Nekodake morning 根子岳東峰

Before heading back to Fukuoka, I wanted to try to do one more hike. Nekoyama was nearby, and I heard it still had good autumn colors on the trees. From Miyaji station. I took a taxi to the trail head and started climbing. The trail was pretty slippery all the way up. Near the top there was a heavy frost covering the branches ( 霧氷). The frost had started to melt onto the trail, so the trail was super wet and slippery. I slipped a few times on the way up, so I was pretty concerned about going back down. 😧 The summit and the weather were glorious. On the summit I met a hiker/YouTuber あおば Aerial san. He was taking pictures with his drone camera. As more hikers arrived on the summit, he took a video of us on with his drone. We waved to the camera as it flew over us on its way to Tenguiwa. He suggested that I go down the other side of the mountain towards Takamori. This trail was much safer than the way I came up. It seems the forbidden side gets much more sun during the day so the trail was able to dry out and not covered with slippery mud. Also, the color on the side of the mountain was amazing. With Momiji trees lining the trail and the sunlight coming through the leaves to light up the brilliant color. Many leaves had already fallen, so the forest had a wonderful smell of drying leaves. What a lovely morning on the mountain.