Mt. Yotei Hike

After much discussion we decided to hike Mt. Yotei on Tuesday, a nearby volcanic mountain resembling Mt. Fuji, just not as high.  This was our one full day off and we all agreed to hike and make a day of it with Chef Max as our leader. It was his first time up the magnificent mountain.  It is a 6-10 hour hike which we accomplished in 10 hours with 1 1/2 hours hiking and eating lunch at the rim.  We had rain, hail, clouds, snow and mud to traverse.  Jordan was great at rationing the chocolate, gum and life savers.  I am so glad I put those in her pack and not mine or Lauren's pack.  There were markers along the way to let us know how far we had come and alas how far we had yet to go. The girls voted for further ascent at each marker even when the going was tough.

It rained and hailed some between markers 7 and 9 and we dried out at the rim eating the best onigiri ever made by Chef Max.  Girls tried umeboshi inside their rice balls for the first time. That is a pickled plum inside a rice ball. Sort of the equivalent of a pb and j sandwich.  They loved the tart flavor with the brown rice and seaweed paper covering the rice ball. We are at the rim and dried out our clothes.  It was cool and we wore everything we brought.  We were the only ones at the rim for a time as it had been raining moments before and hikers began their descent as there was no visibility and poor conditions.  We were fortunate to have it clear up and breezy enough to dry off.

We spent over an hour at the top and the girls tried to catch the moving clouds that were moving right at them! 

We headed down which I knew would be hard in our tennis shoes but never did I imagine it would be as treacherous and as grueling as it was.  We were lucky to be standing in many areas and fortunate enough to have fallen only a few times and to not have experienced any serious injuries.  I am not sure what motived Lauren to make it down the mountain headed from marker five to zero but she lead the whole way and did not stop at any markers except once to wait for us.  She persevered through blisters on each ankle.  Jordan enlightened us with the plot from Walking Dead series about zombies.  Bring on the zombies!  I did not care the topic but to have someone talking was pure joy in that it helped us all down some very slippery slopes.  We were all extremely exhausted and energized for having finished our trek!  I was so proud of my girls and I was sure to tell them that (along with shedding a few tears) once I caught up with them at the parking lot.

Mt. Yotei: 6227 feet

Level of difficulty: 4 out of 5 (Hiking in Japan website)
Unable to post other pics right now. Three cameras and syncing things is complicated.
Just got a few pics...