Let’s Do Nature Observation; Mikurube Forestry Road, Part 2 三廻部林道 2

The forest along Mikurube Forestry Road 三廻部林道 is designated as a water source forest by Kanagawa Prefecture, i.e. protected for nature conservation. My impression is, half the vegetation is afforested conifers and another half is of broad-leaved trees which is a mixture of evergreens and deciduous kinds. The route is paved for cars. The surface of the road is sometimes covered by fallen leaves or the like, but at least as of November 2021 there is no disruption by landslides. Compared with the other forestry roads in Tanzawa 丹沢, Mikurube Forestry Road is relatively less steep. Almost entire route has crash barriers. In short, your itinerary with Mikurbe Road is a nice mountain stroll on a paved way. Having said that, as this is a road running on a surface of sharp Tanzawa Mountains, the valleys beyond guard rail are precipitous and deep. If you’re with your adventurous kids, you’d better be watchful especially when they try to cross the barrier.

 When we walk from
Entrance to Omote-Tanzawa Citizen Forest Bus Stop
  表丹沢県民の森入口,
we first find the sign for the beginning
 of Mikurube Forestry Road, then,

there is a sign at the junction
 with Kami-Hadano Forestry Road 上秦野林道
(which is to Omote-Tanzawa Citizen Forest)
 showing the direction of Mikurube Road.
 Here, we take the road on our left.

The gate is after the above signpost.
 Could you see it over there at the end of this photo?

We can walk the route in this condition.

As this is a quiet paved road, it’s easy doing plant observation party along Mikurube Road. The trees we often encounter in our walk may tell typical geological condition of Tanzawa. Ainus pendula, Euptelea polyandra Soeb. Et Zucc., and Japanese walnut (Jaglans mandshurica) are very common. Ainus pendula is a pioneer plant thriving on a scree slope where they can enjoy lots of sunshine with a smaller number of competitors. Euptelea polyandra and Japanese walnut love humid banks of streams. Such trees suggest fragile soil of Tanzawa with lots of rains. Mountainside of the Mikurube Forestry Road is often treated against rockfall, but mantle vegetation-like scenery covers man-made stonewalls. Solanum lyratum shows off their bright red berries in fall. Jack-in-the-pulpits are here and there in early summer. If you love nature, you’ll enjoy your weekend here searching for interesting things.

 A scenery of forest along Mikurube Forestry Road

Euptelea polyandra, early summer

Stephanandra incisa is
dangling from the slope, early summer

Large Caesalpinia sepiaria var. japonica,
 coiling itself from the bottom of the valley

Youngia denticulata,
another pioneer plant for scree slope and
 the last flower before Christmas

Rhus sylvestris began
 turning red in early November.

Observing Mt. Toh 塔ノ岳 (ASL 1491m) from Mikurube Forestry Road.
 Could you figure out the front of this photo shows clear-cut logging?
 The afforested area needs tending by foresters to maintain biodiversity.
 Humans harvest logs from such part, carry the logs via the forestry road.

Wild Japanese lentian in Mikurube Forestry Road

Actually, not only plants, but also animals we meet in Mikurube Forestry Road. When a quiet mountainous road is easy for humans to walk, so as for animals. Here, finding their footprints is easy on the road-side slopes. During spring to early summer, we hear tweets of Himalayan cuckoo or Blue-and-white flycatcher. The other day, when we finished our lunch and prepared to resume our walk, we noticed our rest was observed by a curious Japanese serow situated himself (er, I though it was “he”) on a slope just above our heads. If you’re seeking a chance to watch spider cubs helter-skelter in all directions, you may poke one of kindergartens of 8-legged kids on a moss-covered crash barrier. It’s purely a fun!

Hi there.

