Tuesday 21 July 2015

Hiking - Chichibu Overnight Camp 秩父キャンプ

Greetings! Long time, no write. I'm sorry, but things have been happening, even in spite of the heat. Recently it has become VERY hot. One day the highs were 23 C, then the next day they were 38 C. Too extreme. Now we are officially into summer, so I must try hard to get used to the heat. I usually do it quickly, because I play sports or run in the high heat.

Anyway, summer has arrived and with it, hiking and camping season! This past weekend I went on a camping/mountain climbing excursion with the mountain climbing club. It was a training run for the 3rd years, who are going to compete at a national high school mountain climbing tournament (they do exist...) in August. I don't really understand mountain climbing competitions, but I guess the students, in teams of four people, are judged on their hiking skills (ie, speed, pace, terrain and time management), how well prepared they are (did they bring water, snacks, first aid kit, etc), and their camp making abilities (including setting up, cooking, and breaking up camp, meanwhile leaving no garbage or anything behind). Somehow, they are judged and scored and a winner is decided. It's a mystery to me. Our club is a bit of a rarity for an all girls' high school. Most people seem to be surprised when I talk about it. I guess it's because girls are weak and they don't like to get dirty or go outside.

Let me just say, I debated about whether to go on this trip. I had a bad feeling about it, and I was worried about potential heat stroke or further injury to my knee. I also wanted to sleep (perhaps that's the main reason I was hesitant to go...). However, in the end, I decided to (wo)man up and go and that's how I found myself walking to the station with a heavy backpack on my back at 6 am in the morning. When we go camping, I usually bring my own 1-person tent. I feel bad if the students have to carry things for me, so I usually bring my own gear and food. We started our ascent, from Ogose (越生駅) station. Our start was rough, it was very hot and we had trouble finding the start of the trail. This foreshadowed our troubles I think. To top it off, the students were already exhausted because they slept at the school the night before, but couldn't sleep because it was wayyyyyy too hot. Not a good way to start. Since this was training for the third years, we soon separated into 2 groups, third years (going at competition pace) and the first years, at a relaxed pace. We went through Katsuragi pass (桂木峠) and stopped at Kuroyama Santaki (黒山三滝), or the 3 waterfalls of Kuroyama. Here we faced another problem, one of the students had heat stroke. So we waited until she felt a little better and then sent her home, while we continued on our way. Since we were so delayed, we had to shortcut and we ended up walking to a train station and taking the train to the campground where we were staying for the night. Unfortunately, the trails are very confusing and not well marked in Chichibu. So on our way, we took a wrong turn and had to go back. Later on as we were descending from the mountains to the train station, it began to rain and there was thunder and lightning. Perfect. Luckily it didn't last too long, and we finally reached the train station. By the time we got to the camp, it was at the same time as the ETA for the third years, but they hadn't arrived yet. So we set up camp at Ashigakubo Campground (あしがくぼキャンプ場). The campground was very nice. It was beside a creek and the ground was nice and soft, for our tents. This campground had tent sites, rooms, cabins, etc. At the same time, there was a beaver or scout troupe camping, and they were looking for kabutomushi, or stag beetles. The scout leaders were a little strange though, because they kept watching us while we set up camp and did various things. Very weird. After setting up tents and changing, we cooled off in the creek! It was sooo refreshing. Meanwhile, the third years hadn't yet arrived.

About an hour and half after we arrived, I saw a group of monkeys! My first time ever seeing monkeys in the wild! I was scared, but amazed. The third years were still MIA. It was getting dark and they had still not arrived. We couldn't reach them by cell phone, as the reception in the mountains is not good. So we were getting worried. At around 7:30, the caretakers of the camp came to us to talk about the situation. As it was dark, we decided it was best to call the police and report them missing. While they were doing that, thankfully, the third years arrived, in good shape. I guess they had gotten lost a bit, and their pace was slower than expected. They arrived around 8 pm, 3 and half hours later than their ETA. They quickly set up camp and ate dinner. The first years were all asleep before 9 pm, while the rest of us headed to bed just before 10 pm.

The night was hot... and my sleeping bag never left it's case :( Despite the noise, the light and the heat, I managed to get a bit of sleep. We were up at 4 am the next morning... Yikes. I'd rather be sleeping at that time... but anyway. We got up, packed up, ate breakfast and were ready to leave at 6 am. In the first year group, one of the students had managed to tie a knot so tight that we couldn't undo it and therefore she couldn't tie up her shoes properly. This knot delayed our start by about 20 minutes... Another bad start. Our goal for the morning was Takegawadake (武川岳), but the first year group never reached it. We were going fairly slowly, one of the students was in pain and not feeling well, and during a particular hard climb, one of the third year students had to drop out of their group and join ours. We reached Futagoyama (二子山) without problem, but on the way to Takegawadake, we took a wrong turn (due to lack of signage and misleading trail markers...). The trail came to an end at a building, and we realized we had taken a wrong turn. We didn't know exactly where we were, so rather than guess we decided to backtrack. On the way, we met another hiker who had also missed the turn off. Together we found the trail, which was rather hard to find and not well marked. That detour cost us an hour, so there was no way we'd be able to follow the day's plan. Instead we decided to take a shortcut and walk down to another train station (Yokoze station (横瀬駅)). After Futagoyama, we reached Akiyama and then we were able to take a short cut that would lead us out of the mountains. We found it quickly, and soon found ourselves on a logging or construction road, which we walked on for an hour. Then it started to rain, pour, actually. Then there was thunder and lightning. The rain continued for the duration of our hike down. When we stopped to put on rain gear and pack covers, the teacher of our group was worried that we had to return because we hadn't yet found the trail short cut from the road. So we went ahead while everyone rested to scout the trail, luckily, about 5 minutes down the road, we found the trail. It was a good point on a day where everything was going wrong... So we trekked our way back up the hill and collected the students and went on our way again. After about 3 hours of walking through an industrial area on a mountain road, we reached Yokoze town (横瀬町) and found the train station. The industrial area was kind of interesting, as the area is known for limestone. In fact, our target mountain, Bukosan (武甲山) is slowly disappearing due to limestone consumption. I wonder if living in the area with all the limestone dust and runoff is healthy... Probably not. On the way down, by the limestone processing factories, everything was turned gray due to the limestone dust and runoff. 

I was so relieved to reach the train station... This trip was full of problems, but in the end everything was okay, even though our group didn't make any of the goal peaks for the hike. The third years were able to successfully complete the second day, so it was good training for them. I want to go back and hike in Chichibu again, but the trails are not well marked, and there are few hikers on the trail, so it makes me a little anxious about hiking there on my own. In the end it was hard, but fun. I think the first years have some potential to become good hikers, but they have to work on their downhill climbing... Hiking with them is very difficult for me, since I have to go at the back, which means I'm forced to go at their pace, a very slow pace for me. It always feels like I'm holding back which takes up more energy than going at my own pace. Hiking with others is hard, especially since I have some responsibilities as a quasi (?) leader.