Training Archive: jeffwIn the 7 days ending 2007-09-01:
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Saturday Sep 1 | ||
| Orienteering 1:00:00 [1] | |
| shoes: Jala X-Controls sz 9.5 | ||
| Ran around the upper part of Dutchman putting out control stands and water. As I was driving down the dirt road in the dark, I had to be careful not to run over the toads that were hopping across the road. | ||
Friday Aug 31 | ||
| Event: Barebones | ||
Thursday Aug 30 | ||
| Bicycle 1:10:00 [1] | |
| Commute to work via downtown. Found some guys cell phone on the bike path. He eventually called me. Turns out he works across the street from where I do, so it was easy to drop it off. Made another little trip out by Avery Park to get my building permit. | ||
Sunday Aug 26 | ||
| Hiking 5:30:00 [1] | |
| Hiked up Mt. Fuji with Paula from the 5th station at Kawagucho.
Our adventure started in Tokyo at 6:30am where we were planning to take a bullet train from Shinagawa to Shin Fuji then transfer enough times to get to the bus that goes up the mountain. The lady at the train ticket office suggested that we take a special bus that goes nonstop from Shinjuku station (in Tokyo) directly to the trail head. We took the subway to Shinjuku, then searched around until we found the bus ticket office, but of course the bus was sold out. Damn. On to plan C. We got train tickets to Otsuki, then transferred to another train, then got on the bus up to the 5th station. There was a traffic jam of cars trying to get up the mountain, but after a short delay, the police waved our bus on through. Got to maintain that bus schedule. At 12:30, we got deposited right at the 5th station plaza which was full of climbers who had just come down the mountain after seeing the sunrise. We found out later that a work companion of ours drove up with a relative and had to walk an hour from their parking spot just to get where we landed. The bus is definitely the way to go. We got some soba noodles at a vendor, bought some water at twice the normal price, went to the restroom for 50 yen, then searched for a garbage. Apparently there aren't any on the mountain, so we carried our garbage to the top of the mountain, back down again, and deposited the now bigger bag at the train station in Otsuki. We started hiking at 1:00. The trail was pretty wide and started on a gentle downhill across the mountain. Wanting to make good time, we jogged down the trail passing a couple of big groups of people. We got a little disconcerted, because the trail was still going down, so we confirmed with a horse guy that we indeed going in the right direction. Finally we got to a fork in the trail where we turned uphill. Met some more groups of people. Passed two women who were coming down in their high heels. We wondered just how up they had gone! The trail had some sections on it where we had to scramble over lava. It got a little narrow, so sometimes we got stuck behind some slower going climbers. Because I had my camera in one hand and a water bottle in the other, I had to be careful going through these sections. I kept reminding Paula to drink her water. She apparently maintained her hydration much better than I did, because she had to use the restroom twice on the way up, and I never did. Near the top, she was moving much faster than I was, because I was too dehydrated for the conditions (and too cheap to buy 500 yen water, which is about $4.50). We made it to the top at 4:30. Okay, the official top was on the other side of the crater, but neither of us had the desire to go way over there. Paula had wanted to have a beer (no matter what the cost) at the top, but they closed up shop right when we arrived. There was a big pile of hiking bells next to a torii gate marking the highest point on our side of the crater. We took a couple of pictures there then took off down the mountain. The descent trail was nice soft gravel which made our rush down the mountain much easier. There were places where the rocks were not so deep, which was like stepping on marbles, so I used a modified telemark shuffle through these sections. We wore short gaiters which kept the rocks out of our shoes. The two guys who recommended that we bring them, forgot theirs and paid the price. We zoomed down the trail in two hours just in time to see the almost full moon come up, beat the darkness, and catch the bus down the mountain. One more thing to cross off the life list. | ||