Whichever gate you choose to start walking Mikurube Forestry Road, it’s one way route in quiet forest. As long as you keep yourself on a paved road, you’ll never lose the way. Admitting, to enjoy this road we have problems for the access to the entrance. But, if you have a chance, especially with kids and illustrated reference books for fields, please try. I bet you can satisfy you and your family’s appetite for nature observation in Tanzawa Mountains. Ainus pendula and Euptelea polyandra Soeb. Et Zucc. flower early in spring. In this world of global warming, we may find their flowers in February, or even in January …

If you find environmental issues in Kanagawa Prefecture, please make a contact with Kanagawa Natural Environment Conservation Center 神奈川県自然環境保全センター

657 Nanasawa, Atsugi City, 243-0121
〒243－0121　厚木市七沢657 

Phone: 046-248-0323

Hiking in deep Tanzawa along the pavement; Mikurube Forestry Road, Part 1 三廻部林道 1

Abraxas miranda

Japanese mountainous areas have two kinds of roads. One is the ordinary route as in towns and cities for standard travelers of day-to-day activities, like shopping, daily commuting for business/school, having fun, etc. Another is so-called forestry road. They are mainly for the necessities of business of forestry. They run windingly in deep mountains. Normally they do not have bus stop. Their design is for foresters in pickup trucks. It does not care for family cars to run smoothly. They may be paved but once some disturbance, like landslides, happens, municipalities often are not in a hurry to repair. Encountering gravel rocks in a twisted forestry road is common. Sometimes, the access to that road is limited for permit holders, such as the forestry road in Yadoriki Water Source Forest やどりき水源林. The good thing for such forestry road is, as this is a very specialized facility, using it we can hike quiet mountain areas without encountering much crowd. Yeah, cars can come, maybe just once during your day walk. It’s not much. As this is a paved way, the novices of hiking can try mountain areas with relative ease. Today, I introduce you one such road in Yadoriki Community 寄. That’s Mikurube Forestry Road 三廻部林道.

Pretty Deutzia scabra,
May 2021 in Mikurube Forestry Road

Mikurube Forestry Road connects Omote Tanzawa Citizen Forest 表丹沢県民の森 (; my post on November 10th and 17th, 2017) and Yadoriki Community. Actually, Mikurube Forestry Road crosses the route for climbing Mt. Nabewari 鍋割山 (ASL 1272.4m). You may encounter aficionados to/from Mt. Nabewari using Mikurube Road, instead of the standard route, to the bus stop. Hikers often use one’s own car for the Citizen Forest and Mt. Nabewari, parking it near the Citizen Forest. Though the Prefecture has the right to tow cars without permission to enter this far. In the end the road is for foresters, you remember? Both at Omote Tanzawa Citizen Forest side and at Yadoriki side, the entrance to Mikurube Forestry Road has a locked gate. Only permission holding cars/bikes can run here. In contrast, the gate is not for pedestrians. We can pass through the points just by crossing the gate from the gap. Unless there is a forester doing his/her business along Mikurube Forestry Road, it’s a relaxing hiking route in deep Omote Tanzawa. Bonus: unlike the forestry roads running from, say, Okura Bus Stop 大倉 in Hadano City 秦野市, not many people use this route. You can enjoy your quiet one-day hike in Mikurube Road.

Tricyrtis hirta near the gate for Citizen Forest side

The name “Mikurube” is very rare in Japanese. This site says the naming was due to a rather strange landlord of the area who insisted to call his Buddhist temple Mikurube in the 15th century. In short, no one knows why the place is called like this. As the area is a part of Tanzawa Mountains 丹沢, we Kanagawa Forest Instructors suspect there could be a secret meaning from Shugendoh 修験道, Japanese mountain ascetism. From the entrance of Citizen Forest side to Mikurube Pass 三廻部峠, which is the half of Mikurube Forestry Road, the road runs in Mikurube Township. From Mikurube Pass to another gate near Miroku Camp Field ミロクキャンプ場, the route goes through Yadoriki Township. For both townships, no human settlement is there along Mikurube Forestry Road.

Around Mikurube Pass, we can find
Viburnum plicatum var. tomentosum here and there.
 It has cute white flowers just for a week
 in late May to early June.

The entire length of the road is about 6.6km, and the difference in elevation is about 250m, not much in any case. Though from the nearest bus stops to both entrances, it’s about 15-45 minutes’ walk. I guess the total mileage for hiking would be about 12km. If you enter the Road from the Citizen Forest side, please take community bus service named “Kami-chan Goh, Mikurube Line 上ちゃん号 みくるべ線” (timetable here) from Odakyu Shibusawa Station 渋沢駅. Please get off the bus at “The Entrance to Omote-Tanzawa Citizen Forest” Stop 表丹沢県民の森入口, and walk for approx. 45 min to the entrance. Er … this service is weekdays only. For weekends, we have to use Okura Bus Terminal 大倉ターミナル (; timetable from Shibusawa Station is here) and take the route to the Citizen Forest I reported in my posts in 2017. You see how remote the place is.

