TNT Day 18 - I spy another hiker

27 Sept

Map 10: (tent) Ginkgo tree -> kiyozasa pass -> mt takane -> Ippukudokoro Takane view point w/ picnic shelter (tent)

Overcast, mid 20s, rain threatening

I started today early (up by 5:45 and leaving camp by 7), as I was conscious of the houses very close to my camp spot. 

First order of the day was to find some water, after dinner last night I was down to 200ml so needed to find some stat, I backtracked down the road but the first 2 taps I came across didn't work but finally the third yielded some precious h2o. 

Second order of the day was to establish whether or not the road to kiyozasa pass was closed or not, so I made my way back up the road with crossed finger and bated breath, but alas a barrier was in place. Most other road closures ive come across have just been little moveable wooden signs, this one however was bolted down metal posts with multiple do not enter signs in english and Japanese. 

Which brings me to order three of the day, figure out a detour route. The detour the trail blazing team took in 2023 would have me backtracking 6 km and then road walking 15km -not super enticing, there did however appear to be a closer and shorter potential detour route starting just a little ways back from the ginkgo tree. 

As I made my way back down the road, I was greeted with the most surprising sight, a lone pack wielding caucasian! I had pretty much written off meeting or walking with other hikers on this trail but we soon established that we were both walking the Tokai Nature Trail and both heading to Osaka. I explained to Liam the road situation and the potentially not viable detour route I was going to try and he decided to come along for the ride.

Our first stab at trying to even start the trail failed, but we soon skirted around the back off a house and up through a tea field to find what resembled a trial, this trail was well defined in some places and a choose your own adventure in others. Eventually the trail joined an old logging track which did have quite a few washouts that we had to do some scrambling to navigate.

During our adventure we saw a lot of wildlife including deer, serow, crabs, lizards (lizard catching was done by a professional and none were harmed in the process), snakes, giant worms and giant worms with attached tapeworms.

The old logging track we were on eventually became a forest road which then eventually took us right to kiyozasa pass. While not exactly quick at 3.5hrs it did get us where we needed to go, however, it's probably not a viable route if you don't have good navigation resources and a buddy to do it with.

From the pass it was another long 8.5km road descent to get to Kurata, where the Shizuoka bypass trail leaves/joins the main trail.

As we walked through Kurata we saw yet more wildlife, this time a lone tanuki who ventured onto the road only to quickly scramble for cover as a crow flew over. 

From Kurata we headed up, passing takane hukusan shrine (which was very impressive looking, but all locked up, the surrounding ceder trees and view from the toilet were amazing though) before reaching the peak of Mt takane.

A small 2km jaunt from Mt takane brought us to a lookout point and picnic hut, which had been one of my potential camp spots for the night. With a bit of light still left, we called it a day and settled down for the night, me in my tent and Liam cowboy camping it on one of the benches. We were lucky enough to even get a distant view of Mt Fuji from this spot, i wasn't expecting the sight and it felt a little surreal to think I'd walked from the other side of it and a little sad that this may be the last view I get of it.

19km