Nakimushi-yama Day Hike (18Jun2017)

Nakimushi-yama Hike — Mt. Nakimushi (Nakimushi-yama, 鳴虫山): 1,103.5 meters, Tochigi prefecture

Hiking

I planned Ozegahara Hike on Saturday but I had to cancel it because my daughter had fever in the evening of Friday. She got well on Saturday and we agreed to go hiking on Sunday. Unfortunately, it would be cloudy on Sunday according to weather forecast, we decided to hike Nakimushi-yama instead of Ozegahara. There were lots of trees on the mountaintop area of Nakimushi-yama that means, I believed, a good view from the peak was not expected even in a sunny day. In addition, I thought Nakimushi-yama hike was easy because its hiking route/map was introduced by a railway company. Generally, easy hiking courses are introduced by railway companies.

Roots of trees

an avenue of cryptomerias — An avenue of cryptomerias on the way to Nikko from Utsunomia

We started off at dawn in order to secure a space at the parking lot close to Nikko Toshogu shrine (a world heritage). I intended to take my daughter there after hiking, if she desired. In other words, the parking lot is 30 minutes away from the trailhead, we had to move there before walking the mountain path.

Shinkyo bridge (a world heritage) is located along a main road.

walking the Nakimushi-yama trail — Walking in a cryptomeria forest.

There are many ups and downs on the route. In other words, there are many mountains/peaks on the trail. The first major peak was Knonosu-yama.

view from Konosu-yama — Nyotai-san (Mt. Nyotai) form Konosu-yama. The view was not so good, as I thought.

From Konosu-yama, roots of trees on the trail become much noticeable. It became difficult to walk occasionally, instead.

before going up small peak — There were lots of small peaks like this.

at Mt. Nakimushi — The view was not good at the peak of Nakimushi-yama, as well.

There were lots of roots on the trail on the descent route. As the routes and soil were wet due to yesterday’s rainfall, it was sometimes slippy. And, what is worse, some part of the trail looked suffering from neglect.

“Dad, I do not think it is a good hiking course for beginners. You have to write it in the hiking report” said my daughter. (I did it as you said.)

This part of the trail was suffering from neglect..

steep steps — This steep step was good in condition, though.

We carefully walked down the slope but my daughter and my wife did slip and fall several times. They were not hurt, just feltn on his or her buttocks.

At Kanmangafuchi Abyss, a lady called somebody and said “There was a long line to buy tickets of Toshogu shrine, like Disney Land. I gave up”.
As we heard it, we stopped to go to Toshogu shrine as well as Kegon Fall.
We met only two people during the Nakimushi-yama hike. It was a quiet vacation in the mountain. We did not want to go to a crowded place after the hiking

Route & Time

Hike date: June 18, 2017
Members: Family (farther, mother and 9-year-old daughter)
Course time:
6:49 parking lot – 6:54 Shinkyo bridge – 7:25 trailhead of Nakimushi-yama – 8:08 Konosu-yama 8:18 – 9:16 Nakimushi-yama 9:26 – 10:16 Doppyo – 11:08 Kanmangafuchi Abyss – (My daughter played on the swings in a park for a while) – 11:38 parking lot [4 hours and 49 minutes]