Also near the gate of Citizen Forest side,
Aster ageratoides ssp. Leiophyllus.
Although the road is paved,
we can find many wildflowers along Mikurube Forestry Road.

Another side, the entrance near the Miroku Camp Field is about 15-20 minutes’ walk from Yadoriki Bus Terminal of Fujikyu Bus from Shin-Matsuda Station 新松田駅 (timetable here). Also, Miroku Camp Field has parking spaces for campers. It is a secretly VERY popular camping site with full-facility. Especially from the beginning of COVID-19 pandemic, the proprietor allows only 10 families a day for camping … ideal to have a break from pandemic, isn’t it? If you’re lucky enough able to reserve a camping space at Miroku Camp Field with your kids, it one of the options for your holiday menu enjoying one day hike back and forth along Mikurube Forestry Road. Next week, I’ll tell you how actually the Mikurube Forestry Road was this year. Please stay tuned!

Cute flowers of Alangium platanifolium var. trilobum,
found along Mikurube Road, early summer, 2021.

If you find environmental issues in Kanagawa Prefecture, please make a contact with Kanagawa Natural Environment Conservation Center 神奈川県自然環境保全センター

657 Nanasawa, Atsugi City, 243-0121
〒243－0121　厚木市七沢657

Phone: 046-248-0323

Quiet conqueror: Yadoriki Water Source Forest, early spring 2021 やどりき水源林

Euptelea polyandra in March 2021 for Yadoriki Forest

The last time I’ve been to Yadoriki Water Source Forest やどりき水源林 was October 2020. The place was under heavy reconstruction from the destruction by typhoons in 2019. Early this month, I’ve returned there. The works are still on-going, but several parts are open to hikers.

Japanese green alder (Alnus firma)
 in March 2021 for Yadoriki Forest

The prefecture has almost completed the repair works for the forestry road from the gate of Water Source Forest. We can walk a paved road almost to the end of the former route. The collapsed section is detoured by a new cutting through the western slope of Mt. Nabewari 鍋割山 (ASL 1272.4m). The debris of landslides 2 years ago still remain, but they definitely become a small part of the course. I think finally families with kids can walk there now. Though, we forest instructors have recognized that the prefecture, i.e. the landlord, does not intend to recover the pavement fully that before reached to the starting point to the trail to Ameyama Pass 雨山峠 (ASL 957m). Anyway, there is undeniably an improvement.

The collapsed part of the previous route is detoured.

The work is still going on …

Yadoriki Stream 寄沢, which caused flash floods and debris flows in 2019, is undergoing a substantial intervention. The Prefectural Office flattened the riverbed with heavy machinery and digging artificial water way in the middle. We seriously doubted how long such synthetic river can last if another monster typhoon hits the area again … In 2019, the Open Space near toilets suffered heavy erosion to be reduced in half. The place is still off-limit. We hope the site becomes accessible by summer holiday. But … could we find a place for kids to play with water, I wonder …?

This is the flattened riverbed.
 We cannot see the stream from this point,
 but a fissure at the foot of these destroyed logs
 is artificially dug water way.

Woooooooow.
 The stream looks like a road now …
 the construction work is going-on.

The afforestation expanded on the western slope of Yadoriki Stream is receiving an intense forestry by thinning cedars and cypresses. The prefecture told us the place is accessible only for professional foresters who contracted the work from the Office. In 2019, Yadoriki Stream was flooded with broken and uprooted afforested trees. So, doing professional forestry up there to stabilize the slope certainly has a good reason. They say the work will continue at least until summer this year. We will be able to have a quiet autumn walk in Hadano Forestry Road 秦野林道 this year …

The trolley line for forestry to the western slope is
 fully operational now.

We found lots of Astraeus sp. as well.
 They love gravelly place so that encountering them
 in Yadoriki of under-construction may not be surprising.

