Slovenia #6: Rainy Days
The forecast didn't lie - hiking in the rain
Before our trip I didn't know much about the mountains in Slovenia. I had never heard of the Kamnik Alps so I was pleasantly surprised on our first three hikes to see such spectacular mountains. But now we were in Triglav National Park, the only area that I did know about beforehand, the mountains that I was really anxious to see. And now the weather had just turned bad.
The plan for our first day day in the park was to hike to the Triglav Lakes. This was going to be the hardest hike of the whole trip. At breakfast Roman talked about the weather and it wasn't good. It was overcast, the temperature had dropped significantly and rain was forecast for much of the day. These were not the best conditions for a long hike through high terrain that was exposed to the weather. Roman offered us two options. One was to do the hike as planned. It would be conditional because if a thunderstorm approached when the group was on exposed terrain the hike would be aborted. It undoubtedly meant hiking some or all of the day in the rain.
Fortunately it stopped raining before we reached our lunch stop
The second option would be a shorter hike, a loop around a high forested plateau that would visit three shepherd villages. It had the advantage that it wouldn't be as exposed if there was thunder and lightning. It also wouldn't be anything too spectacular. In fact it sounded a lot like our first hike of the trip when we went to Velika Planina, just without any views. At least it would mean less time spent hiking in the rain if the weather really was bad all day.
Roman told us that he and Jan would split up. Each of them would lead one of the options so we could choose whichever one we wanted. The group ended up dividing just about evenly. Sandy and I didn't have to think very long. We are basically fair weather hikers so we opted for the shorter trip. So did Dieter, Verena, Greg and Sarah. Roman said that he would lead our group. I guess being the trip leader means that you don't have to hike in the rain all day.
Rough hiking in wet and foggy conditions
Cliff, Margaret, Katherine, Flo and Kingsley chose the long trip. Obviously they were tougher or braver than us (or maybe both). With Jan they would try to reach the high lakes. Because they were doing a hike that normally takes about ten hours under good conditions, they didn't want to waste any time. They ate quickly and left right away. The rest of us were able to have a more leisurely breakfast and leave later in the morning. It already felt like we had made the right choice.
After a short drive up the mountain to gain some elevation, we started out by walking up a primitive forest road. The surface was all ripped up and later in the day we learned why. There was an excavator being used to clear the roads in the area and it looked like its tracks had torn up the surface of the road. It was only a minor nuisance, at least for now. Later it would turn out to be a different story.
Sandy and Roman cautiously descend the muddy mess
Today the weather had definitely changed. There was a low, heavy overcast and the mountains were completely hidden in the clouds. Patches of fog and mist hung over parts of the forest. It was much colder than it had been on previous days and instead of hiking in just tshirts we were wearing our jackets and warm caps and gloves.
After about an hour we reached a hut where we stopped while everyone had some hot coffee or tea (except for me - I had a cold Diet Coke). Then it was back to the trail.
Not long after that the rain finally started. It wasn't long before it was coming down pretty hard. We had our rain gear but as I said earlier, I'm definitely a fair weather hiker. Some of the others in the group were extolling the pleasures of walking through the woods in the rain. Not me. I just kept quiet, put my head down, and kept plodding along. There wasn't anything that I could do about it anyway. I wasn't really uncomfortable and I figured that it would stop eventually.
Looking down on the courtyard of Castle Bled
And it did. After about an hour the rain slowly changed to a drizzle, getting lighter and lighter until it finally stopped. Gradually people took off their rain gear as they realized that it wasn't raining anymore. I felt better about hiking now although the rain had soaked the trail and we had to be very careful not to slip and fall on wet rocks or tree roots or mud.
It took us another hour or so of hiking before we reached the first shepherd village, where we stopped at one of the huts for lunch. Since the only place to eat was on tables outside, we were definitely glad that it had stopped raining. Otherwise lunch would have been pretty miserable. Everything that the lady who lived in the hut served us to eat was fresh and she had made herself: cheese, bread, salami, milk, cream cheese. And of course no farm lunch in Slovenia would be complete without buckwheat and sour cream mash, with pork fat on top. I'd been a good sport and tried it the first time so this time I could pass on it in good conscience.
