Photo above – A brief glimpse of the Mt. Shiomi area in the Minami Alps.

---

As I mentioned in a previous post the trails are set to reopen soon and that means longer hiking on more mountains. To get ready I went on a short solo hike up Mt. Kasagi (笠置山) in Ena, Gifu prefecture to work on hiking fitness.

Mt. Kasagi (1128m) on a clear day offers views of Mt. Ontake and parts of the Minami and Chuo Alps. It is also a popular area for rock climbing. Be warned though, if you decide to go off the main trail and use one of the lesser known routes it’s quite easy to go off course and end up lost in the dense forest. The pink ribbon gods were out in force to guide me though so there was no need to panic. These ribbons are everywhere in the mountains of Japan and without them it would be far too easy to get lost.

I made some brief sound recordings of birdsong and the crunching of gravel under my feet which I’m starting to find addictive. The recordings, although a little short, I find are ideal as background noise when sat at home at the computer day dreaming of being in the mountains. Next time I’ll record longer ones.

The route and data can be found here on my Yamap account. Ignore the part where I take a wrong turn and double back on myself (multiple times).