Checking in from Vienna

On our way home -- I´ll give more details on the delights of the Magocsi-O´Dea wedding when I have time to write. Here are a few pictures though!

Day 28 (August 5)

Finally rolled snake eyes on the weather with a constant rain from the moment we packed up the tent. Our glorious march into Prešov became a slow soggy slog, and the thick mist got us lost more than once. Finally rejoined the E8 for a short spell, then departed on our last leg, the green trail from Radatice to Prešov. Despite the poor weather this was a lot of fun. Passed a couple of delicious mineral water springs, as much as you want just pouring out of the ground! Just as we began the final descent into town, the skies cleared a little giving us a view of the town below. We made it! One day early at that.
Prešov awaits us, the start of a new adventure.

Day 27 (August 4)

Finally reached a real food store in the town of Jaklovce and stocked up for our final push, but that didn´t stop the produce vendor from chasing after us with a bag of delicious red grapes. Hiked some fierce yellow trail and blue trail, a thick jungle of nettles, thistles, and brambles that did their best to take Deb down. I´m happy to report that she got the best of them in the end.
Set up our tent for the very last time on the top of a little mountain called Kozinec, within easy distance of Prešov tomorrow.

Day 26 (August 3)

More hot dusty country roads with muddy interludes. Village after village without a food store or restaurant -- this area of Slovakia is simply not as hopping as we´re used to. Finally got lucky in the town of Slovinky, with a bar serving beer, potato chips, and ice cream and a small vegetable stand. Not our usual fare for hiking food, but Deb will find a way! As we packed up to leave, the lady from the vegetable stand chased us down and gave us an extra bag of heavy but delicious stuff. These tomatoes, peppers, and apples kept us happy for days.
Camped in an already-scavenged blueberry patch. Someone, human or bear, has beaten us to the punch on this haul. But it still makes a very comfortable bed.

P.S. Happy birthday Julie!

Day 25 (August 2)

Leaving paradise, we hiked on through a series of trails connecting the small country villages and mining towns west of Prešov. These were definitely less-used routes, and the trail blazing and maintenance were pretty spotty in places. We got lost, of course.
The towns themselves left a little to be desired as well -- specifically, food. Running a little low. Still some beautiful sights though. Dusty country roads remind me a little of Texas.
We camped on a ridge not too far from this tiny church.

Day 24 (August 1)

Today we said our sad farewell to the red-blazed E8/SNP at this uncharacteristically terse trail marker. The E8 continues southeast heading to Kosiče, while we follow a many-colored route northeast to Prešov, rejoining the meandering E8 for just a little at the end.
Slovakia has hundreds of trails marked with various colors, but we were a little apprehensive about leaving the main hiking route for the back roads. The trail begins in a boggy pasture, then matures into a huge muddy rut. Then suddenly it´s a pleasant path alongside a bubbling stream. Then suddenly it´s a crazy trail with ladders and bridges over a beautiful little gorge. We´ve entered the region known as "Slovak Paradise!" So it looks like we´re in for some fun after all.
We pass through the cute village of Stratena and the bustling vacation encampment of Dedinky. It seems like half of Slovakia is here enjoying a day by the lake. We took in the air, hiked along to a slightly less crowded side of paradise, the village of Biele Vody, and checked into a hotel for the night.

Day 23 (July 31)

Up at the crack of dawn for our last day in the Nízke Tatry, a series of jagged peaks leading to the last of the range, Kralova Hola, which towers over the town of Télgart. Stark, beautiful sky and valley all around us. Just as we began the final climb, a crazy cloud jumped onto the mountain and belted us with freezing rain and hail from every direction. No lucky shelter for us this time -- we were drenched and chilled in minutes. Barely able to see the trail in front of us, we still had to keep moving just to keep warm.
Just as quickly as it had come, the storm tumbled off to the south, leaving us fresh, clean, and a little dazed for our climb down to Télgart.
We arrived at the town hotel. I thought that the cow tied out front was a good sign, guaranteeing fresh milk and cheese for breakfast. No, looks like the cow is the only one home. Also contemplating the cow was another hiker, Alica from Bratislava going west, and together we found lodging in a pension a little further down the road.

