Oirase stream hiking & staying questions

So I'm planning to travel to Oirase stream somewhere late October. And my plan was as follows.

I will be coming from Sapporo, so I will take an early train to Hachinohe, leave my big luggage there, take the bus to Towada. Then get off at Yakeyama, hike along the Oirase stream towards the lake, take a sightseeing boat, and arrive at my hotel. The next morning, take a bus from Towadako back to Hachinohe and pick up my luggage.

Okay, with that out of the way, there are some questions in this:

1) Is it possible to leave my luggage at Hachinohe? I did not find any coin lockers on the JR East station map, but is there another way, or should I travel to/from Aomori station?

2) Is Yakeyama the ''right'' bus stop to get off at, to hike along the Oirase stream? I don't want to walk for six hours or so. 60-90 minutes would suffice for me.

3) Is it even possible to get on the ''excursion boat'' just like that or do I need to make some kind of reservation or something? How does that thing work?

4) Any suggestions on an affordable accomodation?

Perhaps sending my luggage to the hotel would be acceptable, too, since the way back will be done by bus all the way. But I'm not sure how to arrange something like that, if it's even possible at all.

Thanks for your time!

I will be coming from Sapporo, so I will take an early train to Hachinohe, leave my big luggage there

Assuming you will be traveling in direction of Tokyo after your visit to Oirase, I would consider sending your big luggage by delivery service from Sapporo to your next destination after Towada, and take the bus from Aomori to Oirase Stream instead of from Hachinohe.

Then get off at Yakeyama, hike along the Oirase stream towards the lake

Unless you want to walk a lot, I recommend to start from Ishigedo. Most people will find it long enough from Ishigedo. But if you like to walk long distances, from Yakeyama will be good.

Is it possible to leave my luggage at Hachinohe?

Yes, there are coin lockers. Of course, there is always that small risk that there are no vacant ones, but on regular days it should not be a problem.

2) Is Yakeyama the ''right'' bus stop to get off at, to hike along the Oirase stream? I don't want to walk for six hours or so. 60-90 minutes would suffice for me.

Then, I recommend Ishigedo or even the next stop, Makadoiwa. All the major "sights" of the stream are upriver from Makadoiwa. But unlike at Ishigedo, there is no toilet at Makadoiwa:
http://www.jrbustohoku.co.jp/route/detail/?PID=9&RID=14

Is it even possible to get on the ''excursion boat'' just like that or do I need to make some kind of reservation or something?

It is possible to get on it by just buying a ticket on site.

Perhaps sending my luggage to the hotel would be acceptable, too, since the way back will be done by bus all the way. But I'm not sure how to arrange something like that, if it's even possible at all.

Because delivery is the next day, I recommend to send it (from your Sapporo hotel) to the destination after Towada. It is explained here:
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2278.html

Uji-san, thank you very much.

It seesm like a much more viable option to just send my luggage all the way. More comfortable and that sort of thing. Thanks for the other information as well, I will take it into account and see what I'll do :)

However, as you said:
Because delivery is the next day, I recommend to send it (from your Sapporo hotel) to the destination after Towada. It is explained here:
You make it seem almost as if my hotel should be able to handle this. That would be awesome, but I assume not every hotel can do this? If that's the case, do you know where in Sapporo to find a service point to hand over my luggage to have it delivered?

Thanks again, much appreciated!

A lot of convenience stores can also be used to send away takuhaibin deliveries in the unlikely case that the hotel is not handling it.

Well, now that I'm back from this trip... I thought a little followup wouldn't hurt.

I got off at Ishigedo. Good choice, because there's vending machines, a toilet, and a small food joint to energize oneself. At one time though, I checked my GPS only to find out I had been walking for two hours in the opposite direction... But gladly, my GPS was mislead by the mountains. The confusion was still there though, because I was somehow convinced the Oirase stream would flow towards Towadako. But it flows out of Towadako in reality, so walking upstream is the right path. Phew :)

The Takuhaibin went well, but I didn't realize it would be a day-after-tomorrow delivery. I thought they always delivered on the following day. Bummer. Not a biggie, and convenience stores where there to help me out ;)

I do believe the reason was because it was a delivery from Hokkaido to Honshuu. Presumably a delivery within Honshuu would be next-day, right? Also, looking back, I could just as well have used a big locker at Shinaomori... Oh well, such is life :)

The delivery time depends on how close the regions are, so Hokkaido to Tohoku is about a day, but Tohoku to Chugoku will take two days regardless of them both being on Honshu.

Anyway, if you were shipping your luggage from Sapporo to Aomori it should have been delivered the next day as long as it was picked up by 14:00. That's usually no problem if you send from a hotel, but could be the issue if you sent your bag from a conbini.

Hokkaido to Tohoku is a two day delivery. I checked in at Toyoko Inn in Sapporo and wanted my luggage at the Inn at Sendai two days later. They told me I had to ship it right when I checked in or else I wouldn't get it on time.

I guess I should have been more specific in my last post, but I stated about a day for Hokkaido to Tohoku because it varies depending on where in Tohoku you are shipping to.

In the OPs example they want to send from Hokkaido to Aomori (northern Tohoku) which the Kuroneko website says should take 1 day to deliver. Sendai is in Southern Tohoku, nearly twice as far away, and gives a 2 day delivery estimate.

You can look up delivery estimates here:

http://date.kuronekoyamato.co.jp/date/Takkyubin

Yeah well, the trip for my luggage to take became Sapporo-Tokyo in the end, so I guess it makes perfect sense for that to take two days. I'm glad I have this experience, because it was very convenient travelling so lightly for a change.

Yea, that makes sense. Anything south of Sendai is gonna take at least 2 days. And I'd have to agree, sending luggage is a great way to cut down on travel hassles, and its surprisingly cheap!