Woke up a few times in the night, then got up early as I heard everyone around me stirring. I'm always up early when camping, even when I would be better off sleeping more. Since I intended to stay in the hut, I emptied most of my backpack and put in just the things I thought I would need. I also needed water for two days, as there was none on the top unless I wanted to boil it (I have a filtration unit, but Hokkaido has a special problem with a parasite found in fox feeces that contaminats the still water unless boiled). My pack was heavier than I would have liked, but I'm out of shape so it'd be good exercise.
The hike started off pretty smoothly, nice gentle climb, but very soon it tilted upwards and I was climbing up and over stones, plodding through wet volcanic mud, and over loose stones and criss-crossed roots. I started to really, really appreciate my new trekking poles, as they gave me great stability as I climbed. And I continued climbing, and the trail became even harder. There was no respite, no flat sections or traverse, it was always up, over the stones, through the mud, narrow sloping trail, under low hanging branches (I had my hat on and bumped my head a few dozen times), over roots, step up, step up. It started raining, not a heavy rain, but a constant misting. Mountains in Japan are divided into 10 stages. 10 being the peak, 1 being trail head. By 2nd stage I was tired. By the 5th stage I was exhausted. At the 6th stage, I was dead and simply moving one foot slowly in front of the other. It was unrelenting. Rocks and volcanic mud. Yotei-zan is very steep, it being a volcano, and I was experiencing that first hand. Many rests, keeping my fluids up, I kept going. And going. Every once in awhile I was rewarded by a spectacular overlook, and I could see the road I hiked in on way down there.
After 5 hours of constant, abusive, unrelenting climb, I came out above the tree line and was blasted by the wind and rain. I had been very sheltered on the undermountain, and now at the 9th station I was completely exposed. The view was spectacular, what seemed like a straight drop down behind me, and low mountain bushes or barren rock everywhere. Yotei-zan has a curcuit around the crater rim, but by then I was only interested in finding the hut. I had to go along a narrow, traversing path with encroaching bush and plants for another 45 minutes and ended up completely soaked by the time I reached the hut.
Inside was bare bones, hang your wet things in the entrance, remove shoes, step up to an expansive wooden floor and an old coal burning stove. No electricity. Holes in the floor for latrines. There was a sign-in log, and cost was $8 for the night. Talked with the warden for a bit, his english was pretty good, found out they're on a rotating schedal and change everyone Sunday, he had passed me on the trail coming up and the previous warden coming down. I rested, did some reading in a book I had lugged up, and an ink-pen drawing. The warden was interested in my drawing, and came over with a Yotei-zan stamp with the date and elevation. It made a great addition in the corner of my image.
Bit later, a large group of Japanese hikers, I heard the number at 31 people, came in and settled into the 2nd floor sleeping space. Lots of noise, but everyone, including me, went to bed early to be able to get up an hour before dawn and hike to the other side of the mountain and see the sun come up.
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