30 October 2018
My short hike became very long
Hiking Mount Seihachiyama to view Mount Fuji from Sasago station
I thought I had planned a fairly short hike today, maybe 4.5 hours at a leisurely pace.
Unfortunately or perhaps fortunately since I like hiking, I missed a turn and added a couple of hours onto it, and ended up coming down a path badly impacted by landslides and sliding great distances in the dirt. Fun times.
The start and end of the hike was at the very tiny very disappointing not-even-a-shop station of Sasago on the Chuo line. This station is a long way along the Chuo line, nearly at the city of Kofu which I had a good view of today, along with Mount Fuji of course.
My extended hike meant that I was now late for Halloween at Shibuya, more on that later, but it also meant that I could not post this update until late in the evening, so the text is short, maybe the photos will remind me of things to talk about, or maybe they are all just of Mount Fuji.
There are so many nice stations along the Chuo line, Sasago is the worst. There is no shop but there are a lot of abandoned cars with trees growing through them.
I could not really tell which mountain was the one I would be climbing, actually I would be climbing 3, so until I knew where I was going I just took photos of wheat / canola or whatever this stuff is.
Here is a nice house with some nice topiary and a nice backdrop. Those mountains are the other side of the road, not the ones I was going to. Still its quite nice.
I stopped off at this small factory to perform a waste audit, and advised them on how to better separate their plastics to increase their value and lower their environmental greenhouse climate change carbon ecological footprint.
It was still quite cloudy, resulting in muted colors, that would change.
This cat waved me off as I followed a road briefly to the start of the trail.
The road went through this red lit tunnel to get the blood pumping. I quickly developed some film under the red lights.
My journey took me past a power station, possibly hydroelectric. The actual trail starts just past here.
First I had to examine this giant retina destroying slippery dip.
The start of the trail had a detour, and the detour was overgrown and muddy and very hard going. Eventually I re joined the proper trail and there was some leaf color to appreciate. This trail was very well signposted, especially the detours.
There were a couple of fences you had to untie to get through, I believe this is to keep deer out of certain areas.
More canola. I quickly made some oil for later. You never know when you might need some oil on the mountains.
The power plant and associated infrastructure adds a great buzzing ambience to the landscape.
Getting to the top of the first peak was quite quick, and easy to find. Mount Seihachiyama. I think Yama kind of means mountain anyway, maybe, I dont know. Anyway, this is the mountain thats actually on the map, even though the next one is higher.
Now we start our photos of Fuji. The cool tree makes a great view even better. I think this tree is probably what puts this peak on the map.
Have a bit more of the cool tree with Fuji getting in the way.
You cant really see it, but that is the city of Kofu. It looks very large, possibly a good base for hiking on another trip.
Wider angle view of tree and Fuji, more to come!
My big head and the tree and Fuji. I look hot. I was.
My awesome stance, the tree, and Fuji. OK, no more tree, but there will be more Fuji. If you like Fuji you will enjoy todays update.
Getting between the peaks was still an easy enough to follow trail, although there were a few rock scrambles. Fantastic view!
OK, more Fuji from the next peak.
Mount Hongjagamaru. These are the only other people I saw all day, including at the station! 3 hours hiking either side of running into this group I saw absolutely no one.
After the second peak, it started to become harder and harder to follow the trail. I dont think it was used much, and it now seems as though this area is past peak leaf time, as there were lots of leaves littering the path.
There was still a bit of color to see.
There was always a reminder that there is a powerplant nearby.
The big power poles do however provide a clearing to appreciate a bit more view. A view of wires.
Low bamboo time! This made it easier to follow the path.
Around this point, the path was just gone, I was down to following the ribbons. I had already missed my turn by this point, but had gone too far to double back, plus I was never sure where I was or if I had missed my turn, I only found that out later, I just followed the ribbons hoping that all ribbons lead to somewhere.
It became really steep and just got steeper, but it was still very colorful.
Photographing steep doesnt really work, at the end it got so steep I had to properly put my camera bag in my backpack and slide down, no chance for photos.
Every time I thought I was about to get to the bottom, no, there was still further to go. Great weather all day as you can see!
I was very relieved and elated to get back to the station and start my 2 hour return journey to Tokyo.