TNT Day 12 - ticks and leeches and rock-falls-masquerading-as-trail, oh my!

17 Sept

Map 7: (capsule hotel) Fujinomiya // bus to lake tanuki -> chojagatake -> kamisano -> Sano pass (tent)

Mid 20s, overcast, low cloud

After a great sleep at the capsule hotel, I caught the 7:40 bus back to lake tanuki, where the fishermen were already at it.

Next stop was the chojagatake trailhead where I sat down to have breakfast, another hiker was just finishing this coffee and set off when I got there. The trail up chojagatake is well maintained and easy to follow. The hiker who was having coffee also wasn't just a hiker but a trail maintenance man, I passed him about a quarter of the way up as he was shoveling dirt around to make the track better. I also passed another hiker on his way down from the peak, who was in full wet weather gear - not sure if he was expecting rain or just really liked to sweat.

As I climbed the air began to get foggy as low cloud moved in, this unfortunately made the amazing Mt Fuji views less spectacular.

Heading down chojagatake to the village of Kamisano, meant moving back into yamanashi prefecture. I had read warnings about this track but foolishly thought that maybe they had fixed it as it wasn't marked as closed on any official websites. The first little bit had some very steep loose rock switchbacks but they were well marked. I then came across 5 workers(?), they were carrying big packs, tools, rope and hard hats - maybe things are looking up if other people are using the track. This hope was brief as very quickly I was back to walking through spider webs, so they must have come up a different route.

The next 2/3km of track down were interesting to say the least. A majority of the track is fine if not a little narrow to walk on but between these sections are landslides, broken bridges, rock falls, rope crossings and erosion. And hundreds of leeches to top it all off.

If you aren't dead set on walking the whole trail or the conditions for Mt Fuji aren't extremely favourable I would skip chojagatake completely and, depending on your direction, either pick up the trail in Kamisano (there is an infrequent bus), at lake tanuki or at ide station.

I was very happy to make it onto a road at the end of the 6km descent. I was also pleased to come across 981 hutte, which serves cold drinks, icy poles and coffee. They also gave me some boiled peanuts,  which were delicious.

The trail leaving Kamisano takes you through some tea fields and then it's into forestry plots all the way up to Sano pass. 

Not sure if it was something about the weather today, slightly cooler and very humid, but there were quite a few giant earthworms wriggling about on the trail. I'm just glad that the leeches don't get this big!

Sano pass has a toilet block, rest area, limited tank water and a car park.

When I arrived there was a car parked at the toilet block - I thought to myself 'oh another hiker, it's nice to know I'm not so alone out here'. Except 15mins later a taxi arrived and a business women got out and hopped in the car and then followed the taxi back down the mountain road towards ide, leaving me most confused.

As I was sitting there contemplating this I noticed some tiny ticks on my socks, investigating further revealed hundreds of ticks in the tongue of my boots, I'd obviously walked through a nest at some stage but luckily caught them before they made it onto my skin.

Between the leeches and the ticks and shit trail I am pretty done for the day so will be setting up camp (or should I say my porcelain palace) at Sano pass for the night.

14km

Leeches: too many!

Attached leeches: 3