namewed.gif (19421 bytes) Iwakisan Mountain

 
 
07 October 2005 - Hike Iwakisan

One of the ER doctors on base, Dr Z., was heading out to hike Iwakisan mountain on Friday, and just happened to see me driving down his street looking at houses.  He recognized me, and asked me if I would like to join him on his hike.  I said why not.  Iwaki Mountain is the highest peak in Aomori Prefecture.  It is 1625M (around 1 mile, or 5200feet) high.  I didn't know anything about the hike, and Dr Z is an AVID hiker, so I was a little worried it was going to be pretty difficult.  But what the heck.

We headed out on Friday morning around 5am.  It took about 2 hours to drive to the mountain.  The drive there took us through the Hokkado mountains, passing through various tunnels and along narrow valley floors.  But, as we neared the Iwaki,  the mountains gave way to a large open valley area.  Iwaki rose up from the surrounding valley floor as a single volcanic cone standing alone - very similar to both Kilimanjaro and Fuji, earning its name the Fuji of Northern Japan.
 
The trailhead for the hike turns out to be a Shinto Shrine.  Apparently, this mountain is on the list of the Sacred Spots in Japan.  There is this large shrine at the base of the mountain, as well as a shrine on the top.  Every year, the farmers in the local area hike from the shrine at the bottom to the shrine at the top to have a good harvest. 
 
So, we headed out up the mountain.  The trail starts right behind the shrine temple.  It heads out among the pines as a single track dirt trail, and makes its way into the mountain underbrush.  You can see up the mountain in a few spots, but not down.  A little way past the shrine, there is an official trailhead, complete with twin Buddhas.  Beyond the trail head, the trail narrows, and becomes a small dirt track that heads up the mountain.  It follows a streambed, crossing back and forth on small wooden bridges.  It is a pretty fun trail to hike.

 
On the lower section of the trail, we only saw one person, a lone Japanese hiker.  We saw him a few times on the trail.  Funny thing about the Japanese.  They love gear of any sort.  So, their backpacks are usually pretty nice.  And, they also like to attach small bells to their packs.  I am not quite sure why, but it is a bit annoying when they jingle jingle jingle up the trail.  So, we let the Japanese hiker get a little way away from us to avoid hearing the bell.  We did run into him a few times at a couple rest stops on the trail.  At one, Scott gave him some turkey jerky.  At the nest, he gave us each a small pound cake. 
About 2 hours into the hike, there is a small hut with a few bunks, in case you want to stay on the mountain.  Also, at this point, there are a few breaks in the vegetation to see down into the valley.

 
Further up the trail, you could really start to see the newly changing leaves on the mountain. 
Also, the trail turned up a streambed ravine.  The stream still had a bit of water coming down, and the trail steepened up the ravine.  Made from some great views back down the ravine.

 
Topping out of the stream ravine, we could finally see the top of the mountain.  We also met up with a few other Japanese couples making their way up Iwaki.  Reaching a saddle near the top, we came across a small pond and a couple different trails. 

 
After figuring out which way to go, we headed up the slope, only to find a lot more climbers.  Looking down the other side we saw why.  On the side opposite our trail is a road that goes most of the way up the mountain.  From the parking lot, you can either walk up to the saddle, or take a chairlift.  Then, from the chairlift, there is another 100M straight up to the peak.  That is where we were.  On the saddle, there is a small hut with a cool hanging bell (which I gave a rang on the way down).  The final way up was pretty steep and rocky.  Interesting end of the climb.  Funniest part is there are all these OLD Japanese people making their way up.  Another funny thing:  there are signs telling you to keep to the right on the trail on the way up.  That seems fine, only why if they drive on the left do they walk on the right?  As we made our way up, we had nice (if cloudy) views of the Sea of Japan.  One older Japanese man stopped and talked to us for a while.  He wanted to practice his English. 

 
Finally the top.  It took about 4 hours of a comfortable pace.  The top was fairly large.  It had a peak marker, hut, bathroom, and shrine and torii gate.  There were quite a few people on the top.  It was a bit overcast at the time, which is too bad, because there would have been great views.  We took photos for a few people, hung out for a while, ate some M&Ms.  Talked to a couple visiting from Tokyo.  Then headed down. 

 
At the saddle, we ran into a group of kids with matching outfits.  I would guess they were students.  They sometimes wear matching outfits.  I wouldn't really call them uniforms because it is usually like track suits.  I guess they are uniforms, but they are like sport unis instead of school uniforms. 

 
We took a different trail down the opposite side of the mountain.  The trail down was heavily overgrown with brush, reminding me of jungle more than mountain.  But, it was fun going down.  At the bottom, there is, of course, another Shinto Shrine.

 
All was going great until we got to the road.  Since we took the other trail down, we didn't know how far we were from the Shrine trailhead, and hence, our car.  But, it was a nice day, and we were feeling good, so we started walking down the road through the town.  In the town, we did stop to get some weird food on a stick.  I have no idea what it was, but it tasted like bbq marshmallow with soy sauce.  It was pretty good, but kinda hard to eat.

Walking through the town was fun.  They had a few shops we stopped to check out.  They also have a public foot bath hot springs you can rest your feet in.  Since we had a ways to walk still, we didn't talk part, although I wanted to.  But, off we went, walking, walking, walking...
 
As it turns out, it was about 6 miles back to the car.  It was a LONG, painful 6 miles.  The worst part was we had no idea how much longer we had.  We did keep seeing the Japanese cartoon signs along the way (which they have all over) but these cartoon signs don't have any sort of scale included, and they only have random things listed anyways.  The only redeeming part of the walk out was the AWESOME nectarines we bought from a roadside vendor along the way.  All in all, it was a great trip.