{"id":4222,"date":"2017-09-04T10:00:54","date_gmt":"2017-09-04T01:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/persimmon-dreams.com\/blog\/?p=4222"},"modified":"2017-09-04T10:00:54","modified_gmt":"2017-09-04T01:00:54","slug":"down-from-mt-shirouma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/persimmon-dreams.com\/blog\/2017\/09\/04\/down-from-mt-shirouma\/","title":{"rendered":"Down from Mt. Shirouma"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"August 28th. The day before we’d climbed the up through the “Big Snow Valley” to\u00a0 the top of Mt. Shirouma. After a night at the lodge, we were back up at the summit, around 4:50 AM, I think, to see a cloudy pastel-colored day dawn.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

5:15 AM. The skies brightening–and time to look down the sandy, rocky ridge we were going to walk on our own way to the Big Hakuba Lake . . . and then on down from the mountains.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Lots of lovely views at your back, so be sure to stop frequently to peer over your shoulder.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

And lots of rocks along the trail—sometimes it’s necessary to scramble across them.<\/p>\n

This area is famous for raicho<\/em>—grouse—and we saw other hikers scouring the slopes for the birds, but we neither saw one ourselves, nor saw anyone who’d spotted one.<\/p>\n

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And lots to see looking forward. The day before had been a clear, clear, blue blue day, and now it was clouds and pastel—and that was just fine. Very, very lovely.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

We got to Mikuni at 5:50, a point where three prefectures come together, Nagano, Toyama, and Niigata.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

One more look back . . .<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

. . . and then on toward the beautiful backlit, cloudy sky–and on towards Mt. Korenge.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

We reached Korenge at around 6:35. From here, you get your first view of the lake.<\/p>\n

By the way, this route down from the mountain is a little long, but, for this part of the country, it is a very easy (not so much up and down) walk.<\/p>\n

The walk yesterday started at 1250 m and went up to 2932, but today it was only going to go down to 1700. Those 450 fewer m in descent make a huge difference. How do you get down from 1700? The only way down is two gondola rides.\u00a0 The first time ever for us to end a hike with a ride in the sky.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The closer you get to the lake, gradually going down, the more green there is. Lots of the scrubby hemlock firs, and more and more flowers.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Close to the lake and around the lake, you can see the famous chinguruma<\/em> flowers.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

At first you might think that these are strange feathery petals, but actually these are just the seeds that remain after the petals have fallen.<\/p>\n

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The petals are white—and present quite a different face. We were there at just the right time that we could see both faces.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

We got the lake at 7:55 and stopped for breakfast. Then around to the other side (no, those aren’t sand traps, they’re bits of remaining snow), up through the hemlock firs a bit and then down toward the gondola station.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The ragged cliffs of Shakushi are there on your right much of the way.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Much of the way.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

And then you come to this day’s snow valley. The day before, though, we walked\u00a0up<\/em> the snow for about an hour. This day, we only walked across<\/em> the snow for about three minutes.\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The descent gets steeper from here. For a while you can enjoy the flowers growing so beautifully by the snow.<\/p>\n

After that, it’s flowers and rocky trail for a good while.<\/p>\n

\"\" \"\"<\/p>\n

More chinguruma.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"And lots of miyamakinbai<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

And flowers you’ve maybe never seen before.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

And some you have. Down to the gondolas\u00a0at 10:55.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

August 28th. The day before we’d climbed the up through the “Big Snow Valley” to\u00a0 the top of Mt. Shirouma. After a night at the lodge, we were back up at the summit, around 4:50 AM, I think, to see a cloudy pastel-colored day dawn. 5:15 AM. The skies brightening–and time to look down the … Continue reading Down from Mt. Shirouma<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/persimmon-dreams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/persimmon-dreams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/persimmon-dreams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/persimmon-dreams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/persimmon-dreams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4222"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/persimmon-dreams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4222\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4249,"href":"https:\/\/persimmon-dreams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4222\/revisions\/4249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/persimmon-dreams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/persimmon-dreams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/persimmon-dreams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}