The Most Beautiful Hike You’ve Never Heard Of (Akita Komagatake)
right here in 1970 in September where I am right now erupted dramatically and continued to erupt all the way until January of 1971 hi this is Quinnland and today I’m here at one of my favorite volcano clusters in North Japan what I consider to be one of the best most overlooked intermediate level hikes this is Akita Koma Gatake or Aki Koma for short last time I was here it was actually February and take a look at the views that you can get here in the winter time this is a straddle volcano that can be enjoyed all through the year the plan is starting here go up to the edge of the southern caldera go around down into the center here go up onto the northern one Maidake the most volcanically active one then go up to the ridge of the southern caldera to the Odake summit and then if there’s time go down here into the northern caler area up to the highest point and then maybe back down like this maybe tag Yakimorei and then loop down around here back down this hike begins with a stairway watch out these uh sort of fake wooden planks that you see can be fairly slippery when wet after just four minutes of climbing trail flattens out for a while 20 minutes into the hike it’s still a rather gradual ascent though it’ll be some steep stairs before we get to the edge of the southern caldera listen to that bush warbler there’s our first glimpse of Maidake and with that we’re off to get a closer look some people call this the snake road cuz you do often see snakes crossing the trail or basking on or off the trail so watch your step here you can really see the outline of the southern caldera all this volcanic gravel and later in the year this will be full of these little things here the kumakusa delicate little volcanic flowers that thrive in this volcanic gravel where not much else can live akitakomaake is right on the border between Iwate and Akita Prefectures here in northern Tohoku um which is an easy short drive from Moryoka where I live and guide from and the area of Actagatake consists of five main summits that you can hike to and it’s two large caleras one to the north the other to the south here you can see the edges of that uh southern Calera and in the distance Lake Tazawa which is uh Calera Lake of course first large patch of snow and there’s no tracks from today so looks like uh I’m the only one today coming this route [Music] i heard on the mountain grapevine as it were that there was a landslide up on this ridge up and to my right so I’m going to see if I can’t scout that out wow it does look like a lot of dirt came down straight ahead you can see these big mounds of dirt up ahead i guess everything came down there and forward here mountain landscape is always transforming yeah that’s quite different really wouldn’t have wanted to be to be here when this happened look at all this heat heat it was right here in 1970 in September when where I am right now this summit Maidake erupted dramatically apparently from Moroka you could hear the explosion and see the lava shooting into the air like fireworks this part of the ascent from the west up to Udake is the well it’s the only really brutal part cuz it’s going up gravel and rock on a pretty steep trail for a while it’s the hardest part of this hike and if you don’t want to do this you don’t have to there are a lot of routes around this area that’s what’s nice about having five summits and I can take you on a route where we just uh don’t go this way at the summit of Odake so I just came down from Odake here and up this way is my favorite ridgewalk the horse’s back and down here in the cloud is Amida Pond and what we can’t see here is uh Unamidake the highest summit so I guess we’ll go uh check that out i think we got time today before it starts raining you wouldn’t guess that it’s high noon with how dark it is here in the clouds i can hear others on the other side of the lake but I cannot see them do you hear the bells ah and voices but I will not mute them they’re walking the other side and I’m just going to zip up to say hello at Onameaki the highest of the summits here rocks give way to steps and then you’re at the top and just for a moment the fog is lifted but I’m going back up to that same ridge line to continue this view right here without the clouds is like this beautiful even in the mists i mean the blue skies are great but yeah I I just can’t get over the other worldliness of this at risk of sounding cliched it really is uh ideal for me camera down ooh pretty steep straight down right there after a short walk through the woods you open up into this barren volcanic area to the fifth and final of the main summits in Akita Komaatake Yakuri there it is it’s uh all downhill from here as they say and it goes between this rocky trail with bushes on each side to being pure volcanic gravel there’s back where I went before i’ve now closed the loop as I head back across the edge of the caldera akomaake is actually famous for flowers i personally love just the shape of the land the fact that there are two different big caleras together there probably late May or early June like now today June 3rd is as early as you want to hike it much earlier than this and the residual snow makes it a little bit uh too sketchy and then in the summer of course you’ve got all these flowers blooming um some that bloom in late June early July others in August for example the poisonous tori kabuto has beautiful purple blossoms in early August and there are just countless other flowers there there’s there’s literally a few dozen varieties of alpine flowers here and then the fall is also one of the more popular seasons because it just turns red and beautiful up here i personally think I love the fall maybe even more than the late summer well both are good and then of course the winter time from mid probably from late December through early mid-March you’ve got a separate route that you can take up from the Aita side that I always take on snowshoes or backcountry skis and that area is just delicious fun and adventurous and yeah that’s a little bit harder and you’re going to want to have a lot of endurance to do that but it’s actually not that difficult and if you know the right route to take you can do it without any avalanche risk but rain is forecast for uh any time now and so I’m going to go the rest of the half hour 40 minutes it’ll take me to get back down to Kunimi Onsen where I started thank you so much for watching and I’ll see you on the trails
The trailhead that I started from is here: https://maps.app.goo.gl/mc5kjVLmA2Ux1jkF7
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