 |
posted: July 31st, 2011 |
Go To Page:
|
|
This page begins with 10:11 AM on July 8th - at Mt. Sumondake - and takes you through the end of that adventure on July 9th. This page shows the summiting of the 2 final peaks of Mt. Sumondake - Mt. Aokumodake (1,487 m = 4,879 ft) and Mt. Hakamadake (1,537.2 m = 5,043 ft), the highest peak of Mt. Sumondake. Click on any thumbnail to begin.
|
| July 8th Continues From Page 1 (at 10:11 AM) |
Here are the final 2 shots of Lilium rubellum. They are followed by a shot of a Hemerocallis dumortieri var. esculenta. At this point we are descending into the col between Mt. Ohtake and Mt. Aokumodake.
|
 July8th_Mt Sumon176RC |
 July8th_Mt Sumon187RC |
 July08_122_Sumondake Climb_Lilium_medeoloidesRC |
Here is a photo of a thistle - Cirsium borealinipponense - followed by an overview shot of Hemerocallis dumortieri var. esculenta and then a shot showing both species in a single photo.
|
 July08_128_Sumondake Climb_Cirsium_spRC |
 July8th_Mt Sumon212RC |
 July8th_Mt Sumon211RC |
There was not much snow around here, at least not near the trail. This was about the largest snowfield which we walked near. The 2nd and 3rd shots are, respectively, Kazuya and I at the summit of Mt. Aokumodake (1,487 m = 4,879 ft). This bear bell was pretty nice sounding too, but not as nice as the other one.
|
 July8th_Mt Sumon225RC |
 July08_138_Sumondake Climb_Mt_Seiudake_KazuyaRC |
 July8th_Mt Sumon229RC |
Here are 3 shots which are rather scenic. After we passed Mt. Aokumodake, the ridge was rather marshy and you can see marsh grass in these 3 photos. We are walking on boardwalk now to avoid ruining the ecosystem.
|
 July8th_Mt Sumon230RC |
 July08_142_SumondakeClimb _KazuyaNearMt_SeiudakeRC |
 July08_144_SumondakeClimb _BackTowards_Mt_SeiudakeRC |
The first shot here was looking back towards Mt. Aokumodake. The 2nd shot shows a small patch of Pogonia japonica - an orchid. We saw 2 small patches of this. We never saw any solitary plants. That seemed strange to us. The 3rd shot is me shooting the Pogonia japonica.
|
 July08_145_SumondakeClimb _BackTowards_Mt_SeiudakeRC |
 July08_149_Sumondake Climb_Pogonia_japonicaRC |
 July8th_Mt Sumon243RRC |
Here is the final peak - and the highest one - of Mt. Sumondake. This is the summit marker of Mt. Hakamadake (1,537.2 m = 5,043 ft). We ate our lunch here and then headed down via a terrible trail. In places the trail was outsloped with a fall of too many meters if one slipped. And, the trail was often slippery reddish clay. We both fell one time due to slipping on the clay. In addition, the trail was very steep - in several places there were ropes to descend with because the trail was so steep.
|
 July8th_Mt Sumon244RC |
 July8th_Mt Sumon247RC |
 July8th_Mt Sumon251RRC |
Just as we began our descent Kazuya discovered these orchids growing in the grass beside the trail. All three shots in this row are Orchis fauriei - a new orchid for us. All of the specimens we found were a bit past their prime, but they still looked good enough to photograph.
|
 July8th_Mt Sumon258RC |
 July08_165_Sumondake Climb_UnknownOrchidRC |
 July08_163_Sumondake Climb_UnknownOrchidRC |
We'll be hiking more or less down that ridge which you see, and we'll be going down to that valley and that road which you can see far away. The 2nd and 3rd shots are Iris gracilipes - a very small Iris - this too was a new flower for us.
|
 July08_158R_Sumondake Climb_SceneryRC |
 July8th_Mt Sumon266RC |
 July8th_Mt Sumon267RC |
And here are 3 shots of a new violet for us - Viola brevistipulata var. kishidai. Kazuya was not 100% sure on his identification, but he's pretty sure. It was later confirmed by another source that this is correctly identified.
|
 July8th_Mt Sumon275RC |
 July8th_Mt Sumon273RC |
 July8th_Mt Sumon278RC |
These 3 shots show the scenery looking back up at Mt. Hakamadake as we make our way down the terrible trail. You can see that some of the valleys here are still pretty snow-filled.