Day 22 (July 30)

Down from the high peaks and back into the thick forests, or what used to be thick forests. This is the section of the Nízke Tatry people had warned us about and even advised us to skip if possible. The giant pines here have been devastated by a fierce storm in 2004 followed by an ongoing outbreak of bark beetles starting in 2006. Entire mountains are just sticks and rubble now as the forestry service slowly clears the dead wood, and fallen trunks block the trail and hide the blazes at every turn. It´s easy to get lost, and before long we got pretty good at it. The springs seem to have suffered too; many were simply missing. A very tough day. We don´t regret the choice to stick it out though -- the blasted landscape and skeleton trees are a fascinating sight. I did my part for the recovery by squashing three bark beetles.
The crowds of hikers are much thinner in this area. Camped in the designated site at Priehyba Sedlo, nearly alone.

Day 21 (July 29)

Escaped from the crowded bunkroom at the crack of dawn and hit the trail. Excellent to be up early -- the crowds are still snoozing and the animals are out, we saw marmut and reindeer. The mountains continue to grow higher and higher, great views from the ridges but the peaks themselves completely socked in fog.
After a bit the trail becomes a road -- someone has arranged these mountaintop rocks, many of them as big as us, into a paved highway. We followed these up the famous peak Chopok, where we had an excellent lunch in the chata at the top. Energized with cabbage and ham, we decided to make a long day of it and hiked all the way to the village of Čertovica, where camping is allowed. Missing the thrills of a private room with plumbing, though, we opted to stay in the pension instead.

Day 20 (July 28)

Steep climb up from our camp, and after a lot of work, things begin to feel very high -- forests give way to small clusters of dwarf pines, and eventually the the grassy rocks peaks. Donovaly is tiny far below, and views are great in every direction -- but we´re looking east, where our trail follows the ridge with every peak a little higher than the last. A little daunting, but very beautiful.
At days´ end we hiked down the ridge to the next legal camping spot, Durkova Shelter. The ladies (mother and daughter) who run this site fed us delicious lentil soup and fried cheese and informed us that we can only use the tent if the shelter is full (it´s definitely not full; we´re the first ones there) so we´ll be staying in the bunk room. It doesn´t look bad though -- until new hikers begin arriving every few minutes. After weeks of being more or less alone on the trail, it´s clear that we´re now in a very busy section. Managed a restless night of sleep over the constant racket of our comrades shuffling, giggling, and snoring.

Day 19 (July 27)

Our hike through the Nízke Tatry range starts with a short day out of Donovaly, so we left after a hearty lunch -- perhaps a little too hearty; the hike was a bit more challenging than we expected for the afternoon. The rules in the Nízke Tatry are very strict: Camping only in eight official spots, no picking any fruits (too bad, blueberries look nice), and hiking allowed only from an hour after dawn to an hour before sunset. Still, we made it to the first legal camping spot, Hiadelske Sedlo, with time to spare. We met some young Slovak lads and bartered granola bars for fresh roasted mushrooms, which Deb finds delightful. (Maybe not everybody is so strict about following those rules.)

Day 18 (July 26)

Said goodbye to the Kralova Studna crew and continued our hike up the mountain Krizna, over 1500 meters, the largest we´ve seen yet. Wind and fog are overwhelming, but the ascent is very beautiful. Cold and phenomenal at the top. We hiked on eastward along the ridge towards Donovaly, a lovely day. The trail in this area (since Skalka, really) seems a little more beloved and looked after, though still not without it challenges and confusions. A long day, but we made it into town happy and strong. Donovaly itself is a little disappointing; 90 percent of the town is closed hotels and tourist-trap amusements without much town to speak of, not the great resupply point we´d hoped for, but good enough.
Tomorrow we start the most storied section of our trail, the Nízke Tatry mountain range.

