Farewell to the Old Man of the forest
Anyone who has taken the Okabu trail from the logging railway on their way to Jomon Sugi would have come across a grand old tree called Okina Sugi (翁杉). It was thought to be around 2000 years old and was hidden beneath a coat of thick green moss. Here is what it looked like a week ago:
And this is what it looked like last weekend:
As you can see, it completely collapsed. The bottom of the trunk had become 90% hollow and was finally unable to hold the weight of the tree above it. Some time during the night of the 9th-10th September 2010 it split at a height of 3 metres and promptly shattered into pieces as it hit the forest floor on the opposite side to the trail.
A fond farewell then to the Old Man whose branches hung over many an exhausted hiker.
sad to hear his number was finally up, but such is nature. I'm one of the many exhausted hikers.