15.8.15

Lost in the Trees

Hidden along this route to Shishikurayama (1288m) on the west side of Okutama, is the Tokyo Peace Pagoda 奥多摩仏舎利塔 Okutama Bussharitou which is apparently one of eighty peace pagoda's in the world. Who would imagine that there would be one right here, in the middle of nowhere?

The latter part of today's trek ended in an out-of-the ordinarily eventful manner. With a lot of tree-clearing and road construction along the last section of the route, we had somehow strayed of the path, and had instead headed down through a steep incline of forest and into an derelict camp ground that had barriers around the vicinity. It started raining hard. The entrance of the camp ground was a locked-up bridge lined with barb wiring that was built over a river. We tried calling the local police for help, but they responded by saying that they weren't allowed to enter the grounds because it was private property, and they hadn't been able to track down the owners. After much contemplation, we backtracked up a little into the forest and found a path that took us out of the grounds, and allowed us to finally continue on to our final destination.

Route:
Okutama Station > 08:35 奥10 bus > Miyamabashi bus stop > Hike 5.5 hours > Tanbayama Onsen > 15:47 奥10 bus > Okutama Station
- Distance: 9.4km
- Elevation gain: 680m

2 comments:

Seeker said...

Hello. I'm curious if you can provide the coordinates, or a screenshot on Google Earth, of the trailhead for this site. Does it begin at one of the floating bridges nearby?

Jing said...

Hi, the Google coordinates of the trailhead, after getting off the bus at Miyamabashi Bridge 深山橋, are 35.774235, 138.998714. After crossing the bridge, immediately to your right before the restaurant 陣屋 is the start of the trail.