Winter Camping

Saturday morning 6 of us packed up the cars and headed for the mountains, but not to snowboard...we wanted to camp in the snow! We brought more gear than necessary, but we realized we wouldn't be hiking in, it would be a car camping trip. Our first few ideas were shot down, almost literally. We put snowshoes on to check out a road in the hopes of making it up to a trailhead and camping there. After our initial reconnaissance mission we drove our car up the road, but the snow got deeper, the road stepper and more slippery. Just as we were decided to bail and turn back, a bigger 4WD SUV came down the mountain. At first I thought it was mountain patrol and they got out and were making gestures and motions that we shouldn't be there. But in actuality it was a hunter also doing a reconnaissance mission. And he warned us that camping in these mountains might be a bad idea because rabbit and wild boar hunting opened in the morning. Eek, how would we have EVER known that??

So we headed back down the mountain and decided to drive around a little pond in the hopes of finding a place for our tuna sandwhich and soup lunch. As luck had it, we found a shelter unlocked with a platform perfect for 7 sleeping bags (chica joined us later) and a fire pit in the middle of the building! We got lunch going, set up our stuff, and before dark set in we headed back to the main road and into the onsen, 5 minutes away!! It was PERFECT!!

It was a fun-filled night. And even thought we didn't get our snow camping in, it was probably a blessing in disguise, plus it did snow in the morning.

My camera battery was dead, but I stole Shinji's pics. For more pics, please visit San Tache It's worth a visit!!