September 22nd
Start&Finish: Ogose station
The weather: Warm and drizzly.
Outfit/Equipment: Lightweight exercise trousers, vest top, t-shirt, hat, raincoat/umbrella (I had a raincoat because I hate carrying things but the other half opted for the cooler umbrella).
Map: We wandered around lost for a lot of time. There are maps of here. It’s difficult to say where we walked but basically the green route round the edge of the town to the 越生自然休養村センター( A cross between a JA and a tourist information office) then up into the mountains, popping out at the back of O Park.
Crowds: Not a soul to be seen.
Time: We started walking by around 10 and probably got back around 1pm.
Difficulty: 21,051 steps.
Significantly cooler than our walk just a week before for which we were eternally grateful. Better to be soaked in rain than sweat. As we started from the station there was a long walk through the town to start with, which was very pleasant, but not really hiking in nature. I’ve been before just to walk around the town in my less adventurous days and it is very pleasant. The plum trees smell wonderful – my favourite flower scent – if you get the season right, and the azalea park on the mountain is pretty too in season, but this was September when neither were flowering and we were there to hike.
There was no one anywhere, probably because we were out of season for that area and it was not great weather, but that also meant it was very peaceful. Had I been alone, especially on the second half of the walk, I don’t think I’d have felt very safe.
After reaching the Shizen Center (where there is a carpark if you want to avoid the walk through town) we started hiking proper, up into the foothills. It was damp and drizzly and extremely slippery. No other hikers anywhere, just one poor soul who wandered past in their underwear… Lost from the onsen perhaps? The signs were in poor repair, rotted away and pointing every which way. There was some phone signal though, and with a combination of google and the old-school paper map we had, we managed to reach the summit for glimpses of the view through the clouds. Then back down, through the ghostly trees to find our way to the back of O park, a very nice onsen where you can rent swim suits and all go have an onsen together. We kept going though, following the road out and back down to the station.
The area from the JA was pretty and would have been stunning in better weather. Given the luxury of a car I would stop at the JA car park and see if there were more trails on from there.
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