Back in Kitami, I was determined to head for a mountain by myself. I asked the other Finns to join me and while two of them said yes, they bailed out on last minutes. So I just went by myself, using my paper map and Google Earth as planners. The closest mountain, Nikoro-san, peaking at 829m, is about 15km away from Kitami as the crow flies, but about 30km on road.
I went on to cycle the road that was supposed to get me there and found a really beautiful cemetery along the way as well. I stopped by there to take a few photos of Kitami which could be easily seen from the upper hills of the cemetery, as the whole place was built on the hill in the first place. After that, I kept on going closer to the mountain.
In fact, my original plan was to simply go to take a look at a camping site right next to the mountain, since there was supposed to be a lake next to it, but as I arrived to the camping area, there was a path all the way up to the mountain too, even though the map didn't show it. Of course, I took the path and started to walk up!
On the journey up to the mountain, clouds started to gather, glooming above Kitami and nearby villages. I thought I was going to get soaked, but none of the rainfall actually came on the mountain. Instead, just the areas close by received some showers, but nothing too serious.
When I was climbing up the hill, I passed a few people heading down and one elderly gentleman going up. We talked a bit in Japanese although I can't really speak that much and then I headed up again. He gave me his card, though, and told me to visit his website. I didn't think much of it at the time, just thought that he was another friendly Japanese face.
I finally got on the top around 3 p.m., but couldn't have the mountain to myself, since there was someone else sitting on the peak too. After a while, he left and I had the seat all to myself, as well as the freezing wind with no cover from it. I didn't mind the weather that much, though, since the sights more than made up for it. It was absolutely beautiful in all directions. Even though the sky was getting cloudy, I could still see all the way to Kitami and across to the mountains on the other side of it.
When I started to head back down, the same old fellow, Satou-san, was still heading up and we crossed paths again. I told I had written a note to the diary on the peak, which is when he said that it was his and he had visited the mountain a lot lately - last year, 2006, he visited the mountain about 300 times and this year, by May, he had visited it for 100 times. He really seemed to like that place and explained that since he didn't have any work anymore, being in his seventies, he had all the time he wanted. I can imagine he didn't have a wife anymore, either, which made me gloomy for a while.
We parted ways with Satou-san as I headed back down and went on to cycle back to Kitami. The trip was totaling about 60km and I really didn't feel so aching in my legs after it, so if I can keep up taking such journeys, I hope to be able to manage a 100km in a day by some time. If I can do that much, it will make it possible for me to cover a huge area around Kitami and still make it back within the same day. By the summer vacation, I hope to have visited many more spots all around Hokkaido.
No comments:
Post a Comment