I've hiked a lot of islands in my life, and I'll admit my mental map of Japan was mostly volcanoes and bullet trains until I read Laura Moser's piece for AOL about Shikoku. Now I've got a new entry on the list, and it's near the top.

Shikoku is Japan's smallest of the four main islands, and it's the one everybody skips. What's there instead of crowds is lush mountains, gorges you have to work for, and shrines tucked into places that make you understand why somebody built them there. Moser calls the shrines dazzling, and her descriptions back it up without a tour group anywhere in the frame.

The famous anchor is the 88 Temple Pilgrimage, a walking route that circles the island and links 88 temples. Doing the whole thing on foot is a serious commitment, and the thing is, you don't have to make it. Moser's trip makes clear that even sampling a few temples on a day hike gets you the rhythm of the thing without quitting your job.

Then there's the Iya Valley, which is the part I'd fly across an ocean for. It's a gorge system in the island's mountainous interior, deep and green and hidden, with old vine bridges strung across the river. Reading about those bridges made me think about every rickety footbridge I've crossed in the Rockies and feel a little soft by comparison. Vine and plank, over a gorge, walked for centuries. My favorite trail crews build good bridges but they've got lumber and bolts on their side.

What sells me on Shikoku specifically is the density. On one small island you get mountains, gorges, shrines, and hidden valleys, all without the queue-for-a-photo energy of Japan's Golden Route. That combination of genuinely spectacular plus genuinely uncrowded is getting rare anywhere, and it's the whole reason Moser's piece went on my list.

The outdoors belong to everybody, and that includes islands you can't pronounce on the first try. Shikoku looks like the kind of place where you earn the view and then a stranger hands you tea. I'll take that trade any day.

If you want the full itinerary, Moser's piece over on AOL has the details on where she went and how she got around, which is where you should get your logistics rather than from me.