| Distance | 2.8K |
| Elevation Gain | 108m |
| Elevation Drop | 497m |
Extended DownHill with Steps and a Water Supply
This short section is mostly downhill, punctuated with a few short peaks. The initial section as you step off the top of 御前山 – Mt Gozen is a long wavy staircase.
In general we here at jmt distain such man-made features in nature. This section, however ugly, is begrudgingly welcome. The extent of the erosion of the trail, the slipperiness of the clay even when dry, coupled with the broken down attempts to fortify the trail in previous years made this an especially dangerous descent. When considering the timing of this section, both in terms of distance into the race (~50k) and time-of-day (roughly 10pm -2am for most runners), before these steps were included, this was a meat grinder.
Water Source & Toilet
You meet a sign post at the bottom of this circuitous staircase. The Hasetsune trail goes right. The sign indicates a hut 0.4km to the left. In fact, the decimal precision is off by an order of magnitude – the hut is only 40 meters down the trail.
Toilet facilities are on the far end of the hut. On the near end, sticking out from the low grade incline, is a PVC pipe with water trickling out. This spring is pretty consistently available, but can be dry after prolonged periods of little rain.
Downhill All the Way
As you can see from the elevation profile, the downhill continues. there are a lot of wooden steps, and only a few climbs.
One such climb is a classic Japan low-mountain climb, with intertwined roots effecting a stair case with rocky soil in between.
Facilities at Odawa
The trail continues down to 大ダワ – Odawa, a widened road crossing. There are toilet facilities here.