2015-03-22　Louis et Papa à 仏果山

Day hike around Miyagase lake in Tanzawa.

It was the first sunny Sunday in 5 weeks... this 4-week series of disgusting Sunday weather has finally come to an end. Unfortunately the winter season is past its prime but anyways I couldn't have brought my son on snowy slopes, this time I selected a yet unexplored area of Tanzawa.

From the bus stop (whose name I cannot remember, the stop just before Hanbara) I chose the wrong trail, there was a road on the riverside and it appeared to match the map but we must have missed a turn somewhere. I was too busy handling Louis to realize the mistake and it was too late when I did realize. Louis was not in the best mood for walking during the first hour. After reaching an intersection we went right and past a few hundred meters finally hit the trail. The trail was easy but large steps made it hard for Louis to climb, he was also busy playing with whatever he could find on the ground.

We reached Takatori relatively late, the observation tower proved to be a disappointment for Louis because he expected it to have a slide to go down ahah. When he understood it was just stairs he wanted to go down.

A series of steep ups-and-downs with a few flat sections in between and a bit more than an hour, Louis walking most of the time, and me hauling him from the harness during the uphills and we reached Bukka-san the highest point of the day. There was another observation tower but judging it wouldn't add anything to the previous one we just focussed on eating at a wooden table and hit the trail as soon as we were done.

From Bukka-san began the most interesting part of the trail, a relatively steep ridge mainly rocky and exposed on both sides. The trail is in perfect condition and wide enough to allow people passing each other in opposite direction, a bit of wind added to the atmosphere. Louis was not impressed and was jumping down when his legs proved to be too short to reach the ground below him.

Unfortunately the interesting part is relatively short and after the rocky ridge, dirt slopes with a lot of stairs appeared. The steps were quite high and Louis kept jumping like a frog, relying entirely on my belay. After a while we got to a flat section and as he was getting tired and started getting moody I forced him into the backpack, a few cries followed but within 5 minutes he was sound asleep and woke up more than 2 hours later when we were changing trains near home.

A steep downhill and then another short uphill to the third summit of the day, the whole thing accompanied by claps of thunders occurring most likely on the higher Tanzawa peaks. A few drops of rain prompted most of us to put on rain wear, but I was hot and being wet was not really a major problem, I was more concerned of slipping on muddy ground and hastened the pace to get down as fast as possible. Fortunately the rain soon abated and it just amounted to a few drops, not enough to even call it rain really.

When we reached the bus stop we had to hurry because the bus was about to leave, 10 or even 5 seconds later and we would have had to wait for the next one, perfect timing.

More pictures here: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B8dPS_LBwxeLfjhDSHY4U1NVQUUtaGY1Y0ZoZXJGNlBQZDBkYkZ4a1dHRnUyS1dwSDRKWnc&authuser=0