Last weekend, we embarked on a backpacking trip through the Aso-san area here on Japan's southern island of Kyushu. Aso-san is the largest active volcano caldera in the world so we got to see some volcanic activity - basically clouds of smoke coming out of an area of mountians. It was pretty cool. Plus all the fall colors were beautiful. The weather was perfect for hiking, nice and cool. However, the mountains hold their own kind of weather up in the clouds and it got a little cold for my liking, but once you get that summit view, it makes it all worth it. We summitted 7 mountains in 3 days! Outdoor Rec provided us with all the proper gear to keep us warm and well fed. We cooked some fantastic camping meals, and practiced "Leave No Trace" ethics of maintaining the environment. And with all the volcanos heating up the earth down there, there was a very convenient hotspring near our campsite where we got to soak our bones after the days hike. Perfect.
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| Yay Fall |
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| The prettiest sinks in this mountain roadstop |
Aaaaand this was the last picture before my camera broke. I won't say any names..... but my camera was dropped. So the rest of my pictures are from Kelsie's camera.
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| Cute little rest stop |
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| A public hotspring to soak your feet |
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| Shitakes |
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| very excited! |
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| Happy camper! |
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| Meet Fuki-chan. He is quite the adventure owl. |
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| A little worn out |
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| 1st summit of Daison-san. Too bad we had no view, just clouds |
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| Can you see the face? |
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| Some sweet moss |
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| Very concentrated making Vege Chili |
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| We really went all out with these meals. |
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| We made peanut butter fudge for dessert. And played a game of Fluxx. |
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| Minerals in the water turn the creek this white color |
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| Volcanic activity in the background |
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| We got very happy whenever the sun made an appearance. |
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| Fuki-chan takes a breather |
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| See the gorilla? |
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| Freezing my butt off |
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| Eboshi-dake .. maybe? one of those |
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| Our group taking a snack break at the top |
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| Every now and then the clouds would move and we got a view below. But you had to be quick! It'll be covered again in 5 seconds |
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| We were THERE yesterday |
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| A crater lake where we used the water for lunch |
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| Our campsite |
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| A little steep in some spots |
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| Fuki-chan in front of our Leave No Trace fire on a towel so it wouldn't disturb the ground |
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| Cooking up some lasagna pasta |
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| Roasting our sweet potatoes that we picked at the farm |
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| We placed an offical geocache too. Go to geocache.com to find the coordinates! |
