Varied Scenery at Mount Akasaka

What?
Mount Akasaka (赤坂山) lies on the Takashima trail (高島トレイル) straddling the prefectural border between Shiga (滋賀県) and Fukui (福井県) Prefectures. The complete trail is about 80 kilometers long, but we only hiked the section between Akasaka and Mount Mikuni (三国山), catching another peak – Kanpu (寒風) – along the way. The half loop hike starts at Makino Highland (マキノ高原) in the town of Takashima (高島市) and shows different faces through very diversified landscapes and sceneries.
Where?
Located on the border of Shiga and Fukui Prefectures, we headed for the trailhead by getting off at Makino Station (マキノ駅) along Lake Biwa (琵琶湖) on the Kosei Line (湖西線), connecting Tsuruga (敦賀) on one side and Kyoto (京都) and Osaka (大阪) on the other. From there you can take the bus to Makino Highland, or walk for about an hour. I recommend the bus though, as the straight metasequoia tree-lined boulevard leading up to the highland is so popular with tourists that cars and motorcycles don’t really make for a leisurely stroll.
URL
Tozan Tales Takashima Trail (JP)

Leaving very early in the morning for what we thought might be a tough 8 hour hike. The negative thing about this is… well, the hour; the positive thing is the fantastic scenery we got to witness.
Already walking the roads between rice paddies towards the starting point of the mountain trail, we got to see low clouds crawling in the valleys between the various hills and mountain peaks. Today was going to be a clear sunny day – and that’s great – but nature reserved some early morning clouds for us – and it turned out that was great too!

The hike starting at the Makino Highland which in winter serves as a rather simple ski course and in every other season as a camping ground. The camping ground was rather empty with only one tent standing. We said good morning and started up the ski slope. As I had previously experienced once in Zao, hiking up ski slopes is a very tiresome and monotonous activity. We were already sighing and complaining and above all hoping that this hike would also have something else in store for us. Luckily it did. Exiting the slope on the left we immediately entered a forest and started to climb in more favorable conditions. The first few kilometers would only be going up, but all in all it wasn’t as tough as we feared. In the fantastic weather we quickly gained time and arrived at the first peak, Kanpu at 854 meters. From here on we would be gently going up and down without too many height differences. And from here on we could see the path we would be taking would lead us straight through the rolling clouds which were eager to clear the way for a bright day.

Going through these clouds was cold but pretty awesome. Diving back into the forest we noticed a perfect circular rainbow, getting out of the forest we couldn’t see 10 meters on what I figured out was a meadow specked with rocks, maybe karst. A little later I noticed we were walking on a ridge line with clouds on the left side and clear skies on the right. The views on Lake Biwa were already fabulous, and once on top Mount Akasaka (824m) we had a 360 degree view that also included a clear view of Mount Hakusan some 150 km further north.

Morning sun scenery.

A small circular rainbow in the eerie forest.

Only one end of the ridge is visible.

Where did this lonely tree come from?

Going down, up, and down again we passed Myo-o no Hage (明王の禿), a bald spot of sandstone (?) and impressive rock formations, again with some spectacular views on the scenery below. We pushed on to Mount Mikuni (876m), our highest point of the day. I would recommend to turn back after Myo-no no Hage as there is no particular view to be had at the Mikuni peak, so in a sense it’s a bit anticlimactic.
We turned back, walked towards a point a little beyond Mount Akasaka which was now completely clear of clouds and took a loop down towards the ski slope, this time wanting to reach it from the right side. The path was littered with stones of various sizes making it more tough than it should have been, but time passed quickly, we saw some tiny waterfalls and colorful leaves on the way and before we knew it we were walking the ski slope down towards the camping ground.
It seemed like a different place compared to the morning as it was filled with day campers and families enjoying a day off. We had made the complete hike in around 6 hours and a half, so we laid ourselves down on the grass and enjoyed the warm afternoon sun and the hustle and bustle of the camping ground.

A clouded valley, a ski slope, forested roads, a meadow, a bald peak with clear views, sandstones and cool rock formations, a ridge line dividing clouds and clear skies, a camping ground… this was definitely the most diverse hike I have been to up untill now.
And the great day ended by a great stay in Taraichitei, and old house transformed into guest house. I warmly recommend this place which has kept a lot of its authentic charm (irori hearth, traditional rice oven, several spacious rooms of which one straight underneath the thatched roof), but also with a renovated kitchen and bathroom to keep up with the modern standards of comfort.

A fantastic hike in great conditions with superb company.