23 November 2023
Power hike
Mount Kariyose from Musashi-Itsukaichi station
Final hike. Longer than I expected! But that was fine.
27k steps, 18km, 4.5 hours, 999m of elevation gain.
Much of it was alongside a power substation, and then an enormous hidden quarry I could never get a clear photo of.
My start point took me back to Musashi-Itsukaichi station, where I did a repeat hike from earlier in this trip, my favourite 'between the tracks' hike that goes from one rail line to another. That one goes north from the station, today I went south from the station on an out and back course.
The original plan was for a loop course, but at the top a lot of logging had occurred, and I was not sure if the path I wanted still existed, so I opted to return the way I came, this also contributed to it being a bit longer than I expected. However there were plenty of parts where I could run to make up time, especially on the way down.
This has all been a bit disjointed, but my actual course had 3 points of interest, Kongo falls, which my phone kept translating as King King when I pointed it at a sign post, Mount Imakuma, which had a summit marker, and then Mount Kariyose, which was the turning point, and had no summit marker.
Despite not thinking the scenery was great while I was on the hike, the photos have turned out fantastic.
It is a national holiday today for labour day. So everyone is going hiking. This influenced my decision to pick a lesser known hike for which I did not need to fight for a bus. Here you can see Musashi-Itsukaichi station, and a huge line of people who did not get on the first buses leaving after the train arrived.
It was a 1.6km walk to the start of the trail proper, the town here is quite big. Some people are camping along the 'river'. The clouds were great today!
The trail starts at Komine park, where this shrine is, you can find Komine park on google maps.
The first part of the trail through the park is very developed, but today had a good mix of different elements.
No bear warnings today, snakes! What kind of bell do I need for snakes?
From a distance I thought this might be an elevated wooden ladder like at Dakeng in Taiwan, but it is just steps.
The aforementioned power station, literally between hills hidden in the woods. The quarry was huge and even more hidden. There were a lot of watch out for snake signs around the power station, possibly to discourage hikers from entering the power station.
This was probably the most technical bit of today's hike, which is to say, not very technical.
I almost did not bother going to Kongo falls, as it is about a 200m detour, but it was worth it, very mossy, dark, rocky as you shall see.
A tiny waterfall, but I had it to myself, and it was dark and spooky.
A very cool spot.
This is the to of Mount Imakuma. Public toilet or shrine? I genuinely did not know!
A summit marker. No actual view from here, and not very high. Mount Kariyose was about 700m I think, so also not very high. Today was not a day for people who like to get high.
Just past Imakuma is a view spot, that is Musashi-Itsukaichi below. Is that the actual town name or just what it is called on train maps so people do not get confused with other places named Itsukaichi? Either way, note the huge number of power lines.
This is a public toilet. So the previous building was probably the shrine! This is my best public toilet photo of this trip.
Time to push on to Mount Kariyose, it was getting sunnier.
I climbed up a ridge to peer over into the logging areas.
Wow! Peak colour!
This is right by the summit of Mount Kariyose, great view, great clouds.
Just around the corner, logging areas provided the view.
I was looking for the looping path down through this area of logging but could not find it, so I decided to turn back.
Before too long at all (due to a lot of running) I was back at the power station.
Which just left a different very long stair case to go back down to Komine park, which I re-entered from a different entrance.
The park area is a popular place for picnics. The light really was quite surreal through the partial cloud cover.
And now here is my final hiking related pic of this trip, the view from Musashi-Itsukaichi station. I will probably return to this station in the future, if I continue the way I went today it links up with Jinba which links up with Takao. Another between the tracks opportunity!