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Day 8 Saturday 13 October 2018
1
The whole day was devoted for this memorable hike to Mt Yotei (Height:1898m).
It took us 8 hours in total.
I learned Mt Yotei was called Ezo Fuji which meant Mt Fuji in Hokkaido as Ezo was the old name for Hokkaido
with half the height.
I recalled Eddie aspired to go and see Mt Fuji when he was young.
His then small dream never came true as far as I know unfortunately.
So this Ezo Fuji phrase made me smile only for him.
Every hike in a new venue always never failed to make me feel excited and a little nervous beforehand.
I told Eddie that I would not do any early morning activity due to the long enough 8 hours.
On the contrary Eddie didn't stop his morning adventure nevertheless.
The weather was very good as we predicted.
We started our hike from Kuchan aftter stocking our lunch items from a nearby convenience store.
We loved Japanese convenience stores due to their reasonable prices, vaireties and even hot food items
cooked in stores.
Trackhead was only 5 minutes' drive from our hotel.
When we were approaching the starting point by car the mighty figure of Mt Yotei from the distance showed itself nonchalantly.
Young Sun was warm mingled with high percentage of humidity.
The huge map standing at the trailhead welcomed us and we found they divided and numbered 10 stages
at the mountain tracks depending on the altitudes.
It was constant climb up on a consistent and steep gradient.
Just like a typical high mountain hike until you got out of a tree line.
Sun was bright and trees were green.
We were sweating and feeling hot as you climbed up.
It was fun to look for the numbers of which stage as we climbed up.
2
I didn't realize until we reached stage 7 or 8 about what happened with Eddie.
He would have been in front of me for sure but him and Suze
were falling behind me for some reason.
He was struggling with a light injury at his ankle he acquired from the early morning advendure
before breakfast.
I was worried and annoyed at the news.
To be exact I might have been more disappointed with the possibility that we couldn't make it to the top.
I skeptically saw him using a makeshift walking stick from naturally fallen tree branches.
On top of that he had his usual unnecessarily heavy and huge backpack containing all sorts of craps.
Plus we had a fair bit of distance to cover till the mountain top along with the return trip down to the car park.
He made an apologetic face awkwardly but assured us he was going to be ok.
We settled there ,took a short break eating a little bit of snack and re-arranged our spiritis.
In conclusion I was very happy to say that we made it all safe and sound until the end.
Still it was not wise for him to do such a big pre-running before a long hike.
3
Once we got out of tree lines (after stage 10) the mountain revealed its hidden features.
Green colours were gone instantaneously along with leisurely mood.
Typical characteristic volcano remnants and traces replaced them.
Gray coloured rocks scattered all over the open ridges.
Also the temperature dropped quickly which made us forget about sweats from sun drenched
warm green forest hiking in no time.
As we walked up snow or ice flakes topped short shrubs appeared dramatically
on desolete mountain top areas.
Freezing cold winds were trying to sweep us away.
We contiuned to trudge on the huge crater ridge which was 700 metres in diameter and 200 metres in depth
just before the summit.
It was an incredible sight.
From the summit we couldn't see very far ,only treacherous winds were blowing hard.
It reminded me of the experience at the top of Asahidake.
These active volcano mountains tops areas seemed like forbbiden lands for humans.
If not limited time only allowed there.
We had to have lunch quickly and hurried back down to the starting point.
I saw some people venturing down to the crater.
It felt like a dream when you'e back at the car park after this dramatic hike done.
There was no trace of treacherous winds or snow flakes down there.
Only still warm late sun was lingering on the way to the west
and we were hugely warm again with strenous walking down.
The best part was that we were extremely lucky to soak ourselves in the fantastic hot spring
after this 8 hours' hike.
