Inspired by a comment from Joe in cubicle-land, I present Day 3 of my recent hike in the Southern Alps of Japan.
When we last left off, I was happily settling down to sleep in my tent after having eaten dinner in an outhouse.
The biggest problem I had on the trip was that with the 5 PM sunset, I was left with a choice: either run my headlamp batteries down reading for six hours until my body was ready to sleep, or lay quietly in the dark hoping to fall asleep by 7 or 8. To make matters worse, short days mean short hikes (if I want to reach camp with daylight left), which means I'm not fully exhausted - and sleep doesn't come easy.
That night, I think I fell asleep by 8 and, as with every night, woke up feeling fully refreshed by 1 AM. I clicked on my headlamp and read for a couple hours before drifting back to sleep. But this night was special - my reading was interrupted by wildlife surrounding the tent.
There were deer (or possibly Kamoshika, a type of Japanese mountain goat called the Japanese serow) calling from the right and left, sometimes getting closer, sometimes moving away - not quite as close as the deer that once tried to lick the sweat off Tomoe's arm through the tent in Yatsugatake last month, but still, nice to hear.
Wildlife Count: Southern Alps vs. Humans
The sheer amount of wildlife I saw during this Minami Alps trip surprised me - especially compared to zero seen on my recent Yatsugatake hike. I encountered way more animals than humans.
Day 1:
- People: 0
- Monkeys: ~10
- Inoshishi (wild boar): 1
- Frogs (huge, foot-sized): many
- Birds: many
Day 2:
- People: 0
- Mice: 1 (tumbling down a steep hill trying desperately to get away)
- Deer: 6 or 7
- Birds: many
Day 3:
- People: 2 (a younger couple)
- Inoshishi: 2
- Japanese Mountain Goat (Serow): 2 (one appeared five feet to my right!)
- Deer: 3
- Birds: many
Day 4:
- People: 2
- Panda Bear: 1 (I swear it was! Maybe I'll get into that later...)
- Birds: many
Day 5:
- People: 1 (until I got down into town, where there were many)
- Birds: many
Anyway, I managed to not be ravaged by wild animals and woke in time to see Kita-dake at sunrise. Unfortunately, I forgot to remove the smudged filter from my lens, so the photos are extraordinarily blurry.
A Turning Point in the Hike
This day marked a turning point. I was already behind schedule, and with such short days, my original route was looking overly ambitious.
As 3 PM rolled around, I stood staring across a deep valley at Kita-dake - the same valley I had hiked up and out of the day before - and I had to decide:
Do I descend again, camp in the valley as night falls, then climb back up the next morning still behind schedule and unable to complete my original plan (missing Ainodake)?
Or do I stay up on the ridge (which has plenty of vertical gain/loss on its own), reach camp while it's still light, and enjoy the evening?
(Here you can see my actual route, though I had planned to descend into the valley on the left.)
Hiking for Pain or for Peace?
On one hand, one of the reasons I hike is to exhaust myself. It's the same craving that causes me to drop and crank out fifty pushups after an hour on the computer. My body is saying: "Use me! Exhaust me!"
There's a high that comes from walking 10–12 hours a day, something that doesn't exist in a quick morning jog. There's something about knowing that the only thing I need to do is walk, and sometimes, there's no other choice but to keep walking.
On the other hand, hiking isn't always about glorious pain. I also love shooting photos, examining trees, watching birds. The hardest part is finding the right balance.
This time, I decided to lean toward the "easy" hike and follow the ridge to Hayakawaone Hut. I would save Kita-dake, Ai-no-dake, and Senjō-dake for another time - maybe when Tomoe can join me.
Still, I bagged Houzan, one of Japan's 100 famous mountains, and tomorrow I'd reach Kaikoma-ga-dake at 2967 meters.
The Hut, the Beer, and the Sunset
To top it off, the hut was technically "closed" but left unlocked - and someone had stashed a couple cases of beer chilling in the cold mountain air. I left ¥400 for one and enjoyed a leisurely dinner while watching the sun set.