Despite of massive civil engineering, I personally find the nature of Yadoriki Forest is recovering strongly. After the typhoons in 2019, I felt sad to find many decimated points where before beautiful mosses secretly but cheerfully sprouted their capsule to procreate. Now they are coming back, if not fully. Impressive. In Chinese character, mosses are written as 苔. It’s a hieroglyph. The top part which looks like a hat means “row of grasses.” The middle symbolizes “plow”, and the bottom is “mouth.” When a farmer starts his/her work in the spring, the first thing s/he normally does is plowing the ground like opening the mouth of soil. So, the Chinese character for mosses means “it’s the beginning of vegetation.” Yeah. Yadoriki Water Source Forest was covered with mountain debris two years ago. Aside from the endeavor of humans restoring the place, tiny mosses may be quietly taking a lead for the recovery of the forest ... Petit conquerors!

I think, they are Palamocladium leskeoides.
 Such delicate apparitions of mosses were
 gone after monster typhoons of 2019
 … Now, they’re back!

The beloved Racomitrium japonicum are recovering in Yadoriki.
 Hurrah!

If you find environmental issues in Kanagawa Prefecture, please make a contact with Kanagawa Natural Environment Conservation Center 神奈川県自然環境保全センター

657 Nanasawa, Atsugi City, 243-0121
〒243－0121　厚木市七沢657
Phone: 046-248-0323

You can send an enquiry to them by clicking the bottom line of their homepage at http://www.pref.kanagawa.jp/div/1644/

Inshallah redux; the southwest slope of Mt. Nabewari to Ameyama Pass after Typhoon Hagibis 雨山峠

For about a month, I have been hesitating if I post today’s topic ... I’ve decided to go ahead. This week, I tell you how the southwest slope of Mt. Nabewari 鍋割山 (ASL 1272.4m) is now, after Typhoon Hagibis. Mind you, at the moment Kanagawa Prefecture strongly discourages anybody to go there due to the devastation by Hagibis. So, this post is NOT for introducing the hiking course. I WILL NOT tell you the itinerary, but just show you how the situation was in early December before winter snow. Next week, I tell you my tiny experience in Yushin Valley ユーシン渓谷 that now is practically off-limit for casual visitors due to winter collapse (more to it next week). We Forest Instructors of Kanagawa Prefecture are worrying the same should happen in the southwest slope of Mt. Nabewari during this winter. If not, the next big typhoon will surely bring further destruction. It’s not a place for somebody new to Tanzawa 丹沢 to enter. I’ve been there with my senior instructors as a part of duty to make it sure how bad the situation is in order to inform visitors. Several forest Instructors, including a veteran ranger for Akaishi Mountains (aka Southern Japanese Alps), know the place well for decades. Actually, the southwest slope of Mt. Nabewari is defined as Yadoriki Water Source Forest やどりき水源林 so that it’s the area Kanagawa Forest Instructors are supposed to know well. Inshallah. The scenery was awesome, honestly.

Having said that, rough sketch of the itinerary is like this: it starts from the main gate of Yadoriki Water Source Forest, crossing many times Yadoriki Stream 寄沢, and ends at Ameyama Pass 雨山峠. The route traverses the notorious “Collapse in Hell” slope 地獄崩れ which has become more hellish by the typhoons. Moreover, it’s extremely difficult to figure out the routes now due to frequent landslides after the storms this fall. In any case, typhoon or not the route is well-known among Japanese alpinists as one of the most dangerous routes in Tanzawa mountains. Many people died, or went missing. A husband who returned to pick up an item left in the picnic bench of Ameyama Pass has not reunited with his wife since October 2018. These 3 months, there are several reports for encounters with bears in the route. You’ve got an idea, I hope.

Yet, if you do want to try, the things you MUST do are

1.      Find people who know the place damned-well, and say OK to go there with you.

2.      Choose the season of your visit: end of fall or late spring will be the best. For both times, the infestation by vampire leeches would be minimum. The weather could be relatively stable with fewer rain.

3.      NEVER enter there when it rains, or a couple of days after the rain. The route shall be deadly slippery, and you can put your name in the list of deads who tripped over the scree.

4.      Be well-equipped. Real climbing shoes and good gloves are the MUST-HAVEs. Also enough food, water, emergency kits, et al.

