2014-08-23 大黒茂谷-沢登

Sawanobori in 大黒茂谷 (Chichibu).

After departing Tokyo in the evening we got to a parking lot on the side of road 411. This road is quite winding especially after passing Okutama station. As I was dozing on and off it seemed like a long journey but it terms of distance it is not so far.

We were a group of 13 and there was space in the tents for much more people, however I feared the heat and decided to sleep outside (under a roof though because it was rainy). At 2 AM I realized I was cold, the best feeling during the Japanese summer.

Rising at 4:00 we got ready and started walking before 5:30 AM. For more than 5km and 1h15 we walked on a closed road, it clearly had been remade recently as some section was brand new. The river was already appealing to us.

From the trailhead we entered in the river. There were waterfalls of different height and nothing really technical for the first part. It was possible to pass on the side of larger falls and we were never required to get deep in the water. I didn't have to pay much attention to keep my camera dry most of the time.

As I use long exposure time for my pictures I soon fall behind the first group. I tried a few shots with short exposure but as expected that didn't turn out well. During the middle part some more technical parts could be tried, some of us used a rope on the right of a fall of about 8 to 10 m high. I decided to go on the right which meant getting completely wet, but I had taken precautions for the camera. I turned out to be much more fun.

Toward the end too a rope was used and again I went on the other side getting wet but probably it was more interesting. In the end I didn't use my climbing gears besides for holding my tripod.

Getting out of the stream was not too hard because it was a cool day although it's August and below 2000m high. Once we reached the trail, I parted from the group and went to Daibosatsurei, it was completely clouded and also a group of 20+ people were clustered at the summit so I didn't pause.

I got there at 11:50 and the bus leaving from Daibosturei tozan guchi was at 15:00. Map time to get there was just 2:50 so I had plenty of time. I contemplated the possibility to push further south but I had sneakers and not mountains boots, my food was gone and I had little water, finally the weather was far from great although it was cool. I decided then to go all the way to Enzan station and not wait for the bus.

The downhill trail was first quite steep with rocks so with sneakers I was quite slow, but still passing hordes of people. After the first 1/3 it got less steep and easier to walk. I got to the bus stop at 13:45 and then I ran to the station, with all the climbing gears I wasn't fast and at that time it was sunny again so I had the sun in the face but I managed to reach the station before 15:00. The additional 9km were not really fun but running is less boring than waiting for the bus (and risk falling asleep and missing it in the end)

Overall it was a nice stream, quite long approach and downhill though.