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This is Page 4 of 4 - the best of July 2009!
posted: July 31st, 2009
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The photos on this page continue with the climb of Mt. Kita-dake (3,193 meters = 10,476 feet) on July 18th and go through the end of the month and a trip to Mt. Mitake. Click on any thumbnail to begin.

Begin July 18th
  Okay, now it's July 18th - on to the next hut, 800 meters up through the rain and clouds. It was raining so hard and steady that I could not use my camera at all on this day. Kazuya's camera, however, is smaller and easily fits into a plastic bag and in his rain jacket pocket, so all pictures taken this day were taken by Kazuya. The first shot is taken along the trail. The 2nd shot shows flowers, some people through the clouds and also gives you an idea of the steepness of the trail. The 3rd shot shows the kind of beauty we could have seen if it would have cleared up, and this is just the flower beauty, we have no idea what the scenic beauty would have been like.
July18th009_ToKatanokoyaRC.jpg
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July18th079_ToKatanokoyaRC.jpg
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  Here are 2 shots of the interior of the hut where we stayed at on this night. It was CROWDED. A lot of people without reservations showed up because they could not make it to the hut which they had originally planned to go to. We arrived at around 9:30 AM - with reservations. The first shot shows what the sleeping area looked like at 10:46 AM - looks roomy and good, eh? The next shot was taken at 3:28 PM, no longer looks roomy and good, eh? In fact it was so crowded that they made us sleep like sardines - one person's head up, the next person's feet up and so on. So many people came that many of them had to wait until after supper was finished (supper started at 3:30 PM and we ate in shifts until about 7:45 PM) before they could even sit down. Why? Because they had to sit and sleep in the dining area! It was so terrible that when I laid on my back we were so squeezed in that I had no room to put my arms beside me - I had to keep them on my chest. When I laid on my side I could not fold my legs to get into a semi-comfortable fetal position, I had to keep them out straight. Needless to say - nobody slept much this night! The 3rd shot is outside the hut in the late afternoon - people still checking in. In fact all of the people you see are waiting in line to get checked in.
July18th101_KatanokoyaRC.jpg
July18th101_
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  Here are 3 shots which Kazuya took outside of the hut on the afternoon of the 18th. The first shot is looking up the mountain towards the summit, which is still a 50 minute hike up there through the clouds. The 2nd and 3rd shots show how many tents could be seen through the clouds - there were undoubtedly many more beyond the field of view.
July18th107_KatanokoyaRC.jpg
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July18th109_KatanokoyaRC.jpg
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July18th110_KatanokoyaRC.jpg
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End July 18th, Begin July 19th
  And, here we are - July 19th. The final day. Still raining, windy and cloudy. It was scary. This is the summit. The first shot is me. The 2nd shot is Kazuya. The 3rd shot gives you an idea of how many people were at the summit. One person died this weekend. He had a heart attack and they could not even get a helicopter in to get the poor guy out. We could hear the helicopter circling and circling for about an hour hoping for a break in the clouds, but he ultimately had to return to base without picking up the body. The death was not at the summit, it was down somewhere near the first hut.
July19th005_KitadakeRC.jpg
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Jul19_MtKita_dake_Summit05_3193_meters_KazuyaRC.jpg
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  Here is another shot which shows people and clouds at the summit. The 2nd shot is already getting down close to the base of the mountain. We think it was somewhere near here where the helicopter was trying to get in to for pickup of the body of the heart attack victim. Look at all of the people down by that patch of snow.
July19th017_KitadakeRC.jpg
July19th017
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July19th038_MigimataRC.jpg
July19th038
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  And, here are the final 2 shots from this weekend. At this point we are only about 90 minutes from the bus stop. We took a different trail down than we used to ascend. We did not cross this snow field on the climb. And, that's all. Guess we'll have to try this mountain again someday of time and circumstances permit us to. We wanted to see the flowers and the scenery so badly!
July19th046_MigimataRC.jpg
July19th046
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July19th053_MigimataRC.jpg
July19th053
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End July 19th, Begin July 26th
  On Sunday, July 26th, Kazuya and I went to Mt. Mitake specifically to find Mountain Lily flowers. In this row the first photo shows a beautiful Mountain Lily in full bloom. The 2nd photo shows a "Rengeshouma" flower (Anemonopsis macrophylla). We didn't truly expect to find the Rengeshouma on this trip because it's about 2 weeks early for this flower. There were not many of them, but there were some to be found. The 3rd shot shows an extreme close-up of the inside of a Mountain Lily Flower - note the "bumps" - we never noticed those before. Interesting.
Jul26_MtMitake01_MtnLilyRC.jpg
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Jul26_MtMitake18_RengeshoumaRC.jpg
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  The first shot in this row shows another Rengeshouma flower, well actually it is 2 shots put together in PhotoShop. In one photo the buds were in focus and in the other photo the flower was in focus, so I put the 2 photos together so that both the buds and the flower are in focus. The 2nd photo is a scenic shot. The 3rd shot is another Rengeshouma flower.
Jul26_MtMitake27_28_RengeshoumaRC.jpg
Jul26_MtMitake27
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Jul26_MtMitake30_SceneryRC.jpg
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Jul26_MtMitake36_RengeshoumaRC.jpg
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  The first photo in this, the final row, is Mt. Hinode, which is the goal for today. From there we'll hike down to Tsuru-Tsuru Hot Spring. The final shot for this month shows an "Old Lady Lily". Why "old lady lily", because it's not so beautiful.
Jul26_MtMitake52_MtHinodeRC.jpg
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Jul26_MtMitake54_OldLadyLilyRC.jpg
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End July 26th, End Page 4, End July 2009's Photos
  This is a link to a separate web page showing some photos of our DVD Collection, an AVI Movie of our Home Theater System and 9 photos of our Sharp Aquos TV.
    February 22, 2009 DVD Collection,
Movie of Home Theater System
& Sharp Aquos TV Pictures
(new window)

Kazuya has updated - his blog and it has some truly exquisite photos of our climbs! Please check it out HERE. (Click on the "Studies of Plants and Wildlife" link in the new window.)

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