satisfiedI was able to leave at 7AM because the Sukayu Onsen ryokan staff offered to pack me a bento instead of having to wait for the breakfast buffet! The night before I'd already been thinking about leaving early, so I asked the reception if they could change my second night's plan from "dinner and breakfast included" to just dinner because I probably wouldn't have time for breakfast, and they said they couldn't (or rather, the price wouldn't change because breakfast is included for everyone) BUT they could provide "breakfast" in the form of a bento box instead, so you could take it with you if you were going hiking early. I'd already read about them offering such a service for people who were planning to hike Hakkodayama, but since the trails were closed I'd just assumed they weren't offering it anymore, so it was nice that they told me that they could! So for actual breakfast I just had some of the convenience store bread that I left over from the previous day, and I brought my bento with me on the hike =D
On the way down from the Hakkoda mountain area, I caught a glimpse of Mt Iwaki sticking out above the clouds on the other side of Hirosaki city! It was so brief I couldn't take a pic, but I was hopeful that if I got to the mountain early enough, I'd be able to climb and see the views above the clouds, even if the weather forecast turned out to be right...
But when I approached the mountain, it started getting just as suddenly foggy as it'd been on the first day in the swamp ^^; However once I was at Dake Onsen, at the foot at the mountain, I could still see the top, so not all hope was lost...
It actually got really sunny the moment I started preparing for my hike. In hindsight it turned out that I brought way too much clothing - the Tenkura mountain weather site had told me that tempertures around the summit of 1600 meters would be around 13 degrees, so I'd brought a fleece jacket AND a hard outer shell jacket, just in case it really turned out to be cloudy, windy, rainy and cold at the top... And I did wear the fleece jacket in the mornings and evenings at Sukayu onsen so at least I didn't bring it for nothing. But there wasn't any need to bring it to the top of Iwaki because I sweated more than I have all year, seriously ^^;;;;; Temperatures during the day must've gone close to 30 degrees, and I was sweating even while descending the mountain... It kind of felt like a repeat of Tanigawadake in that I almost ran out of water and got "saved" by the fact that there's a ropeway terminal with batrooms, running water, and vending machines near the top. (The rocky terrain felt similar to Tanigawadake near the top too, except with a significantly lower risk of plumetting to your death...) I had been counting on those being there though, as well as the option of taking the chairlift and bus to get down if I got too tired to descend by myself... If not for those facilities I surely would've brought more supplies myself >w<
The trailhead was marked by this little torii.
The trail was interesting in that it started out as a regular walk in a pretty forest, but because of the way the mountain is shaped, similar to Mt Fuji, the trail gradually gets steeper and steeper...
And the clouds stayed away even when I got higher!
The terrain gradually got more rocky...
And pretty flowers started appearing
No idea what these are but they're cute =O
Nice view! It's so green!
After a while I started seeing the chairlift... But I was doing pretty good - the guide I'd picked up at Aomori station said that this trail was supposed to take 4 hours to go up, but I'd only been walking 1 hour and thirty minutes when I reached the chair lift station and parking lot, and from there it only took me another hour to the top without having to ride the chairlift
The people who take the chairlift do have to climb THE steepest and rockiest part of the trail O_O I was glad I got to enjoy the nice walk in the forest as well before getting here, it's more satisfying that way
Around here I ran into two young English-speaking guys who I'd also kept running into at Oirase gorge! They seemed to be on a nature photography trip at Oirase, driving through the gorge by car, stopping in certain spots to take photos for a while, then driving on, etc... Meanwhile I was just walking at a steady pace without taking a ton of pictures, so I kept catching up with them and their car, and in the end we made our way through the gorge in about the same amount of time even though I walked the whole thing and they drove, lol. We made small talk a few times, too. Climbing Mt. Iwaki I was mosty looking at my feet, so I wasn't really paying attention to the faces of the people hiking down, but they recognized me and said hi. xD It's crazy to think we had exactly the same plans for the weekend, even though Oirase and Iwaki aren't exactly close together or anything. (Maybe their plans got changed by the Hakkodayama trail closures too...?) They must've gotten there way earlier than me though.
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Snow! I wished I could go down there and lie down on the snow, it was sooo hot even at the top x_x The only saving grace was that there was a nice, cool breeze.
The last stretch was super steep and rocky, where you needed to use both hands to climb up.
Made it! There were some clouds near the top, but at least it wasn't totally white...
Nice view toward the Hakkoda mountains. A bit hazy, but still impressive!
At the top I had some of my bento from the ryokan. I couldn't finish all of it because I was thirsty more than I was hungry though ^^; So I ended up saving the rest for after I got down. Some nice local ladies speaking in nearly incomprehensible Aomori dialect also offered me a mandarin orange (I wished I had something to give them back) and we had a nice talk about the area and they wanted to know what places I'd visited so far and what I thought of Aomori. They also reassured me that there weren't likely any bears near the trails on Mt. Iwaki because there were so many hikers this day. They were so nice :3
I didn't linger too long though, because it was a long way down - even the parking lot and chairlift station looked like they were really far down, though in reality I got back down there in about 30~40 minutes, haha.
Going down might've been even trickier than going up those steep rocky sections though
One of the craters (it's a volcano, though it hasn't been active since 1863 apparently)
As I was going down, some more clouds started to drift around the summit, perfect timing!
Inside the chairlift terminal I made grateful use of the vending machines and got myself two cold drinks, a sports drink and some iced tea. And they had stamps as well!
After getting some drinks I felt confident to walk the hour and half back down to Dake Onsen, so that's what I did. The forest trail was really pleasant for going down, though I still couldn't stop sweating so my clothes were entirely drenched (thankfully I'd packed a full change of clothes and towels in a plastic bag inside my backpack, so I was planning to change into clean everything at the onsen before getting on any buses or trains)
I made it down just in time to see this Tsugaru Shamisen performance, too! I'd seen in the guide booklet that it was held at 13:30 every Sunday outside the visitor center ,but I wasn't expecting to be back early enough to see it. But it was cool that I did! The performer played three traditional songs with a short explanation of what they were.
Even after watching that I still had time to go to the Dake Onsen Hotel for a bath. I'd looked up beforehand that it was one of the few that had an outdoors bath that was open for non-overnght guests, and it turned out to be really nice! (nd I had it to myself again, so I could take silly pictures, lol... As well as spread out my clothes and luggage all over the place to organize everything before packing it up for the trip back home without bothering anyone else... Honestly, that alone felt like it was worth the 600 yen bathing fee xD
The outdoors bath was tiny but it was great to be able to cool off in the outside air afterwards.
Overall, things went about as smoothly as they could've gone! I got back to Shin-Aomori station with about half an hour to spare to buy some snacks and find my Shinkansen platform, and the ride back was really relaxing too because nobody sat down next to me the whole way. My omikuji from my previous shrine visit, that had said to cancel my next trav el plans, was technically right in that I had to cancel Hakkodayama hiking, but I got a nice alternative hike for it in return, so I guess a chuukichi blessing was accurate enough xD