lost or what?

Terrible sign failure

Hiking Mount Soranuma near Sapporo by bus

I thought there might be a bit of snow. Turns out there was endless snow.
I thought it might be cold on top of a mountain, turns out it was absolutely freezing.
I thought my boots would struggle in ice, and I was absolutely right.

Nearby Sapporo are a series of mountains that used to be volcanoes that are now lakes on a plateu area between peaks.
Getting there was hard to work out without the help of the information desk in the main station the night before.
Once I got on the bus, which came at the time my piece of paper suggested, I was concerned that no one else on the bus seemed to be in climbing gear.
Perhaps the 2km walk to the trail head had frightened them all away apart from the 3 weeks of the year the bus goes the two extra stops.
Anyway, its not a long bus ride, and knowing the right stop to get off at is easy, the last one.
4 others got off at this stop, a group of 2 boys and 2 girls perhaps in their early 20's. They had jackets on, but other than that woolen mittens, sneakers, jeans.
One of them asks me if I intend to climb, he speaks great English, yes I intend to climb. He asks if I know the way to the trail. I said I believe its 2km up the road to the quarry and starts from the car park there.
He then asked me if my boots and gloves are ok for climbing, and if I have enough supplies. I said my boots are old but waterproof, gloves are not great, and I have pocari sweat to drink. I was looking at him in his sneakers and jeans. He said they also intend to climb.

So we headed off up the road, and they walked at a snails pace, so I waved goodbye and charged off, should not have done that!

Once at the quarry I had no idea which way to go. There were cars parked there, perhaps quarry workers? I could see a tractor working up a cliff. I settled on the only dirt road which seemed open and without big warning signs and followed that. I assumed the other roads were for quarry machinery. So wrong.
It soon became impassable for cars, with big trees fallen over the road, and then rivers that had washed away the road I needed to get across on slippery fallen logs. There was so much snow! I was enjoying myself.
However after about an hour up this road, which did not seem to be going up, just around, it became very impassable, I turned back, frustrated.

About 3/4 of the way back to the car park, there was a fork in the road, I had previously taken the road that went up rather than the one that seemed to go down, now I took the fork that went down. So very wrong.
I followed this for over an hour in very heavy snow, and saw no one, crossed rivers where the road was washed away, climbed over huge fallen trees, until this became a raging waterfall.
I thought my day was over, I ran back to the car park. 3 hours had elapsed since I got off the bus, so frustrating.
Then I decided to ignore a huge warning sign and barrier... What a stupid sign. This was the entrance to the national park and main trail. Almost immediately I saw people coming down from the mountain and lakes in arctic survival gear with bear bells dinging.
Decision time, I knew what time the last bus was, I knew going down should be faster than going up, I knew there were 2 lakes to see, one before the 'summit' with huts to stay in and one after.
I decided to race the clock and turn back if I thought I would run out of time. I literally ran up whenever I could. It was very tiring, and at times blizzard like conditions, but generally I was not cold.
My shoelaces froze solid, as did the bottom of my pants, and eventually the ends of the fingers on my gloves. Only when I got to the second lake did I realise I was absolutely freezing! Time to head back down for the bus.

Unfortunately, my boots were not up to the task, the other people I saw coming down all had spikes coming out of their boots, so I slid down a lot of the way, gloves on the ice behind me, feet in front, and lowered my now wet ass onto the ice to stop!

When I got back to the lower lake, with the huts around it, there was the group I saw on the bus earlier, they must have been in the hut earlier when I ran past.
They were surprised to see me, I explained how I had been lost, but the funny thing was, they were now all in full on arctic survival gear, huge jackets, goggles, hats, hiking poles, big rubber boots, knee pads, and they had a guide with them!
It seems they met a guide at the quarry car park and were staying in the hut over night. I assume the guide provided all the gear.

Getting down was much slower than I thought it would be due to the ice and sliding. It never stopped snowing until I got back to the road, and then I had 15 minutes to run down the road to meet my bus, I made it by 2 minutes! Had I missed it, my options were to hike back up to the hut in the dark and join the guide and the bus gang, or walk at least 2 hours down the road to where it joins the freeway and presumably there are more regular buses.
So I was very glad I made the last bus. My shoes and pants defrosted and water ran down the aisle.