Mt. Nabekura, 1288m

IIyama is well known for many old Buddhist temples. But I haven't ever visited any of them. This town is surrounded by many mountains such as Mt. Madarao, Kosha, Takappyo, Kenashi and Nabekura. Those are very beautiful to see and I have ever climbed most of them so far. Nabekura is the one that I feel like trying it again. It attracts me very much in some words like the others.

One sunday I tried it again after the last year mountaineering. Through the obon holidays in Japan the weather had been very tough and hot but it was somewhat milder and likely to rain this day.

There must be the entry along the prefectural road 95 but I couldn't find it because there was no signboard along the road that can be seen in running cars. So reluctantly I choosed the one at Sekita Toge, the same as last year try.

Mt. Nabekura has a lot of beech trees on it so I walked along the path through those very old trees. Anyone who walks there would feel so comfy that it would be fun like me. There are so various shapes of the trees that they interested me a lot. The big ones are famous as "Morihime" and "Moritaro". This time I lost the chance of seeing them because of the time out.

Via Mt. Kurokura about mere 15 minutes later I reached the summit of Mt. Nabekura again. I remembered the place where I visited last year. It doesn't have wide windows but small one for Joetsu city. However, dense fogs didn't let me see the town well. I proceeded more 20m away and found the small place where I could see the view of IIyama city. It was clear in that direction.

There were so many dragonflies flying on the summit. The rather big kinds of dragonflies and its body is more than 15cm long. It was so comfy there that I took a long rest.

This mountain is the one of the typical "satoyama"s. You can enjoy forests of beech trees and light mountaineering with your kids and family. It would sound very nice to have lunch boxes with you to the summit. In addition, you could enjoy beautiful turning leaves there in autumn.

Mt. Kurohime, 2053m

Mt. Kurohime is one of the five mountains, well known as "Hokushin Gogaku". One day off of the summer holidays I enjoyed the mountaineering there.

Om the way to the top I met a man in his sixties who looked like a hermit. I climbed together with him and had chats with various kinds of topics so it took three and a half hours to the summit for us.

The upper we proceeded, the deeper the gas turned out. We could not see towns in the southern direction ( I think Nagano city must be seen.) but could enjoyed the views for the nothern including Mt. Myoko, Hiuchi, Yake, Amakazari, Otozuma and Takazuma.

Those who live in Nagano city or the surrounding towns don't usually see those mountains because most of those are behind Mt. IIzuna. This fact may cause us to be amazed to see them.

This mountain has a lot of forests full of beech trees on its foot. They are very valuable in Japan. We are very happy to have these natural beautiful trees in such a local area in Nagano.

Down the hill, it was three PM and I thought it was a little late but that I believed I can get back before dark. It was wrong! The hermit sometimes stopped and turned back to me, starting a short talk about Albert Einstein or somebody. Finnaly we were walking in the dark for almost an hour. I was really afraid to be lost. I was relieved in the end when we reached Furuike, the old pond, located 20 min far away from the entry. To be surprised, we saw some fireflies flying above the pond.

Using a light we finally got out to the road. Oh, we survived! Thnak you, the hermit.
You better keep a light anytime even if it is a rather short hike. You must think it will take three to four hours one-way to Mt. Kurohime. But I am assured that you can really enjoy the nature in the area.