The Aichi Prefecture Forest makes for a great dayhike from Nagoya. The views of Horai lake are stunning and the trail offers a variety of terrain from rocky ridges with chains to waterfalls and forest trails. Since the elevation is quite low this hike is best for spring and fall to avoid the heat (and the mountain leeches).
⏲︎ Time: 8h
✎ Kanji: 愛知県森林
⚲ Location: Aichi
↔ Distance: 13km
✮ Difficulty: Intermediate
ᨒ Elevation Gain: 1360m
☀ Dayhike
☉ Hiking Season: March
to December
Access
Public Trabsportation
Take the train to Mikawa-Makihara Station. From there is about a 15min walk to the trailhead.
Car
Park at the parking lot next to the main building/hotel. There are toilets, a restaurant and a small bath here.
Trail Description
The whole forest has many trails and is well signposted. But I would definitely recommend getting a paper map at the visitor center or downloading Yamap as there are so many trails it might get confusing (mostly in Japanese).
Walk up the road towards the campground and then keep to the left. You'll have to walk through the campground to get to the trailhead and pass the permanent tents.
We went up and along the Westridge (西尾根) and then turned right to go down into the forest to see some of the waterfalls. Then up to the Northridge (北尾根) again and continued onto the Eastridge (東尾根) and to the big rock and meandering river views.
The river views are not part of the official trail network and more exposed/difficult than the rest of the trail. This part is also not on the paper map and only partially on yamap.
The ridgeline to the viewpoints has many little turn offs which are shown on the map below. Each will have a different view and we went down maybe about 5-6 of the little side trails. Some will be more difficult than others with chains. Be careful to not get lost in this area! There are many little paths that follow other ridgelines and plan plenty of time as there is so much to explore. Check the small maps on the trees to make sure it's an actual "trail". It took us about 2h to explore this part.
After we looped around the "Rock" we got back to the Eastridge and continued for another 2h down to the campground.
Allow plenty of time for the hike, there is so much to see and the constant up and down of the ridgeline does slow you down a bit. Even though the highest point is only 470m we still walked almost 1400m elevation gain.
Extra Info:
As mentioned above this mountain range hosts Japanese mountain leeches (yamabiru). They usually start appearing from early summer and are present into fall, until it gets colder. Bring salt to remove them and wear thicker socks over your pants if you plan on going in summer.
Accommodation
There is a nice looking campground with permanent tents and lodges. Also a hotel with restaurant. The forest easily has enough to explore for 2-3 days.
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