Ootama Walking Trail mini-adventure! [with video]

I arose suddenly and just in time this morning to see nothing but blue sky and the chance to still get out of the city, as I am often wont to do. So I hustled and got my gear together, packed a lunch and was out the door to ride the Chuo line far to the northwest to Kori station. As expected, when I arrived there no staff, no maps, just my feeble 2-sentence description of the hike taken from a hiking website to guide me. There was a giant map outside the station only in Japanese which I photographed extensively with my phone as a resource which proved no use.

…I crossed one of what would be many bridges over the Tama River, the same river I play ultimate frisbee next to every Sunday far, far away in Futakotamagawa. I then realized thanks to another sign that my day would be spent on the Ootama Walking Trail.

…Then the path began diverging without adequate signage and believing a hike up a small mountain was part of the guide I had with me from the website, I made for the closest mountain, but that would have been a disaster. As it was, I only wasted like 20 minutes thanks greatly to running into a very helpful and friendly ojisan who busted out his real maps and showed me I didn’t want to keep on the path I was going. … He went on his way and I respectfully waited a little bit so he could hike on alone as our path was now the same. I actually met him again later and he again showed me the lay of the land and I thought then I could not make it to Okutama station as the plan in my pocket suggested.

…The gorge was deep here and I spotted from high up a cement bridge a small, very rickety looking bamboo and plywood bridge. … If it were of a really dangerous height, then I really would have panicked and thought twice about taking another step.

…After playing on that bridge, I made my way up river a bit and found a good spot amongst very large boulders and other rock out croppings to eat lunch at. I spent a long time here, and thought it would be my final destination, until I crossed yet another bridge and found the proper Ootama trail again and saw that at most Okutama station was an hour’s walk away. … Still, it was nice to finish out the hike and I discovered that near Okutama there’s quite a few other trails I can explore in the future, so I definitely be back in that area soon.

…The highlight of the whole trip was perhaps listening to Bob on the empty train car back from Okutama station….the Sun had set, but there was still light above the mountain skyline, and Bob was pouring it out.

…

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