|
 July08_173_Sumondake Climb_SumondakeSummitRC |
 July08_177_Sumondake Climb_DescentSceneryRC |
 July08_178_Sumondake Climb_DescentSceneryRC |
Maybe you can notice that we are getting closer to that road now. The 2nd and 3rd shots are again looking back towards Mt. Hakamadake.
|
 July08_182_Sumondake Climb_DescentSceneryRC |
 July8th_Mt Sumon295RC |
 July8th_Mt Sumon296RC |
Kazuya captured me in this photo of a very steep place - I don't know if you can see it, but I am descending via a rope. We also had to cross a pretty steep snowfield, but it was small and only a little scary. There was so much snow melt coming off the snowfield and the temperature was so hot that we felt in danger of heat exhaustion or heat stroke and we stopped at that snow melt stream and cooled our heads and necks with the snow melt water. It was refreshing. We were getting pretty exhausted and we were getting low on water. We had 3 liters of water with us, and by the time we got to the road we had drunk it all. The owner of the Inn picked us up at 4:00 PM and took us to the Inn - shown in the final photo in this row. All in all he drove us for more than an hour, and when we paid our bill the next morning we were shocked to see that he only charged us 3,000 for taxi service. Remember that he picked us up at the train station and drove us to the starting point this morning too. In addition, he will give us a ride to the nearest train station when we check-out tomorrow morning.
|
 July8th_Mt Sumon298RC |
 July9th001 _TadamiLineRC |
| End July 8th, Begin July 9th |
We had initially planned to climb another mountain on the 2nd day, but the first day's hot weather and that trail coming down, kind of kicked our butts. So, we changed our plan and it's a darn good thing we did (story later). We took the Tadami Train Line from Oshirakawa Station to Aizu-Yokota and went to the sparkling water well which we visited back in February, 2010. These 3 photos were all taken from the train windows as we headed for Aizu-Yokota.
|
 July9_004R_TadamiRiver Area_TadamiRiver_FromTrainRC |
 July9_007WireRemoved_Tadami RiverArea_TadamiMatterhornRC |
 July9_010_TadamiRiverArea _TadamiRiverSceneryFromTrainRC |
In this row I noticed that the first photo happened to have been taken very close to the spot where Kazuya took a photo back in February 2010. If this looks familiar, it should, because this was the cover page for February 2010 - CLICK HERE to see that index page. Maybe you want to quickly review all of the February 2010 photos, starting with Page 1, Row 8 and also the Miscellaneous page with the movie of the Sparkling Water well. There is also a Miscellaneous page this time with another movie of the Sparkling Water Well.
|
 July9th009Wire Removed_TadamiLineRC |
 Feb21st078_Tadami LineToKoideRC |
 July9th015R _TadamiLineRC |
Here is a scenery shot, followed by a shot of our destination - Aizu-Yokota Station. From here we walked to the Sparkling Water Well and also to the Hot Spring Inn (Oshio Hot Spring) where we stayed back in February 2010. In the 3rd photo note that there are only 6 trains per day - 3 in each direction. We just got off the one which arrived at 7:46 AM and we plan to depart back towards where we came from on the 3:46 PM train.
|
 July9_017_TadamiRiverArea_ TadamiRiverSceneryFromTrainRC |
 July9_021_TadamiRiver Area_AizuYokotaRC |
 July9th026_ AizuYokotaRC |
Here are 3 shots of the Tadami River which we took as we crossed the highway bridge. There is still some river fog hanging out and it was scenic enough so that we took quite a few shots - here are 3 of them.
|
 July9_023WireRemoved_Tadami RiverArea_AizuYokotaRC |
 July9th027_ AizuYokotaRC |
 July9_024_TadamiRiver Area_AizuYokotaRC |
And here is the Sparkling Water Well. When we were here back in February 2010 we forgot to bring any bottles with us and therefore we could not take any water home with us. This time we had 4.5 liters of bottles which we filled and brought home with us. Oh, back in February 2010 this water was sold under the name of "Awa Shin Sui". Now it's sold under the name "Aqaizu". There is a photo of the bottle on the February 2010 web pages. If you want to see the current bottle PLEASE CLICK HERE (new window).
