The trail was well marked with signs like this one below. It was also incredibly steep. It seemed to try to go straight up the mountain without any unnecessary zig-zags. There were many parts where you needed to use one of the supplied ropes to pull yourself up.
Here is Bre demonstrating the rope climbing technique.
The trail has quite a bit of erosion because of its vertical nature. In some places you had to watch out for loose rocks from the climbers above you which would roll down the eroded channel we were hiking up.
We stopped for lunch at this spot near the top. It has a great view of Lake Shikotsu. Eniwa-dake has a number of hydrothermal vents near the peak. The vents are in a small crater that Bre says likely formed by an earlier eruption.
Here is our group photo (sans photographer) at the viewpoint. Thanks to Liran for letting me borrow his lens for the photo above. In the photo, from left to right are: Bre, Rick, Leon, Liran, Tokuda, and Saoka.
I like how the perspective of the photo above gives you the impression we are looking over a cliff.
Bre found this lovely Purple Trilliam on the way back down.
Finally I took this photo from the lake shore looking back at Eniwa-dake. It is nice to get a photo of the place where you were hiking. After the hike we went to an Onsen (Japanese Hot Spring) along the shore of Lake Shikotsu. It was a great way to unwind and relax after the tough hike.
That's all for now,
-Kyle (and Bre)
fun! looks like a great trip!
ReplyDeleteWhat intrepid climbers! What a view!
ReplyDeleteHow was the hot springs?
did you take a different route down???
ReplyDeleteThe hot springs were very warm. And not very crowded either. On the girls side, there was only two mother-daughter pairs besides us. The view across the lake from the outdoor hot springs was lovely, and there was a cherry tree still in bloom over the girls side.
ReplyDeleteThere was only one path on the volcano, so we took the same path up and down. When we are climbing down, we had to be very careful about rocks. The woman above me knocked loose a rock the size of my head. Luckily we were paying attention and I dodged out of the way with plenty of time. Although, the path was so narrow, that my dodging out of the way only meant I was 4 ft from the rock as it sailed by.
My legs are still tired!
It doesn't sound like anyone in Japan knows how to build a trail. In Gboro we have expert trailbuilders all around who tell you a lot about the right way to do it. We now have over 100 miles (262 km) of hiking trails in the city and they are still building. We helped build a trail north of Lake Townsend - its a lot of work!
ReplyDelete