Mighty Mt Fuji

We started hiking at 12:30 Saturday morning, they said the best view is from the summit at sunrise so off we go.

The trail up is divided into stations, you start hiking at station 5, the summit is station 10. We were very happy to see station 7 as station 6 was pretty dormant. Got our first stamp on our souvenir hiking pole here

I know this is a blurry picture, but we hit a boulder field between station 7 and station 8. It really slowed us down as we were approaching 10,000 feet.

Smiling with blood shot eyes.

Getting another stamp on our pole just before station 8. Very friendly and if my suspicions are correct, a little drunk.

Aaron was pretty sleepy, I had about an hour nap on Friday afternoon, but Aaron was up at 5 am to do the commanders 2 mile run and had to work that day then hike that night.

Good to know...

Station 8! According to the sign, only 3 more hours of hiking.

This way go up.

Sunrise just above station 8 with tuna salad for breakfast.

Our reward for the loss of sleep, TOTALLY worth it!!

Amazing, breathtaking!

Green valley below, best view on the mountain.

So great to have him beside me.

The view down,

The view up. I think I liked it in the dark better!

Ninja Miner

3 of the total of 6 blisters on the tootsies. Thank God for moleskin and Tylenol.

Station 9, we are getting so close.

Had to take our picture under Ol' Glory. Seemed a little out of place, but it's always nice to see her.

This one's for you mom!

Torii gate and protection Dragons at the summit. This was Josh and Ashley, we met them at station 9 and had a great time getting to know them on the way to the summit. They were a lot of fun and made the hike more fun.

Thank you for protection.



Would not want to do it with any one else!


View from the top!

The coffee commercial came to mind. Anyone seen Juan Valdez?


It was hard to believe the summit was just above us.

STEEP!

And we were back to the 5th Station.

Took 9.5 hours to get to the top, the descend was interrupted by a man needing medical attention from yours truly. They had fences bordering the train on the way down. It was a metal fence with rusted, spikey things poking out the top about 3 inches. Paul, the unfortunate victim, tripped and had to start running to catch his balance but unfortunately the said fence stopped him. He reached out his hand to stop his fall and one of the spikes made big mess, and as he was falling, more of the spikes gave him a gash from his left shoulder to his right hip and took a chunk out of his sternum. Needless to say it was messy.

Anyway, his new best friend rode down the mountain in the bucket of a small bulldozer until we could get to some terrain they could get an ambulance to take him the rest of they way down. The ambulance crew made enough room for little ol' me to get a ride to station 5. He is giving the peace sign, just had a monitor on his finger, but he isn't flippin' the bird, promise.

All in all, it was a great trip. Paul will be fine and we got home after being up close to 40 hours and 17 hours of hiking time. Would I do it again? I can safely so no, but it's not because it was too hard-really close to being too hard- but because we had such a great time, the conditions were amazing and the day was more than ideal. Great memories made on Mt Fuji!