elcome to Mount
Hashikami, a tall and beautiful pile of rock about an hour's south
of Misawa in northern Japan. The mountain and surrounding Tsukushi
Forest are a popular destination for hikers and you will encounter
large groups of tourists, especially retirees, on the trails.
This
cache was placed as the main event of Misawa Geocachers Organization's
09-09-09 Multi-Event and the coordinates take you to the
cache's first stage. At each stage you will find a photo with the
coordinates of the next stage on the back. At the final cache,
there are small hand-sewn booklets with tabbed pages for your
photos - please feel free to take one as a memento of your trip.
The hike itself is perhaps 1.5 miles in length, but be prepared for
some extremely steep portions of the trail. If it has rained, watch
out for very slick mud. It is highly recommended that you return to
the start by the same trail when you are done - the panoramic vista
of Hachinohe, Misawa, and the Pacific is visible as through the
trees as you descend. There is also a scenic overlook at
N40-24.573/E141-35.096 that is accessible by car, or you can
continue hiking up the trail past the cache's final to reach the
torii gate (and, incongruously enough, TV towers) at the summit for
a great view of the plain below. Muggles are most prevalent around
stage two, but as the mountain is popular you will encounter
numerous hikers on all parts of the trails.
If you are interested in find the mountain's other cache, a good
plan would be to seek out Stages One and Two of this cache, then
find Hashikami; Stones behind the Bus, and
then continue on to search for the rest of this multi's caches. As
is the case for "Stones behind the Bus", easy parking is to be had
at approximately N40-24.930/E141-34.881. If you want to enjoy the
trail from the actual base of the mountain, start your journey at
N40-25.586/E141-34.750.
Note: the best accuracy available during the placing of
this cache was +/- 6 meters, so check out the hints below if you
have any problems.
