Day 32: 88 Temples (44,45) - Kumakogen

Mike and I went down for breakfast at 6:30, forgetting that we said 7:00.  This caused some confusion and people were rushing before they needed to. Sorry.


While we sat there the weather outside was looking pretty bad.  It was raining, though not as hard as I heard in the night.  The forecast was for snow.  Suddenly, Claude popped up.  I was surprised he had caught up to me.  He said the weather was going to be bad but there was a bus at 8:10 to Temple 45.


Mike had some work for clients he needed to do and didn't feel like walking in the freezing rain so he decided to stay in for the day.


Claude and I agreed to catch the 8:10 bus up the mountain to Temple 45 and walk back and visit Temple 44.  44 is only 1km from the hotel so it is an easy one.


We found the bus at the terminal attached to the Lawson.  I was able to get a latte.  The bus left right at 8:10 and 20 minutes later we were at the base of Temple 45.  It started snowing.


There was a nice climb to the temple on a steep concrete path through the forest.  The weather was doing all kinds of crazy things.  It was raining, then snowing, then sunny.  This pattern repeated every 5 minutes.  Temple 45 is an A-list temple.  Amazing setting.


The weather got much worse as we reversed the bus route.  We decided the conditions were a little too bad to be venturing on to steep forest paths.  Walking along the road also felt a little risky as the cars were running in 3-4cm deep slushy snow.  Fortunately, traffic was light.  Most sane people were home and warm.

Not many pictures of our walk because of the cold wet hands, foggy glasses, phone thing.

We met Kevin from Calgary coming the other direction.  He was doing the full walking route dispite the weather.  He had come over the trail from Temple 44 and said the trail was getting bad and there were some washed out sections.  That convinced us to stick to the road and go through the tunnel with no sidewalk.


Soon we were at Temple 44 and it was also a very nice temple.  Large clumps of snow were sliding off the roof and landing with a heavy splat.  Claude wanted to stick around and take pictures but I was eager to be done.


I met Mike before going back to the hotel and we found a place for noodles.  Afterward I retreated to the warmth of my hotel room and he still had work to finish.


There are a lot of foreign Henro in the hotel last night and tonight.  At dinner there were four of us sitting at the bar eating dinner.  Mike, me, Claude and Kevin.  Kevin did go all the way to 45 and back and credited his Marino wool socks for keeping his wet feet warm. It was a fun evening.


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