(#3/9) South west Hokkaido

4 Sept
Niseko, site of the 1972 Olympics and many steep roads. There are multiple ski resorts along the mountain, all of them have hot springs and the whole area is surrounded by farmland. As with everything, it wasn't quite what I expected but it was gorgeous.

I wanted to go to Gosheiki, an onsen and popular hike. There was a campground right across the street and after a long, sweaty, muscle cramping climb uphill I finally made it. I pitched my tent and onsen-ed my evening away. 

 The next morning i took off early for the 16km Gosheiki circuit. I underestimated the trail greatly. It climbed 3 mountains and the trail was... Sporty.

 Sometimes it was more of a washout and sometimes a hand over hand scramble. At one point there was a climbing rope tied off to a tree to aid hikers up a slope.
Mixed with the challenging terrain were board walks that passed over beautiful swamps filled with dressed up tourists. I gasped out a sweaty "konichiwa"as they gave me a wide bearth.
The views from the top of course were worth it. The sandwich and sweet fried crunchy things I brought were not so much.

 I made it back to camp in one piece and decided to ride down to the valley floor that afternoon, passing rice paddies along the way.

 I limped my way into a campground, much farther along than I had planned to go. The caretaker made a point to repeatedly let me know where the showers and the laundry were located. The camp was wonderful, in the middle of a beech tree grove, and I woke up with a dry tent for the first time on the trip.

Down the road I ran into Onuma, a little town between two lakes. I stopped at a bakery on the way and each treat was way different than I thought. I need to get used to the fact that chocolate is not chocolate, but instead, bean paste. Custard is mayonnaise, and what I thought was egg was really crab meat in batter. Not bad, just unexpected.
My campsite was free (instead of $3) since they were closing due to a typhoon. I opted to leave early the next morning instead of seeing what camping in a typhoon felt like. I made it to Hakodate with enough time to see the snow monkeys at the botanical gardens. It must have been too warm for them to be using their onsen.

 The tropical gardens were beautiful and even more humid than outside. I was able to spend the morning there, wall along the historic brick buildings on the wharf, and still catch the noon ferry to northern honshu.

The ferry was like a cruise ship, or maybe I had just been outside for a really long time. Sitting in the dry ship for 3 hours was like a mini vacation and for the first time in days I did not spend my afternoon covered in sweat.

Southward I go!