All our usual paddling buddies had other things on for this weekend circumnavigation of Lake Shikotsu. Early on in the planning, it was going to be an overnight trip. But as paddling buddies had to pull out for various reasons, Haidee and I started to think that perhaps we should have a go at doing it all in one day. With breaks every hour or so, we could probably smash it out in around seven hours.
Even still, we were still going back and forward within ourselves whether to make it an overnight trip or one-day.
We arrived at Poropinai late on Friday night, and camped in our van overnight. Before we went to sleep, we decided we’d just take it easy and make it an overnighter trip. Even still, we set the alarm for 3am, so we could get a dawn start. Doing so would allow us to enjoy a leisurely camp at one of the campgrounds along the way.
In the darkness of a pre-dawn morning 7 hours later, we started getting ready for the overnight trip. We went through our list of gear, and were almost ready to move it all to the kayaks on the lakefront when we made a disturbing discovery.
I’d forgotten to put the gas canister for the cooker into the van.
“It’s OK, we can light a fire for boiling water,” I argued sheepishly.
“Why don’t we just circle back to the other plan of paddling it all in one day,” suggested Haidee.
And so it was that in the half-light of dawn, we committed to smashing out a full circumnavigation of Lake Shikotsu in one day.
The lake was about as calm as it gets as we set off towards Lake Shikotsu Village. The usually noisy and busy National Highway 453 was quiet and subdued at 5am in the morning. Eniwa-dake stood in sharp contrast as the morning light painted it orange.
The 7km from Poropinai to Lake Shikotsu village passed quickly. We were both in the zone, just trying to make miles while the early morning settled weather remained.
The weather forecast was for easterly winds from mid-morning, so we were keen to make the most of those tailwinds on the westward stretch of coast.
When we arrived at Lake Shikotsu Village, it was predictably quiet. No throngs of tourists at this early hour.
We paddled into the mouth of Chitose River, and pulled up for a toilet break. I’d heard that there was some major work going on around the main watersport put-in area, and indeed the whole car park was being torn up and replaced. This river mouth area is a very popular place for recreational paddlers to put in – SUPs, canoes, kayaks. It’s also the main spot for commercial tours.
We didn’t hang around too long at the Village, as we still felt like we needed to make miles early in the day.We carried on south towards Morappu Campground. As we approached, we could smell the sweet aroma of morning campfires being stoked. Like always, the campground was heaving with weekend campers. We considered pulling up for another short break, but decided to keep on going to a beach we’d never stopped at before.
That beach was one that had caught my attention on Google Maps – Former US Army Water Training Camp. An old railway rail boat ramp still led into the lake. A large, rusting boat trailer was still attached to a gigantic winch. It was clearly not used any more, left to rot, it seems.
The beautiful calm paddling conditions continued as we paddled west.
By the time we arrived at the small beach about 2/3 along the southern shoreline, we realized that we were already halfway through the 40km paddle around the lake, and it was still only 9:30am in the morning. It felt like we had it in the bag. I celebrated with banana and yoghurt for a pre-pre-lunch snack.
The feeling of having it in the bag was, however, tempered by our hands not being used to this intensity and distance of paddling. The tape in my first aid kit was put to good use today.
The feeling of having it in the bag was also tempered by some surprisingly dynamic conditions just after our break. As soon as we paddled around the blink-and-you-ll-miss-it headland, we encountered strong quartering winds from the stern and some decent chop. It was more or less a following sea though, so at this point it was all just free miles.
As we approached the southwestern corner of the lake, the wind appeared to climb up and over the hills above the shoreline, leaving us again with mirror-calm conditions.
It was, however, clearly choppier further out in the lake.
As the shoreline turned northwesterly, we got reprieve from the continuous background drone of National Highway 453 in the form of a tunnel. The road disappeared for a few kilometers into the tunnel, leaving us with beautiful silence. We could hear birds chirping and brooks babbling. We paddled in between moss-covered boulders. It was almost like we were in a water-covered Japanese garden.
We were now approaching Bifue Campground on the more remote far western shoreline of the lake. Eniwa-dake took a larger position on the stage.
As usual, and despite being Saturday morning, Bifue Campground was busy. Families were rushing to get a spot by the lake’s edge. Some were already set up from the night before. We’d called a few days prior to see if we could camp there, but already the campground was booked out, even for paddlers arriving by kayak.
As we passed by Bifue Campground, we could see enormous dark rain clouds steam-rolling across the lake to the east. It looked as though we might miss them though. Indeed, while we got some hefty chop on our beams as we paddled north along the western shoreline, we didn’t get rained on.
The next destination for us was the Okotanpe River mouth. Here we planned on having longer break, since we would only have about 8km left to paddle back along the northern shoreline to Poropinai.
The small beach next to the river mouth was every bit as relaxing as I remembered it. Far, far from the madding crowds, it’s one of my favourite places in Hokkaido.
I had a nap.
Our relaxation was interrupted by the first few drops of rain that would later transform into the most perfect on-the-water sun shower.
Replete with rainbow.
We dropped into the lake-side onsen hotspring on the way. While the shoreline gets ‘reset’ by the winter storms each season, at this late point in the summer season, the pool was looking well intact from a season’s worth of excavation by keen paddlers.
The water in the pool was only just lukewarm, so we weren’t tempted to soak.
As we paddled past Marukoma Onsen, we were surprised that it seemed deserted. Perhaps it was cleaning time or something. Usually we’d expect to see lots of people soaking in the outdoor pools.
Hence, this will likely be the only time I’d ever feel OK about taking a photo of the outside of it.
By the time we arrived back at Poropinai, we’d been away for just over 10 hours. My GPS told me that at least seven of those ten hours were paddling.
By now, Poropinai was heaving with day visitors, no doubt mostly from Sapporo City.
Today had been the furthest we’d paddled in kayaks in a day before, and overall we felt pretty good about it!
