I Feel Like Walking for Exercise
“I feel like walking for exercise.”
Apparently my body, alarmed by my usual lack of discipline, has decided to push my brain into action.
The idea of riding lifts and skiing never even crosses my mind. That doesn’t count as exercise, after all.
(Well… except for BUMPS telemark, of course.)
So today, just like the other day, I headed out with a pair of long, spear-like skis.
Once you choose these, you already know: no turn arcs today.
Ahh… what a relief.
Now, today’s mission begins with a bus.
A bus!?
Yes indeed.
If I really wanted to, I could actually take a bus from right in front of my house all the way to Amakazari. But today I drove to Nakatsuchi Station, and from there took a bus to the winter terminal stop, ?nagi-shita.
Why the bus?
Simple.
I don’t like parking on the roadside.
At this time of year people just park along the road and turn it into one-lane traffic, but honestly I don’t think that’s a great idea. So I try not to do it.
Also, since I usually travel everywhere by car, the act of getting on a bus while carrying skis is exciting in itself.
Travel vibes. Heh.
By the time I got off the bus, I was already thinking, Maybe I could just go home now.
From the bus terminal it’s about a 20-minute walk on dry pavement before the skiing begins.
So I wore running shoes and kept my NNNBC boots in my pack.
Those NNNBC boots, as it turns out, have soles that don’t flex very wellーbasically
they’re stiffーso they’re not great for walking on pavement. If you walk
for long, the soles start wearing down in strange ways.
In the world of light touring skis, if you ranked boots by how comfortable they are for road walking, it would probably be something like:
-
Soft floppy boots (CRISPI BRE GTX)
-
XPLORE
-
And then, far behind… NNNBC
Anyway, my introduction has gotten long again.
After passing Yamada Ryokan, I finally switched to skis and began walking up the forest road.
I reached Yut?ge Pass about two and a half hours after getting off the bus.
The whole route is a forest roadー6.2 km.
So that timing makes sense.
Actually, my original plan was different.
From Yut?ge I was thinking of continuing on for another 17.6 km down to Hiraiwa Station, then taking the train back to Nakatsuchi.
A long, long downhill.
I do that sort of thing on my bicycle all the time.
So I thought maybe today would be the same kind of trip.
But the conditions were… about 15 cm of fresh snow sinking under the skis.
Not quite deep enough to call it breaking trail, but steep forest roads like this don’t slide well in that kind of snow.
And walking another 17.6 km…?
Nope.
Rejected.
Plan change.
Today it will simply be a round trip to Yut?ge.
Once that decision was made, everything felt calm again.
The scenery was fantastic.
Mount Amakazari really does look best from this side.
So I strung up my hammock and decided to relax.
Ahh… this is nice.
…But it’s cold.
Well, it is a hammock.
This is exactly when a bivy tarp would be warmer.
Hmm.
What if I run the tarp through the hammock?
Done.
The Ondol Hammock is complete.
Not a bad idea, if I do say so myself.
I lounged there for about an hour.
Those ventilation openings on both sides of the tarp… maybe they actually exist for hammocks.
Yes.
Anyway, the descent wasーas usualーvery fast.
There were patches of sticky snow here and there. Fresh snow at this time of year changes quickly.
When I got back to the bus stop, the next bus was in 50 minutes.
Inside the waiting room was a crate for sake bottles.
Nice. Someone understands.
There’s no better seat than that.
I carried it outside and sat in the sun.
Ahh… waiting for the bus is part of the journey.
What a lovely moment.
Next time I’ll put a paperback in my pack.
These trips centered on forest roads…
will continue.
|
