TNT Day 4 - follow the pink tape trail

 9 Sept 

Map 2 + 3: (campground) Kannogawa Camping Ground/Ebira falls ->Kannogawa hut -> Inugoeji pass -> nishitanzawa VC -> Nishitanzawa Otaki Camping Ground (campground)

Do I even need to say it - clear skies, scorching sun. But what's that on the horizon, an evening shower!

Had a pretty good sleep at the campground last night, even snoozed my alarm till 7. It was very pleasant between 7 and 8 o'clock and then the heat and humidity started up. It must have cooled off a bit last night as my tent fly was beading with moisture (inside and out).

Left the campground at 8:10 and made my way up to Kannogawa Hut. The way up was on a road, which does have a gravel operation on it so there are some trucks, but it is wide enough and they are slow enough for it to be safe.

I also passed more trout fishing ponds and Orihana shrine, which I could have camped at if needed.

I reached Kannogawa Hut at 9:20 and had some breakfast, the toilets here are boarded up but there are benches and shaded areas. The grass does appear to be trimmed so obviously it is still maintained and it is a damn good camp spot.

About 50m up the trail stands the old campground infrastructure which was quite strange to walk through.

This trail has obviously seen a bit of landslide action, and there were 3 interactions of signs, pink flagging tape, and red paint markers to lead you.

I finally took my binoculars out for the first time this trip and saw 4 Eurasian nuthatches bathing themselves in a river pool.

Made it to the top around 12 and had lunch, a Japanese couple came down from Mt Hinokihoramaru just afterwards, they were the only hikers I saw all day. After lunch I took a detour 200m up to Osugimaru for some views and a geocache, then started my way down to Yasawara bridge at 1:40.

The trail down is a lot less well marked and I relied heavily on tiny bits of pink tape instead of signs. The top 500m of it was over loose stones and pebbles - I was having to watch every step so that I didn't slip over.  The last part of the trail was through a river bed, with multiple stream crossings - parts of the old bridges could be seen strewn around, so I had to rock hop across and hope I didn't take a dunk.

I eventually made it to Yasawara bridge, which is pretty magnificent.

Then it was down to Nishitanzawa Visitor Center, and as it was a Monday in Japan, it was shut...

I now have some more routing decisions to make, as the section of trail I was going to take to Yamanaka is maybe (very likely) closed; I can either hike up to Azegamaru which based on my slow speed going up might take me all day or catch a number of buses to get to the trail in Yamanaka and miss a big chunk. I think I have enough food for 2 days so that might be cutting it close if I head up to Azegamaru, but maybe all my snacks will tide me over.

I'm at another campsite tonight located near the ikkenya shelter/azegamaru trail head. It was a steal at only 1320 yen, less than half the price of other places I've stayed. The difference being this place charges different amounts for cars, bikes and evidently hikers. There is one other group of 3 people here tonight. I had initially set up outside but when it started raining at 7 moved myself undercover only for the campground host to come back from home to kindly let me into one of the onsite huts for the night.

~13.1 km today - the nice shady trails definitely made it more pleasant.

Leeches today: 1

Total leeches: 2