Demo of the Guthenberg printing press
After lunch we continued hiking for another couple of hours. It didn't rain any more but heavy fog had moved in. We were literally hiking inside of a cloud with mists swirling all around us. There were no spectacular views. Sometimes visibility was only a hundred feet or so. But the forest can be beautiful on a day like this. With no bright sun the colors are soft and muted. The rain and fog seem to soften the appearance of everything. There are no sharp edges, dark shadows or harsh contrasts. The fog and mist seems to absorb any sound.
The last hour we descended another forest road. The surface of this one had been ripped up as well by the excavator, leaving a layer of loose dirt about three inches thick on top. Except that after the rain we had earlier in the day, that layer turned completely to soft, slimey, sticky mud. (Feel free to add even more adjectives here. How about gooey? Slippery? Use your imagination.)
Sandy admires the view of Lake Bled from the Castle
This was no fun. The road was steep and we had to be very careful not to slip. It probably wouldn't have hurt that much but it would have been an awful mess. It was hard work walking through all that mud. Sandy and I were both glad when we reached the van and the hike was finally over.
The other group got back to the hotel quite a bit after we did. They had a long hard hike but fortunately no storms. They did make it all the way to the Triglav Lakes. They said that because of the weather there wasn't much of a view though.
That night we ate at a pizzaria. Sandy and I thought it was the best dinner that we had on the trip although others in the group said they would have preferred more authentic Slovenian cuisine. Personally I thought that we had more than enough of that and I wasn't that crazy about Slovenian food anyway. To each their own I guess. I'm not a foodie, at least not when I travel.
A brief, tantalizing view of the mountains from below the pass
It rained after dinner and through most of the night. When we woke up the next morning it was still raining. At breakfast Roman cancelled the hike for the day and said we would visit a couple of local museums instead, and then if it stopped raining in the afternoon visit the town of Bled and the Castle. Sandy and I decided to skip the museums. We stayed in our room, did some reading and mainly took it easy and rested up. I did make a quick trip to the market which was right next to the hotel to pick up drinks and some snack foods for lunch. There was even a souvenir shop next to the market and I bought two tshirts there. It was about time. They were the only tshirts purchases that I had made on the trip so far.
Kinglsey wasn't feeling well so she stayed behind too. She must have been feeling poorly because we didn't see her all day. When we met Jan in the lobby at 3pm to drive to Bled and join everyone else at the Castle, Kingsley called down and said she still didn't feel well enough to go along.
The spot Roman had us crossing the river
Fortunately it had stopped raining because we were outside for much of the time that we were touring the castle. We did start inside with a demonstration of a replica of Guthenberg's original printing press. You could get a custom flyer printed with a picture of the castle and your name and the date. It looked pretty cool but we already have way more stuff to hang on our walls at home than we have wall space. That's what happens when one of the people in the house is a quilter.
After the printing press we had about an hour to wander around the castle. It was an impressive structure and we had fun walking through the courtyards and poking around inside all the old hallways and rooms. We climbed up on the walls to look out. With its position high up on a hill, there were beautiful views from the castle of the lake and the surrounding valley.
After touring the castle we had dinner at a restaurant in the town of Bled. I thought it was pretty good but didn't like it nearly as much as the pizza we had the night before.
The next day it was time to move on to our third and last hotel. The morning was overcast again and the mountains were completely in the clouds. I never did get to see Mt. Triglav or any of the main peaks of the Julian Alps. That was disappointing but that's the way travel in the mountains is. We had some good days on the trip and we had some bad days.
Soca River below our lunch spot
It may have been overcast when we left Lake Bohinj, but as Marty Feldman said in the movie Young Frankenstein "Could be worse. Could be raining." Our planned hike for the day was going to be enroute, starting when we crossed Vrsik Pass. When we got there Roman checked the forecast again. It called for rain...probably. Maybe. Faced with a tough forecast the weather bureau seemed to be taking a tautlogical approach - either it would rain or it wouldn't. Definitely correct but not very useful.
