Mt Hokkaido-Komagatake

Mt Hokkaido-Komagatake (北海道駒ヶ岳, hokkaido-koma-ga-dake) is one of the 200 Famous Mountains of Japan with an iconic pointy peak. It's also referred to as simply "Mt Komagatake" - however there are so many Komagatakes in Japan like Mt Kiso-komagatake, Mt Aizu-komagatake, Mt Echigo-komagatake, Mt Kai-komagatake (the list goes on...) that it's really worth being more specific than that! It's right near Onuma Quasi-National Park, and could make for a good side trip from Hakodate if you are looking for a little hike. Quite unusually, you are only allowed to hike this mountain between 9am and 3pm as per a sign at the trailhead. This is a short hike that you can get through in under 3 hours, so this isn't really a problem though. After a climb up a rather-steep gravel trail, you'll reach the Umanose. From here you can see two rather lovely-looking peaks - a rounded mound in front called Mt Maru (円山), and then the highest point and peak, Kengamine (剣ヶ峰) behind that. I had hoped that we could at…