Mikagura-dake

This was a trip fraught with mishaps. Here are the reports by Tadashi and by Ginny. (No pictures --- read the accout for the reason.)

The hut was full, and we had to clear a small patch in the bamboo shrub and sleep there huddled together. It was a bit of a problem when the beautiful moonlit night suddenly turned cold and started to rain at 1:45 and continued till about 9. It was the wildest TWMC hike in terms of accomodation...

The only cover we had were a plastic sheet that the Chinese girl had brought and another that we remembered seeing abandoned by the trail which Terry went to retrieve in the rain at 2am. We tied them to the bamboo stems as a makeshift roof over our heads, but they did not cover our legs. Then one of the sheets gave way to the weight of the accumulated water, pouring it over the head of fast-sleeping Olivia and into my Goretex boots.

And that was not the only disaster. The road to the trail was very rough with large potholes everywhere. At one point, my car hit the ground so hard that the plastic undercover of the engine broke in half and dangled there, scratching the ground as I drove. I had to drive on till it came off. A lamp also went out at the shock in the dashboard, so I could not see the speedometer as I drove home.

Also, as Terry was descending a steep near-vertical drop hanging from a chain, his digital camera slipped out and tumbled down the cliff. Terry, very intrepidly, went searching but found only the battery. I think the camera broke into pieces when it smashed on some rock.

The onsens in the area also seemed all rudimentary and shabby, the entire room being only about 2-3 tatami mats large, and unmanned. Some of them securely locked up, too. The one we finally found in the council amenity house was about to close, but stayed open only for us. It cost only 200 yen, but had no hot water running. We had to wash with the water in the tub.....

...and one from Ginny:

Mikagura-dake sure was wild, and fun! I was one of the lucky three of us who managed to sneak into the hut and stayed dry....