9:00 am — TSH, day 8

Today I woke up around 7am and at 8am I was already packed and ready to go. At 8.20 I was finally able to pay for a stay and move out. Thus the start was quite late, unfortunately as it turned out later.

Lake with Mt. Fuji and trees reflected in calm water
Boardwalk along lakeshore with Mt. Fuji hidden behind clouds

3:30 pm — Mt.Chojagatake

The climbing itself was not really hard, however it was more than 600m altitude gain so it took several hours to get up there. Adding almost an hour for a detour to mt.Tenshigatake I accidentally took, getting down from the mountain started pretty late. Actually, a bit after noon. The way down turned out to be in awful state. It was still nicely marked yet the path itself was completely destroyed at some points. I’d say this part of a trail should only be walked in good weather conditions in the morning. Because it takes a lot more time, stamina and nerve than one may expect from a map. And there are almost no places to rest ‘cause at most parts the path is too narrow to even sit on it and the slope is very steep.

Steep narrow forest trail on mountainside
Pink ribbon trail markers on a washed-out forest slope where the path has eroded away

8:00 pm — Wrapping a day

At the end of the day I’ve found myself at the view point near mt.Shishin. Because of the late start and unexpectedly difficult part of a trail I might not be able to get to the planned camping. Even worse, I might not be able to get down of mt.Shishin. Getting to the summit should be not a big deal from my current position. The hard part is getting down. According to the map it is 900m altitude change with unknown quality of the path. And I have less than 2 hours till darkness. And my knee still hurts. And there is a board at the exit from the viewpoint that reminds to be aware of bears and be sure to get down from the mountain before sunset. I’d rather not even try to do it today (yeah, I know, pretty much not like me) and just set a camp on the viewpoint. I’m a bit worried to just set a tent under the “beware of bears” sign so I’ll follow Tom’s example and set a tent inside a toilet (it is clean enough inside to do so, and the tent protects from insects), it is better than to worry about possible bears all the night. It even looks like the one Tom used. And as a confirmation to my thoughts a rockslide started to rumble somewhere on the mountain…

I’m going to sleep early and setting an alarm extra early to get going soon after the sunrise.

Panoramic view of forested mountain valleys
Log cabin style toilet building at viewpoint
Mountain viewpoint with shelter and info board