5.     For this route, VERY GOOD MAP, COMPASS, and HEAD LAMP WITH ENOUGH BATTERY are also indispensable. It’s so easy to lose the way here even for veterans. Those gadgets are handy when emergency happens. Imagine you lose your way, and find yourself alone in a completely dark deep mountain … thus for the head lamp. If you have iBeacon or cocoHeli, DO carry them. 

Now here are the photos how things are over there.

Yadoriki Stream has changed its riverbed completely. The course of the stream itself has altered drastically, and the nice points for crossing the stream have gone. We have to search for the places to get across. Forest Instructors worry those possible new routes could tramp rare plants that were once in shielded corners of the forest. Let us see carefully what happens to them …

Those roads which was once in the forest along the stream now look like a part of riverbed with trees sticking out of scree. It makes difficult to figure out the route. We searched the direction shown by a pink ribbon somebody left before us. There is no guarantee we can find the next ribbon soon, though.

Before the Collapse in Hell slope, there is a large landslide that destroyed completely a debris barrier for Yadoriki Stream. On the foot of it, there are piles of large trees with their roots sticking out to the sky. The entire grade broke down during the storms this fall. Here, we could figure out how thin the topsoil is in Tanzawa Mountains … We are sure, it will collapse further soon.

The “Collapse in Hell” slope is more hellish now with piles of logs on foot and more screes. It would be extremely difficult to traverse there if it rains, or immediately after rain. We were lucky.

There are several points where originally narrow plank path becomes thinner conduit precariously runs over slippery scree filled slopes tumbling down to deep valleys. To traverse such points we really had to go on all fours; and so, gloves are the MUST-HAVEs.

Strangely, the final stretch to Ameyama Pass kept its course as before the Hagibis. However, this is the area where many deaths and missings occur for decades. It’s simply preserves its trickiness.

Although this is very difficult place to enter, it is the only course currently to go to Yushin Valley as a day trip. I tell you my adventure to Yushin Valley via Ameyama Pass next week. I know you would ask “What is Yushin Valley?” Well, stay tuned! 😉

If you find environmental issues in Kanagawa Prefecture, please make a contact with Kanagawa Natural Environment Conservation Center 神奈川県自然環境保全センター

657 Nanasawa, Atsugi City, 243-0121
〒243－0121　厚木市七沢657
Phone: 046-248-0323

You can send an enquiry to them by clicking the bottom line of their homepage at http://www.pref.kanagawa.jp/div/1644/

Roaming Bear: Wild animals near us

In May 2019, there was an alert issued by the Prefectural Office for Yadoriki Water Source Forest やどりき水源林. It was about a bear. On May 10, 2019, it was sighted feces of an Asian black bear (Ursus thibetanus) and cedar trees whose barks where stripped probably by the same species, with scratches and bites. Photos were circulated among Kanagawa Forest Instructors. One photo was for a denuded cypress tree with vivid scars. Another was poops, gigantic ones, which were typical of bears. The incident was recorded very near to the admin office of Yadoriki Water Source Forest. “Come to think of it, there was a sighting of a cub in Ameyama Pass 雨山峠 last fall.” “Yes, yes.” “There is another cedar, withered due to peel-off by a bear in Ushirozawa Stream 後沢 near a warehouse.” “Indeed …” Senior instructors emailed us a notice “Please be careful. Carry precautionary bear bells in order to avoid unfortunate encounter.” Certainly. So, we are now ringing bells when we enter Yadoriki Forest. It’s, I would say, noisy. Yeah, that’s the point of bear bells. But how about bird-watching in Yadoriki? The sounds of bells disperse birds whose chirping could normally be heard.

