Kinpu-san and Nishizawa Gorge

This is the first announcement for 2 day hike on the weekend of June 4/5 to Kinpu San and Nishizawa Gorge.

Day 1: We would more or less do the following trail with a relax time of 5/5.5 hours.

Oodarumi pass should be open to traffic on June 1st. So I am planning on Oodarumitoge --> Garden of dreams --> Kokushigatake --> oodarumitoge --> Asahidake --> Kinpu san.

http://mountrec.com/modules/mtrec/detail-1011.html

Plan is to stay overnight at KinpusanGoya http://www.kimpou.com

Day 2: hiking around Nishizawa Gorge (3-4 hours) and heading back to Tsukuba around 2 pm.

Hike details and more updates in the next announcement early next week.

This would be a car based hike. So car owners please do volunteer to join in.

What to bring:
Hiking gear + Sturdy shoes
Rain gear
Food (Lunch and breakfast for two days) + Water
Onsen kit

Cost Estimate:
Hut + dinner (5500 + 2000)
Car share
Food
Onsen
Club fee (500)

If you are interested to join in, please email me with the following details:

Name
Phone number
Car Owner/ Can drive if so how many can go in your car
Dinner at the hut (Yes or no)

Day 1: 4 hours

Oodarumi toge --> Yumei no teien --> Oodarumi toge --> Asahidake --> Kinpu San --> Kinpu San Goya

On saturday, we left Tsukuba at 7 am. Although expected travel time to Oodarumi toge from Tsukuba was something around 4 and half hours, Chuo Expressway traffic delayed our journey by more than an hour. From Katsunuma we took the Makioka forest road, narrow uphill road for around 20km to the car park at Oodarumi toge which is 2365m. We had a nice surprise as we drove along the forest road as we spotted a fox who was quite happy to pose for us. We arrived at Oodarumi toge at 1:00pm which indeed worked out in our favour to grab a spot at the car parking. (We indeed arrived to see a long stretch of narrow road leading to the car park with cars parked on the side of the road; 1:00pm was about time a couple of hikers were done with the hike and were packing up to leave). At 1:10pm started with the hike of the day , first with a small 10 minutes detour to Garden of dreams (Yumei no teien) for the lunch break with a 'view'. However, the view was hidden among the clouds as we walked towards the Garden of dreams which did clear up slowly as we finished up our lunches. After a short lunch break we headed back to Oodarumi toge. At 1:45pm we started the hike onto KinpuSan.

The weather was cloudy patches although not bright not too gloomy either. The hike is mostly walking along the woods with steep climbs here and there followed by gentle walking terrain. Although the map time is something around 2 hours, we took nearly 3 hours with a leisurely hike with lots of photo break. Fuji San appeared as we were getting closer to Kinpu San summit. The summit was rather crowded with hikers and we did had to wait for our turn. Nobue San found her perfect onigiri rock wrapped with nori. After the summit we made an attempt to climb the Gojoiwa rocks. Kinpu san is at 2599m height on the Yamanashi- Nagano border. The KinpuSan Goya which is located around 100m downhill of the Kinpu San summit which is actually in Nagano side. The mountain hut was crowded and fully packed to capacity. We enjoyed a early dinner with drinks with a extra helping of curry rice.

Day 2 : 6 hours

Kinpu San Goya --> Kinpu San --> Asahidake --> Oodarumi toge followed by loop trail at Nishizawa Valley.

The day started with light rain. We left the hut at 6:20 am in the light rain, backtracking the same hike route we did on Saturday. The rain was frustrating intially but did stop in a short span as soon as we were a couple of metres away from the summit. The rain also created the misty magical scenery in the woods which was nice to hike along. The weather did brighten up as the day progressed. Although the hike to Kinpu San was short, it seemed we were exhausted. I was mostly trailing behind as we headed down to Oodarumi toge. We reached Oodarumi toge at around 9:00 am. We decided to drive down to Nishizawa Valley trail head. On the way we had a brief snack stop at Kotokawa dam along the forest road. We were at Nishizawa trail head at around 11:00am, Although the initial idea was to just hike around for an hour or so, as we reached the car park the we decided to do the whole loop trail following all the waterfalls. It was 3 and half hours walking along the valley with concrete and natural waterfalls along the trail with cicada symphony providing a pure nature therapy. After the 7 tiered waterfalls, the trails climbs onto a 5km of level walking. We were back at around 2:45pm.

We decided to hit the onsen with the Fuji san view and open view of the Yamanashi city and the mountain ranges. http://www.hottarakashi-onsen.com/ . Although Fuji San played hide and seek, it indeed was a nice experience at the onsen. Thanks Nobue San for the onsen choice. We were back in Tsukuba at 9:00pm after an hour long delay at Chuo Expressway (typical for the weekend).

Thanks both of you (Kostya and Nobue San) for joining in and the nice weekend. Nobue San thanks again for driving.