I shoved my head into my sleeping bag and tried to shrug off the rain. It wasn't pouring, but it was enough to give all my shit a good dousing and really put a damper on... Well, everything.
The rain didn't let up so I just sighed... Packed everything as best I could and shipped out. So much for not wanting to walk in the dark.
Little did I know that today would be the challenge of a lifetime... Bad start, right? Well, it was all downhill from there. The quick way would have been to follow highway 453 the whole way to Lake Shikotsu. I get to the next highway junction, and the sidewalk on highway 453 is closed!! I figure better to be safe than sorry (I was so wrong) and take highway 117 all the fucking way around... I ended up having to walk not only on highways without sidewalks, but on trails that I don't think have been maintained in about 20 years.
Following the theme of things... Not only does highway 117 not really have a sidewalk in some parts, the trail I had to take to make the not the longest detour in existence... Closed. And after hopping the fence and getting to the turn off for the trail I need to take... Closed. And the sign roughly and shittily translated by Google (or accurately and amazingly) into "Misfortune ahead." Because the trails were so confusing to follow (being overgrown as shit), I took a wrong turn (twice on a three way fork), and the second wrong I took led me on a path so full of tree trunks and debris and mud that it almost completely destroyed my spirit. Both my shoes were caked with mud and soaking wet and smelly. Bugs were everywhere. Spiders and flies and mosquitos. The brush was covering the path sometimes completely and very difficult to navigate with a tall 60 pound backpack. So... Long story very short... I get through. And when I clear to the last bit, my fucking shoe breaks. Not just like a fixable small hole, but the entire bottom just rips off. Thank goodness I packed some other (oh so fashionable) water shoes.
Before I forget, the last large incline (I didn't mention that these woods are all in the hills so it's a lot of loose rock and up and down) took such a toll on me that took my pack off to rest and accidentally fell asleep for an hour just in the mud. Oh and I had run out of water five hours before I got there. I didn't expect there to be nothing on the highway... Not even a rest stop, especially when compared with the first half of that highway.
Anyways, I finally made it... It was worth it though, right?? Pretty pictures, right?? Did I mention that I walked over a marathon that day??
Shikotsukoosen is a quiet and quaint square block resort town in a national park. It's cool from the water, and mosquitos not eating the shit out of me right now means it's amazingly got very few of them over here. And to top off my taxing day, the only restaurant open... A ramen shop... Holy butts, delicious shoyu ramen. I'm definitely going to go there again before I leave (if there's a damn ATM in this town).
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