Once again Roman split the group to give us two options. One group would do a short hike on the west side of the pass, a good option in case it started to rain or storm because it would be easy to get back to the van quickly. Sandy decided to play it safe and go with that group. The other group would hike to a high viewpoint on the east side of the pass but would have to abort if the weather got worse. I thought that as long as it wasn't raining I would do the big hike. I wasn't going to pass up a chance to get to the top of a mountain even if I couldn't pronounce its name (or as write this later, remember it).
That turned out to be a mistake. About an hour after we started our hike it began to rain. It wasn't long before it was coming down pretty good and the visibility had dropped to almost zero. Getting to a great viewpoint wouldn't do us much good so Jan decided that we would turn around. We were all pretty wet by the time we got back to the pass. We were in our rain gear so that didn't matter much but there was no way to get out of our wet stuff. Roman and the other group had finished their hike a long time ago and had already left so we all had to cram into one van. There were a lot of us which meant there was no extra space. We were dripping all over each other. It wasn't very comfortable.
Our last hike of the day up a "small" side stream
Not long after we started driving the rain stopped. Jan pulled over at a viewpoint where we all got out to take off our wet raingear. Looking back I could see the pass we had just left and the mountain tops above it in a cloud. It was obviously still raining up there so our decision to abort the hike had been the right one.
The rest of the sky was still mostly cloudy everywhere else with just a few small clear patches scattered around. I waited at the viewpoint for several minutes and was finally rewarded with a tantalizing view of beautiful mountains in the distance. There was even some blue sky in the background. It was just a teaser though. By the time I had taken a couple of pictures another cloud had moved in to obscure the view. Unfortunately Mt. Triglav wasn't among the peaks that I had seen. A sign at the viewpoint informed me that the large peak in the middle of my photo was Pelc nad Klonicami. I had never heard of it before but it is an impressive mountain in its own right so I was glad that I got to see it and learn about it.
Still going strong on our third hike of the day
We met the rest of our group a little later at the Triglav National Park visitor center. They had been waiting quite a while for us, long enough to have had coffee and pastries at the cafe next door. I was hungry and hoping for lunch but since the others had just eaten we were going to do another short hike first. This one would be in the valley along the Soca River. We would stay low in the valley to try to avoid the rain.
Which didn't work. Rain came not long after we set out so we put our rain gear back on again. This time it didn't last long though. The weather seemed to change every five minutes. No wonder the forecasters had trouble.
We came to a viewpoint with a sign that identified all of the mountains that were (supposed to be) visible. It was a great spot from which to see Triglav. Talk about rubbing salt in the wounds. I could point to exactly which cloud was blocking my view of the mountain that I was hoping to see.
Greg was more interested in the river than the mountains. He and his daughter Sarah would be staying a few extra days after the Mountain Travel trip to do some kayaking, and this was one stretch they were interested in. It looked like a pretty big, serious river to me but they were pretty serious whitewater people. Since we were admiring how big the rapids were, it was even more of a surprise when we stopped for a break and Roman said "Ok, take off your boots. This is where we cross the river." There were some worried looks that went around the group.
"Just kidding!!!"
Whew. I mean, he didn't fool me. I knew that he was kidding.
We reach the double waterfall on our last hike of the day
After our walk along the river it was finally time for lunch. We drove to a campground where we had another traditional Slovenian meal. I was getting tired of the local food but by now I was pretty hungry. We got to enjoy our lunch sitting in the sun because the weather had changed once again. While we let our food settle we wandered down to the Soca River where it ran just below the campground. It was a very pretty stretch, the water a translucent green color as it rushed through a narrow channel carved in bright white limestone.
There was still time for one more hike. This time we started walking along the Soca River and then turned uphill to follow a side stream. It was pretty all the way with the best saved for the last, when we ended up in a tiny amphitheater in the rocks where the stream fell in a double waterfall. Roman had billed it as "like a fairy tale". That turned out to be a pretty good description.
Three hikes was enough for one day. We drove to our final hotel just outside the town of Kobarid. We would spend the last two nights of the trip at the Hiso Franko, something that a lot of the people in our group were really looking forward to. But not me. Why is a story for the next post.
