Tuesday, November 28, 2006

S.O.K.O. versus the Volcano


We woke up to the perfect day day for hiking- it was clear and crisp. We couldn't wait to get started. There is a cafe attached to the hostel- we weren't sure if we should wear our slippers or shoes in there. We put on our regular shoes and headed in. The gentleman in there said it was no problem. You could only order the "Breakfast Set". A lot of things come in sets, for instance at McDonalds, a burger, drink and fries is a considered a set. Our breakfast set this morning included toast, orange juice and tea (photo). It was really good. And got us off to a good start.

We found out that the buses were no longer in service to Mt. Fuji's 5th Station- the common starting point. The alternative was to take a taxi for almost an hour! Well, we only had one shot to do Mt. Fuji and we weren't going to let the off-season hold us back. So we got a taxi all the way up to the 5th Station. It was so cold, that I had to buy a sweatshirt, so I wasn't freezing on the hike. We also bought a hiking stick. In the on-season, they will brand the station number into the stick when you reach that particular station. Our stick does have them stamped on, which worked for us. There were afew other people there. One older guy that works there said that you can hike to the 6th station, but it will be very cold. And that we would need special shoes to hike to the 7th station. We decided to see for ourselves.

It was a nice hour hike to the 6th station. When we got there we took a look around and decided we would attempt the 7th station. Shawn said there wasn't anything holding us back except ourselves. You could feel the air getting thinner as we got higher. We had to take more frequent breaks. The wind was picking up too. We were above the clouds and I got nervous that a storm might be moving in. But we were lucky and the weather held out. At one point we looked up and realized the 7th station was the same distance away as the 6th station below us. My chest and ears were starting to hurt and the trail was getting more dangerous. There was already snow on the ground, but just up ahead it was steep, snowy and rocky, so we decided this was as far as we were going. 6.5 stations! It felt great! And there was no one up there, we hadn't seen anyone since the 6th station.

The hike back down was even more dangerous than the hike up. We both have knee injuries, so the downward momentum was putting a strain on them. We took a descending trail that was so hard to get down. The rocks and pebbles around us would fall just from the incline. We slid, fell, and manuvered our way down this slope. It got worse before it got better. I was surprised that this was even an option. The potential for injury was high. When we finally reached a road, we noticed that it wasn't the actual descending trail. Are you kidding me?!? How did that happen? But we made it.

The rest of the hike back lasted for hours. I took a photo of our pending hike and the photo doesn't lie. From the point where I was standing, we had to hike to the town in the distance. The National Forest lay ahead of us. There were plenty of shrines and man-made steps along the way. But once we got to flat ground, we thought we were in the clear. We were wrong. We hiked along a highway and then back onto a trail. Road signs and park signs were in Japanese, so the only method of navigation was with Shawn's compass. Finally, we came across a man walking his dogs. I asked him for directions and he offered to drive us in his car. He told us to follow him back to his house. He was walking sooo fast that I thought he was trying to lose us at some point. After hours of hiking, my knee was killing me, I couldn't keep up. It was the man, 15 ft, Shawn, 15 ft, then me. He led us through twists and turns of an almost dark town. I could have sworn it was straight out of a scary movie. But I had my hiking stick just in case anything happened. :) Finally, we got to his house. Whew! It took about 15 mins BY CAR to get back to Kawaguchi-ko station. Thank God we didn't have to walk anymore!

Our experience of hiking Mt. Fuji is an accomplished, yet exhausting one. We are hurting today!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Absolutely awesome. Looks like a beautiful day. Congrats on the accomplishment! Love ya, Ellie