At the top!!!

And now...the intrepid hikers...Andres, Jeff, Karen, Marjon, Karen and Craig.

More on Mt. Ena

Here's another gorgeous view of the fall colors.

Mt. Ena, Gifu preficture, Japan

We just went on a hike yesterday...today I'm trying to see if my legs will talk to me or not....It was actually probably the toughest hike I've ever done...the summit is at 2190m (7185 feet)and from where we started, we climbed 2296 feet...it was a grueling trip. We were told it was generally a 'walk-up' with a couple of difficult sections. HAH! It was an unblieveably difficult trip, almost from the start.
We entered the trail and immediately began a vertical assent. Marjon assured us that the first part was the worst...about 15 minutes up. Well, it was early in the day (about 8:30) so we were fresh and foolish and on we went. Now you must know...Japanese trail blazers don't believe in zig-zag approaches to an uphill stretch. You go STRAIGHT up. Makes the trails shorter but the gain in altitude is unbelievable and so is the gasping breath and the cramping muscles. Once we finished that ascent, it did seem to do the rolling hike for a while...up quite a bit, down a bit...very little flat but up and down isn't too bad. Then it turned into more up than down but that's not too bad since, after all, we were climbing a mountain. It was pretty strenuous and I stopped more than one time to catch my breath (I was definately the LAST one in the party).
Then we hit the 'bit more difficult' stretch. Oh my gosh. We, quite literally, crawled up a rock strewn section of hillside - the path sparsely marked by the periodic scrap of colored fabric. The tumble of boulders and scree was insane. Once through that, the trail turned into a network of fallen trees and exposed tree roots with wonderful thorny bushes woven into every handhold. To add to the delightful experience, the gorgeous, colored leaves were falling at an astonishing rate, making the trail slick and treacherous. Still crawling, we pretty well just endured this last hellish climb. Once we hit the top of that section, there was still more to go. We headed up again, though most of the remaining stretch to the summit was back to the rolling hill routine. We hit a "false summit" where a couple of dozen Japanese were sprawled out resting, eating talking and drinking (yes, they carry EVERYTHING up the hill). We continued on to the 'REAL' summit...complete with another complement of resting people.
The scenery was beautiful! The fall colors were really great - especially the leaves that were still clinging to the trees rather than the ones that were underfoot. We did have to pose for our 'we made it pose' under the summit sign.