Bear Mountain picnic

Over the long weekend, I went on a short hike with my wife and her sister and two young nieces.  One of the girls is a first grade elementary school student and the other is a sixth grade student.  So, as you can imagine, we chose a hike that was not too long or difficult. 

We climbed to the top of Mount Tenran (Tenran-zan), in Hanno.  We climbed a steep slope with wooden steps to get to the top.  For most people it probably wasn’t a difficult climb, but for a blind guy and a first grader it was pretty taxing.

One of the first things we noticed was a sign that warned that bears had been spotted in the area.  My wife’s younger niece asked if I was swinging my stick in front of me to keep the bears away.  I rather like the idea.

We were all tired when we reached the top and so took a break to have a picnic.  We had onigiri and mikan.  Actually, we had onigiri, mikan and fried chicken which my sister-in-law had brought.  She obviously hasn’t been reading my blog.  I decided not to tell her that I had become a semi-vegetarian and just ate it.  I must admit that it tasted nice.

The real difficulties began on the way down.  We took a different route down the mountain.  Instead of wooden steps, there were boulders, mud and a more gradual slope to the bottom.  Unfortunately, I hadn’t checked my shoes very carefully before I came out.  They were an old pair of shoes and the soles had worn completely smooth.  The day we went hiking, Sunday, was dry.  But the previous day it had rained heavily and the boulders and mud were still wet.

So I was slipping and sliding the whole way down, holding on to my wife’s arm and using my bear-stick to test the ground in front of me and to help support my weight.  I nearly fell over a number of times and other hikers were shouting out encouragement or warnings.

We made it to the ground in the end.  My trousers and shoes were covered in mud and everybody’s legs were sore.  But we weren’t eaten by bears and we got home safely.

I think the bears must have been frightened off by my bear-stick.
 

Vocabulary:

a long weekend – If Monday is a public holiday, we call this a long weekend.

to be taxing – To be tiring; to cost a lot of energy.

to spot something – To see or notice something.

a boulder – A big rock.

gradual - Happening slowly.

a number of – Several.