The Red Castle Above Clouds – Part 2

Previous story is here. “The Red Castle Above Clouds – Part 1”

We were in the cloud so we couldn’t see anything. I wanted to see the beautiful scenery of the mountain. I knew it was there because I saw pictures about this mountain before going to hike. There were two unique peaks. Mount Amida and Mount Aka. And there was narrow trail such as knife edges between these two peaks. It was really wonderful. I could see the 360 degrees panorama of this ridge in pictures. Even Mount Fuji could see.

I wanted to see the top of the mountain.

Suddenly, the strong wind blew off the clouds.  Then the rock pillar appeared. It was breathtakingly beautiful. We couldn’t move from there. Then I started to take pictures and videos.

 

I looked back. The clouds flowed to cross the gap from right to left. It looked like a river. And mount Naka was disappeared into the clouds.

 

Finally, the top of the mount Aka appeared!  I thought it was the castle! The red castle was there.

 

We kept walking to the summit. There was the amazing rock world. A lot of rock pillars stood around us. The gully was so dangerous. Can you see the people who climb the rock surface on the left of this picture?

 

We followed the other climber. This rock was so sharp and hard. OK, the climbing was not difficult, I guessed. However, some people wore the helmet. This was the final part of this mountain and most dangerous area.

 

We climbed bit by bit. Fortunately, the wind was getting weak. So we could  concentrate to climb. I found the guide post on the top of the ridge You can see it on the right side of this picture. We traversed this rock wall to that guide post.

 

I looked back again. No longer we could see the trail that we walked few minutes ago.

 

We could reach the guide post and there was the junction. The summit was almost there.

 

At this junction, I looked down between two rock pillars and could see the vast extent of the forest. We already stood above the clouds. Amazing.

 

There were some arrow sign on the rock. It led us to the top of the mountain. We carefully climbed this rock.

 

Finally! I saw the post on the top of the mount Aka!

 

10:20 AM. We arrived at the red castle. Mount Aka, The elevation was 2,899 m.

 

Mr Abe was so cool!

My hair was chaos!

We stood beside the guide post and took a photo for the record. We literally stand on the top of the mount Aka.

 

There was a tiny shrine near the post. These shrines were built on the many of the mountains. I always thought how these shrines have resisted rain, wind and snow.

 

We moved to north from the summit little bit. There was the lodge called “Akadake Chojosou (赤岳頂上荘)”. It meant “The lodge on the top of the mount Aka.”

In front of this lodge, there was the open space. We took a rest and ate a lunch there.

 

This photo looked the summit from the space in front of the lodge.

Then, Mount Aka gave us clear blue sky! What an amazing view!

 

During the climbing, I wanted to stop walking again and again because of the tiredness. The inside voice said “You are so tired, you have to stop and go back home”. However, this amazing view. Only people who win laziness of own-self is given this beautiful scenery!

 

We could see the ground throw the window of the clouds. It was literally heaven.

 

11:30 AM. After an hour of the rest. We started to move to next lodge we would stay tonight.

 

Climbing down the top of the mount Aka was so dangerous. The trail was really steep and rough surface.

 

11:50 AM. We arrived the lodge “Akadake Temboso (赤岳天望荘)”. This lodge was located on the ridge. However, this lodge has a bath! Amazing!

 

Inside the lodge, there were many climbers. Some people were resting, some people were preparing to next journey.

We took a rest almost an hour.

 

We have enough time, so we decided to take a walk to north. We wanted to go another mountain. However, the trail was completely in the clouds. So we gave up and returned to the lodge.

We spent relaxing time in the lodge. Sometimes reading the books, sometimes chatting with each other. And took a nap. We were so tired.

 

16:30 PM. After the nap, we took dinner.

 

The dishes were really gorgeous. Tonight’s dinner was Roast chicken and  Quiche. Abe has a friend who is the chef and has the cafe in the city. He gave us these delicious dishes before start this hiking. Thank you very much!

 

After the dinner, we took a bath. Then went to bed. I wanted to take a photo of the night sky. However, the clouds still covered the lodge and the strong wind began to blow.

 

Day 2

We woke up 4:00 AM and ate a breakfast. The wind outside of the lodge still stronger. It looked like the typhoon. Today was the final day so we had to go down this mountain.

5:30 AM. We wore the rain jacket and started to walk into this violent wind.

 

We walked the ridge and climbed down the cliff. There were really strong wind and dangerous rough trail, so I couldn’t take a picture. Then we reached the tree line. We knew the wind would be weak inside the forest.

 

In the forest, there was the misty world. Everything was wet because of the clouds and fog. No sound, no people and no animals.

 

We took off the rain jacket because we were getting warm.

 

There were many ladders on the steep cliff. It was wet and really slippy!

 

The ladder and the stair made of the stone appeared again and again. And steep trail was still continued.

 

Yatsugatake had beautiful forest that had various trees.

 

Looked our feet, the moss was covering the whole ground. Yatsugatake is the one of the famous place about moss. During summer, there are various kinds of moss grow in the forest of Yatsugatake.

 

Not only moss, but also many of mushroom there. This forest had really rich of ecosystems.

 

6:40 AM. We arrived “Gyoja Goya (行者小屋)” again. It meant the dangerous and steep slope ended. We kept walking.

 

There was same dry river we saw the previous day. Same foggy and stony river bed.

 

However, the forest was different. We walked completely in the dark. On this day, we saw the mysterious foggy forest. It was really beautiful.

 

Yatsugatake had much of the water. A lot of waterfalls were there. We walked among these tiny streams and waterfalls. It was just beautiful.

 

Look at this rocks and moss! It looked something a altar! In the ancient time, the one of the volcano erupted and the lava made these sceneries.

 

Did you remember this fallen tree? We passed through under it yesterday. The inside of the tree was really fresh. So we recognized that this tree had broken by the typhoon.

 

We walked among the trees. And we knew the goal was almost there.

 

8:35 AM. We arrived at the lodge “Minoto Sanso (美濃戸山荘)”. There was the trail head and the end of forest road. You can go this lodge by a car. We could go down the mountain safely.

 

Abe bought two bins of Coca Cola to celebrate this success of the hiking.

 

It was a great moment for us. We achieved this hiking. Coca was really delicious.

 

We walked to the park. Then we drove the car to the city.

 

The experience of this hiking was really amazing. People who go to hike always had been fascinated with this mountain. Because not only the elevation, but also rich of ecosystem that this mountain had. Yatsugatake was a really beautiful place.

I was very glad to go to mount Aka. My experience of hiking and the gear worked very well. And I could take videos about this mountain. I linked my hiking movie below this blog page. Enjoy and feel the air of this mountain!

For me, this hiking was a difficult challenge. The elevation of 2,899 m became the highest place I stood.

I decided to try more difficult and hiking to see more beautiful scenery of nature.

Thank you for reading this long story! See you next time!

Tamaki