd slept in the hut because it was so wet out, and I set my alarm for 3:30 or so. But I didn't hear it at all. I wonder if it woke anyone else up - serves them right for snoring so loudly...
The hut was actually pretty comfortable, if pricey - 5500yen for a tatami mat with futons and pillow in a room shared by pretty much everyone else...but it was dry and reasonably warm. There was also a kitchen area where you could cook (with your own camp stove).
The weather forecast from the previous night had called for rain and possibly thunderstorms, but when I talked to one of the hut staff in the morning, he said the new weather forecast was much better. I hit the trail around 5:40 in heavy fog, but fairly soon it burned off and I had a beautiful sunny day. My arms even got sunburnt! Hopefully not my scalp again - my hair is apparently too short...
Just before the last climb up Kurobegorodake, I stopped for a snack, and to rest my knee, which was getting sore. While I was taking a break, I played peekaboo with some kind of baby weasel.
Going up Kurobegorodake, my knee was really bugging me. Even the last ten minutes to the peak (sans pack) were pretty bad, and the ten minutes back down to my pack were really painful. I took a bunch of Ibuprofen and kept on going, as I had another 5 hours or so.
The ibuprofen kicked in after a few minutes, and I made my way down to the hut at Kurobegorogoya, where I had a fairly small oyakodon for 800 yen. On the way down, I passed the fractured carcasses of some giant boulders that had fallen down into the valley - some of them were as big as a small house!
I should also note that when the weather's decent, the views of the mountains are spectacular. No picture can really do them justice - they're just too big and wide to capture in one small digital rectangle.
I slogged up Mitsumatarengedake, and then down through a valley to the hut/campground at Sugoroku. From the valley, the route along the ridge looked easier, but who knows, and there were stormclouds blowing in. Took some more ibuprofen to get into camp, sometime around 6ish.
I set up the tent and then cooked dinner near the hut (and the water). Crawled into the tent, and while I was writing this, I pretty much passed out 'til morning.
2 comments:
what did you write this on in all that rain?
on the back of some copies of the trail description - it doesn't rain inside the tent...
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