藤向堂　Fujisakido

Summary. Nice pace climbing up, though failed for my ill-planned route coming back. I arrived at Shibusawa sta. 6:45 am, and the line of the people who were waiting for the first bus to Ookura stop, the entrance to the hiking route, was quite long already. At the Ookura stop, there was a Caucasian guy who seemed to be inquisitively looking at hiking registration post and its card ... written in Japanese only.  So I helped him to submit hiking registration. The city of Hadano should also place a multilingual hiker registration form. The town around Ookura bus stop The route I took was starting from the  prefectural forest park . The route is well managed and paved alongside the river. Most of the people I rode with bus apparently used another major path to To no dake. So the path was quiet. Other than the odd entrance to open the netted door for deer to get in, the route reminded me of walking down Yarisawa last year. The path to climb up to Nabewari mountain...

We climbed up Inukoeji (Dog summiting path) where the army of Takeda clan used to march for the purpose of military attack back in the 16th century. Takeda clan used military dogs, so we took our dog too... well, we always take our dog to trek anyway. The path has paved road used for lumberjack business even now. Motor vehicles need to have a permit to pass, but pedestrians can use anytime. Having said that, I wouldn't use this path after dark.  The place is quite silent. They even have an 800m tunnel to connect to the other side of Tanzawa, West side of Tanzawa where holds massive Tanzawa Lake. That hollow existence adds creepiness to the whole path. On the bright side (literally), at the top of the Inukoeji path is the peak of Oosugi-Maru. There is an evacuation hut and bathroom. I had a sweet bean bread for breakfast there. We did not go up to Mt. Omuro, but Mt. Fuji was partially visible from the path. Mt. Fuji  We parked our car at Kannnogawa ...