|
 July9_028_TadamiRiverArea _SparklingWaterWellRC |
 July9th042_ AizuYokotaRC |
 July9_032_TadamiRiverArea _SparklingWaterWellRC |
Here are 2 final shots of the Sparkling Water Well and then a photo of beautiful clouds. Please be sure to look at the Miscellaneous Page this month for a bubbly noise movie of the Sparkling Water Well. This water is SO delicious.
|
 July9_048_TadamiRiverArea _SparklingWaterWellRC |
 July9_054_TadamiRiverArea _SparklingWaterWellRC |
 July9_066_Tadami RiverArea_CloudsRC |
Here are 3 shots of the Oshio Hot Spring. We were fortunate in that there was nobody else here for about 5 minutes, so we could get these shots of the inside of this Iron Water Hot Spring. It is pretty popular for local people and there were people here at all other times for the hour or so that we stayed here. The owner of the Inn (and this Hot Spring) was bathing when we arrived and he said "you look familiar to me" - good memory from February 2010!
|
 July9th065_ AizuYokotaRC |
 July9th068_ AizuYokotaRC |
 July9th070_ AizuYokotaRC |
The first shot here is the river, taken from the road. Then, after a while it clouded up and there was a small thunder and lightning storm. That did not significantly cool things off because it only lasted for about 15 minutes, but after that the river fog was amazing.
|
 July9_081_TadamiRiver Area_TadamiRiverSceneryRC |
 July9_084WiresRemoved_Tadami RiverArea_TadamiRiverSceneryRC |
 July9th082Wire Removed_AizuYokotaRC |
Here are 3 more shots of the amazing river fog - taken from the highway bridge. There were wires here - note that the photo titles say "Wire Removed".
|
 July9_086WiresRemoved_Tadami RiverArea_TadamiRiverSceneryRC |
 July9_087WireRemoved_TadamiRiver Area_TadamiRiverSceneryRC |
 July9th087Wire Removed_AizuYokotaRC |
Here is a final river fog shot and then a shot at the station, taken while we waited for our train. In the 3rd shot - here comes our train, right on time. And, now the story of the thunder and lightning storm begins.
|
 July9th089WireRemoved _AizuYokotaRC |
 July9_096_TadamiRiverArea _Aizu_YokotaStationRC |
 July9th092_ AizuYokotaRC |
We went into the thunder storm as we rode the train, it got worse and worse and the rain was amazingly heavy. We could see that the rivers and creeks as we went along were higher and higher and muddier and muddier. When we arrived at the station shown in the first photo in this row we got the word that the train line was closed - could not go any further than here. At Aizu-Yokota we were on the very edge of the storm - that was why it only rained for around 15 minutes. So, JR (Japan Railway) rented van taxis and took everybody to the place where the trains were running. It was about an hour taxi ride. They had to find 4 taxis like the one shown in the final photo to accommodate everybody - it was fortunate for them that the train was not packed. And - this is why it was a good thing we decided not to climb that 2nd mountain today. The station we would have come down at was closed and we have no idea how we would have gotten to a town - we assumed that there was probably an emergency phone at that station that we could have called JR on, but what would they have said?! The mountain that we had planned to climb today was more or less at the center of the storm, so the trail coming down would have been terribly slippery and muddy and there would have been thunder and lightning crashing all around us. All in all we were fortunate. We later met another person who had planned to climb that mountain today, but he said he saw the weather forecast in the morning and a thunder storm was predicted, so he decided not to climb based on that forecast. And, that's the end of this adventure. |
 July9th093 _TadamiRC |
 July9_098_TadamiRiverArea _UrasaStation_TrainBusRC |
| End July 9th, End Page 2 |
| Thanks so much for taking the time to look at this page. Now, please go on to Page 3 for the continuation of this month's adventures. |
Go To Page:
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Link to Amazon.com (new window).
We get 2% of whatever you spend if you go to Amazon from this link!! Please shop on Amazon from here.
| If you would like to donate to our hiking & traveling fund or show your appreciation for our efforts you can donate through PayPal. A single donation will entitle you to request a single full-sized photo IN THE DONATION MONTH - which you may then use as a desktop wallpaper or whatever. The copyright will be retained by us and the photo will be inconspicuously marked with the copyright symbol (©), year and photographer's name. (Donation probably not tax deductible.) |