TNT Day 13 - a slow day

Well I'm writing this back at the capsule hotel from 2 days ago - not exactly where I thought or planned to be tonight (I was aiming for rokujizo park). But between yesterday's trail, last night's calf cramps (it was not a question of if but when they would happen) and today's heat, when I reached ide station at 2pm I decided to head back to fujinomiya for 2 nights and a proper rest day in aircon with my feet up.

They also have a scale, so I weighed myself and my pack for the first time in 4 weeks. I've lost 3 kg and am now coming in at 57kg, add my pack (with water and food) and my shoes and I'm looking at 72kg.

--

18 Sept 

Hot, humid, clear. 35° at 2pm at ide station.

Map 7: (tent) Sano pass -> shishin-san -> yagisawa pass -> ide station -> Lawson // bus and train back to fujinomiya (capsule hotel)

Today was slow; slow to wake up, slow to pack, slow to walk, slow to think.

Last night's sleep was good, so good that I slept in to 7:30. One of these days I will stick to my plan of waking up and setting off before 6:30...

The sun was shining bright and casting the fog away nice and early this morning and I was already sweating as I packed my bag in the shade at 8am. It was going to be a hot one.

The push up to shishin-san peak was rough, my calves were tight, the humidity and heat high and my bag heavy. It was only 1.2 km and 250m elevation gain but it felt much worse. The 3 false peaks also didn't help as I got my hopes up each time only to have to go down and then back up more stairs.

When I finally made it to the peak it was nice (even nicer to sit down and start pulling ticks and leeches off), it is a large cleared area with many benches and some tables. Clouds had already obscured Mt Fuji from view - I'm really not having much luck with this. Four peaks I have visited, shishin-san, chojagatake, ashida-yama, and ohira-yama are part of the 36 views of Mt Fuji series, but they haven't delivered for me.

The descent down to ide station, passing through yasagawa pass was a 7.5km trail with ~950m of elevation loss - I'm very glad I was going down not up this trail today. This trail was well maintained and as the majority of it is through plantations the trail is prominent, not overgrown and you are able to catch some views between the trees. There were also nicely spaced rest benches which I haven't really seen yet on the Tokai Nature trail.

As the elevation lessened, the heat climbed, and by the time I got down to ide station it was 35°. I made the silly decision to walk the 2km to the Lawson across the river, this was maybe even worse than yesterday's terrible 6km of trail, as the sun was unrelenting and only magnified by the lack of shade and radiant heat from the road. By the time I got to the Lawson I was hot, bothered and feeling sorry for myself, not to mention a little bit bloody due to the leeches that I'd pulled off on the way down from shishin-san.

As I sat in the Lawson's in my sweaty stinky clothes with my bloody socks, heavy bag and sore calves I made the decision to head back to fujinomiya and have a rest day. 

I am conscious that I am nowhere near my 15km a day goal, but alas I am a slow walker and the current conditions are not making me any faster. As I've said before I'm not going to be super bummed if I don't get the whole trail done in one shot - I'd rather be slow and enjoy it than finish it and not had the time to take the trail and surrounding areas in.

11.1km  (stepping off trail at 2pm)

Attached leeches: 3