Ring, ring, ring …

2 weeks later, when we did thinning of cypresses in Yadoriki Forest, we met another large denuding of two trees by a bear. According to my seniors, those scars showed the bear “hugged” the tree and bit off the barks in order to lick molasses. “Look. This upper part has its tooth mark, and lower than these is its scratches.” “You know, now, the season of acorns has long gone. They are hungry.” Hmmmmmm. I’ve found this site of a professional photographer pondering relations between bark stripping by bears and health of afforested places. He hypothesizes bears are good at finding trees of increased circulation in sugary syrup. A tree does so when it’s not in a good health, like we crave for junk food when we’re exhausted ... So, when bears denude trees here and there in a forest, it could be a sort of indicator about the situation of trees, he says … Yeah. We have to admit we’re late in thinning for a healthy afforested forest. Congestion could make each cypress weaker than otherwise. Bears can smell the “blood” due to our neglect … Meanwhile, we hear many news about encounters between humans and wild animals. In Yamaguchi Prefecture 山口県, near Hiroshima, bears come to congested town nowadays (news from here). One evening late May this year in Iwakuni City 岩国市, a lady came home and found an adult bear of 1 m tall tried to open the door of her front entrance. (Yap, the city is where the US Marine stations.) Woooooooooooow. Something is happening in Japanese forests. I myself feel more close-encounters with wild animals these days, comparing with my kid-days decades ago … Or, is it simply because of my ignorance?

It’s a bite, I guess.

Scratches.
 I think s/he was so excited to have syrup and
 attacked the tree with strong claws intensely.

In Yadoriki, one day, we found a drowning Japanese field mouse (Apodemus speciosus) in a toilet. Oh dear … poor guy (?). One thing for sure is, we humans have entered deep in nature and made marks of our existence, like modern toilets. From animals’ point of view, they lived there for centuries, and we are new-comers disrupting their lives. One morning that Yadoriki’s toilet became a shelter for a horseshoe bat (Rhinolophus ferrumequinum). When we found it, we were quite excited. “Wow, what is it?” “It’s large!” “Camera, camera, camera!” The animal must have slept deep, but was got up by commotion below. It bent backwards as much as possible (“Wow, how flexible!”) and opened its mouth many times. (“Cute!”) We could not hear any screech, but the animal must have emitted human-inaudible ultrasound, saying “Hey, I’m sleeping! What are you guys doing there? What time you think is it now!?” Oh so self-centered humans.

Oh so poor mouse …

The bat. It really looked cute …

One spring day, I had a chance to enter deep in Yadoriki Forest to the direction of a ridge way from Yadoriki Community 寄 to Mt. Nabewari 鍋割山 (ASL 1272.4m). On our way, about ASL 800m point, there is a relatively horizontal space that has two wallows. It’s very strange to find such thing away from the valley … The place is strangely flat after very steep climbing, and has a sort of peculiar atmosphere. We were looking for colonies of wild Calanthe discolor our senior forest instructors found 2 years ago, and crisscrossing the space. The smell of animal is intense although we cannot see any large moving creature. Because of this smell, or not, I could feel indications of mammals filling the space. Perhaps, they were watching us meandering in their domain. “Huh, that rude two-legged creatures searching something in our bathroom!” The place is in less than one hour climb from the forestry road. It’s amazing to find such wild realm so near from human places. It would just be we are too arrogant and ignorant not to be conscious of our neighbor next door in a forest … So sorry for our cluelessness.

A wallow.
 Though there was no water then, the soil was still wet.

A footprint of deer? Serow? Boar?

This is what we were looking for.

Then, the other day, when we did our normal forestry activities in Niiharu, an animal jumped out in front of us, and ran up high on a tree next to the trekking road. “What!?” “What is it?” “Cat?” We took a photo and did a research. We concluded it was a masked palm civet (Paguma larvata). The species is good at climbing up trees, and so it jumped around the trees in Niiharu. Japanese have not found fossils for Masked palm civets in our territory. Also, the spread of this animal is not continuous in the archipelago. On the other hand, their Mitochondria DNA is identical with 2 groups of civet native to Taiwan. Ministry of Environment considers they are probably foreign species came to Japan relatively recently. One theory says they were brought in during the 19^th century in order to harvest fur. The City of Yokohama recognizes several damages they can cause for houses and farms. Mountain of their poops in a garret with horrible smells. Bitten fruits scattered around in a commercial orchard. … Here is another vista of our naïveté with wild animals. They are always very near from us. Oh, yeah.

Niiharu’s masked palm civet

If you find an environmental issues in Kanagawa Prefecture, please make a contact with Kanagawa Natural Environment Conservation Center 神奈川県自然環境保全センター

657 Nanasawa, Atsugi City, 243-0121 〒243－0121　厚木市七沢657

Phone: 046-248-0323

You can send an enquiry to them by clicking the bottom line of their homepage at http://www.pref.kanagawa.jp/div/1644/