Tomorrow we walk

  5 Sept 

 Hachioji, Takao

 I spent today running around trying to find some bear spray and after 5 hours and one BIC outdoors, one Ishii sports, one wild-1 and two Montbell stores I was at a loss. However, when I rocked up to my accommodation for the night, Takao Base Camp, one of the workers kindly rang up the nearest outdoor store, Stride Lab Takao, who amazingly had a small cannister in stock (for half the price I was going to pay at Montbell) and were only one station away. While I was here I also had dinner and ducked into a grocery store and gathered some provisions. 

 The lovely hostel worker also informed me that the manager knows a lot about the trail, speaks english and will be here tomorrow at 8am, so I will push back my start tomorrow to meet, and hopefully get some good information from her. (She is featured in the Run + Trail magazines' Special Edition TRAILHEAD Lightweight Mountaineering Frontline Long Trail Vol.4 released 17/8/24. This issue is all about the Tokai Nature trail for its 50th anniversary, it also features detailed information and interviews with the Trailblazing institute team who hiked the trail in 2023 - unfortunately it is all in Japanese).

 I am the only person staying at the hostel tonight, which is a shame as I was looking forward to ogling other people's gear and maybe having a chat. But it did mean I could really spread out as I repacked my bag (and realise that I probably have too much food).

 I crunched some numbers today, and worked out that I have 74 days until my flight home and if I average 15km a day it will take me ~66 days to get to Osaka (assuming the course I choose is roughly 1000km and I take no zeros). While I would like to finish the trail in one go, I don't want to have to skip over interesting places, events and attractions or put my body through the ringer (is now the right time to admit that my physical prep for this trip was nearly non existant...), so if I don't get it done, I don't get it done and I will have an excuse to come back and finish it.

 I am hoping to cover at least 12km tomorrow, this will get me past the convenience store at Sagamiko and to a good tent spot on Mt Arashi. An additional 7km will get me to a camp spot at Mt Sekiro. Because my start will be delayed tomorrow I may take the cable car half way up Mt Takao, skipping the first 1.8km/1.1hrs upwards slog of the trail.

 Back when I landed in Osaka (2 weeks ago) I was worried about the heat if I started the trail then and from there, but I guess it doesn't really matter as it's forecast to be a lovely 24 to 33°c in Takao over the next 3 days. Obviously the sweat and heat were meant to be.

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