A great sunny day to connect the 10 "famous" mountains of Ohara. Those connecting trails weren't really meant for running, and tired me quite a lot, but doing them all in one day was a great satisfaction 😁 Finally my first "little ultra" of the year, plus my longest night run.
1. Minetoko-yama (峰床山, 970m)
1h:21, 6.1km, 900m, 900Cal
After a late bus commute to the Bomura trailhead (the same of Buna-gatake), I could start hiking only at 9am. The trail up Mt. Minetoko was very beautiful and very well marked, making me immediately notice that I was NOT in Kyoto prefecture (where trails are a disaster 😅). I enjoyed some pretty colourful forests, then summited my first peak of the day.
2. Minago-yama (皆子山, 972m)
2h:48, 13.5km, 1,430m, 1,500Cal
The second section of the day was on trails along the Kuta rindo, with some occasional rindo crossings. The trails were all new to me and some stretches were quite fun to run! At some point, completely out of the blue since no much pressure was applied, my pole snapped. The aluminium broke around the tensioning mechanism, tearing the plastic in pieces (as a side effect). I was so annoyed to lose an important piece of gear so early in the day, but luckily I managed a temporary fix with tape (though the pole became much shorter). Took a deviation from Ogose pass along some badly marked trails, then run the open ridgeline to Minago, where I got lost several times. I had to spend a looot of my energy for route finding, also due to the many fallen leaves that seriously hid the beaten trails 😅
3. Naccho (ナッチョ, 813m)
4h:23, 20.3km, 1,900m, 2200Cal
From Minago, it was a very looong way to Naccho: steep trails that were really poorly marked. The forests were beautiful though, and I really enjoyed my time alone in the nature!
4. Ama-gatake (天ヶ岳, 788m)
5h:19, 25.7km, 2,100m, 2,600Cal
My run continued over a little bit of off-heat rindos: the gravel lovers should check out km 21-22.5 as it was a quite nice stretch of road! (ᗪᖇ. ᖴᖇOTᕼYᔕᑎEEᖇ 👺 I put a picture just for you 😜) I then continued along the Momoi road, before taking a deviation on a gravel road that was quite challenging to walk due to many fallen trees. Steep hidden trails slowly brought me to Ama-gatake.
5. Yakesugi-yama (焼杉山, 718m)
6h:00, 29.0km, 2,300m, 2,800Cal
This section took a lot of my energy, mostly due to route finding and steep bits. Luckily, the two following peaks were very close to each other, giving "momentum" to my endeavour.
6. Suitai-yama (翠黛山, 577m)
6h:29, 31.1km, 2,500m, 3,000Cal
7. Konpira-yama (金毘羅山, 573m)
6h:46, 31.9km, 2,600m, 3,100Cal
It was fun to summit again Konpira-yama, that I recently visited with Jean. The mountain has so many interesting angles, all rocky! Definitely not meant for running at speed, but very beautiful to explore.
- Ohara's Family Mart
7h:40 (+22min stop), 35.8km, 2,700m, 3,400Cal
Looking forward to a combini stop, I limited my food intake before this stretch, thinking that it would be a smooth downhill: it was not. Challenging trails that were tough to follow while being low on energies. Once I reached Ohara village, I took my shoes off and decided to stretch a little bit while eating some well-deserved warm food. This charged me thoroughly and I am very happy that I took my time for it :) The savage "change of ridgeline" was awaiting me to conquer the only two mountains of the 10 that are part of the Hira-Hiei range, after which I would have had to get back to the Western range 😂
8. Daibi-san (大尾山, 681m)
8h:58, 39.7km, 3,100m, 4,000Cal
I was really hoping to climb Daibi in daylight, since I remembered the river creek to be quite challenging. Unfortunately, I had to do it in the dark, and it wasn't exactly fun. It's a bit of a dangerous trail, with many river crossings and fallen trees that are slippery. Luckily I managed to clear it in just about 30min: I was very happy to reach the summit in a spooky night. It was great to see Biwa-ko half lit by a shy moonlight and city lights :)
9. Mizui-yama (水井山, 791m)
9h:56, 44.2km, 3,500m, 4,500Cal
Reaching Mizui-yama in the dark was mostly a psychological challenge: loads of roots and steep bits that were quite complicated in the night. I tripped over several times while trying to follow the trail markers. Once on the top, my main thought was "now, there's only one missing!" But I had to first swap ridgelines, once again.
10. Hyōtankuzure-yama (瓢箪崩山, 532m)
11h:50, 52.8km, 4,000m, 5,100Cal
I descended back to Ohara, then climbed up on the other side. I knew that those trails would be the easiest of the day, so I got into a good mood and started enjoying my night more and more, with the feeling of being almost done pervading me. It took me a while to reach the summit, but when I did I was so happy to have managed all the peaks in one day! A fun project was brought to conclusion!
Home
13h:04, 60.0km, 4,100m, 5,600Cal
The final part was a smooth run: I put my headlamp to higher power and enjoyed quite a lot the easy trails. No roots, no doubts: just lines of beaten ground to follow! I was down to Iwakura in no time, and my legs were feeling so well that I could keep a 5:30min/km pace on the roads! Back home just before 10pm: a quite long day on the trails, and more than 4h run in the dark. Fun fun!!
P.S. the +10%-a-week police may dislike this activity...but I had to try it. My broken foot seems to feel better the more I push it...and today it really didn't give me problems! Everything went great! Happy happy 😁😁