Day 17 (July 25th)

Heavy rain all night, awoke to thick fog on Skalka. Minciar saw us off with gifts of candy and fruit, very sweet. Hiking the ridge north from Skalka in the morning mist deliriously beautiful, and as the sun finally broke though the views were breathtaking. The blueberry harvest even more generous than yesterday´s. A serious change in the weather, rather chilly now and the clouds continued to threaten rain. It finally fell hard on us, but by great fortune a well-shingled little cabin was just around the bend, and we took shelter until it blew over. Colder and foggier as we continued our climb up to Kralova Studna, not exactly sure what we´d find there.
The hotel finally peeked at us from over the grassy mountaintop, but as we approached it was clear that it was still under renovation. Emboldened by Manik´s story, we went in anyway to see if they could house us for the night. A very funny scene in there -- it looked more like a squat than a construction site, with a dozen jolly young men and women on the deck eating, drinking, and playing music on guitar, drums, kazoo, and digery-doo. Inside, two weary but affectionate women ran about keeping the kids in food and drink and tidying up after them. We got a room for the night, with working plumbing and partial electicity, and stayed up doing our best to converse with the locals, who turned out to be the constuction workers and their friends who´d come up for the weekend. A couple other hikers checked in too. Had hot soup made by the hotel ladies, had beautiful views of the mountain sunset, and enjoyed the evening tremendously.

Day 16 (July 24th)

An easy day as we travel some flat land between mountain ranges. We pass by the monastery in Kreminke Bane that sits, according to someone´s calculations, at the exact center of Europe. Amazing crop of blueberries on our way up the gentle trail to the peak Skalka. We´re hoping to restock on food, but this is mainly a winter ski area and most things are closed for the season, or possibly permanently abandoned, hard to tell. Luckily there´s one hotel open, Horsky Hotel Minciar, and with Deb´s ever-improving Slovak and great negotiating skills, plus great help from the hotel staff, we´re able to aquire a couple days´ of excellent food.

Day 15 (July 23rd)

Pleasant walk along an old sandy logging road. Came to our first actually dead spring, not even a trickle to be found. Maybe that Manik´s not so crazy after all.
After a while entered areas of active logging, with some patches completely clear cut. Naturally some blazes get destroyed in the process, and we ended up getting a little lost. We finally followed an unmarked road to a blue-blazed side trail back to our red-blazed SNP trail, and found this cute shelter on the way, which isn´t marked on the maps. This is the only shelter we´ve seen here that looks like it´s actually made to sleep in; all the others are more like covered picnic tables. Sadly we missed the last spring because of our detour, and there´s no water here, so we have to hike on, along a very high and dry ridge on a very hot day. Very delighted to finally get to the spring on the other side.

Day 14 (July 22nd)

Hot day. Hiked though a gorgeous meadow thick with butterflies on a peak called Gašton, and then through lovely pines. Saw cattle being herded by a Slovak cowboy and German shepherd. Unfortunately they are heading to the spring we´re planning to use! No problem, the map shows plenty more springs on our route.
Met our very first through-hiker, Manik from Bratislava, very nice guy, hiking the SNP trail (and Stefanikova Magistrala) from its terminus in Dukla all the way back home. We exchanged information and he gave us two bits of sad news -- the Kralova Studna hotel where we´ll be in a few days is still under renovation (though they did allow him to stay there anyway) and the next few springs are all dry. He got us so worried that we pumped water from the next semi-stagnant trickle we came to. The next official spring we came to was a little better, but still required pumping. It occurred to us -- maybe Manik doesn´t have a filter pump. (Many of the springs have pipes which are designed to fill bottles directly, so you don´t need a pump.) But then the next two springs had pipes and were flowing just fine. Odd, but quite a relief.

Day 13 July (21st)

Stocked up on food at the tiny store in Čičmany and hiked out -- amazing views and also an amazing crop of wild strawberries. Intended to take a short day and stay in the small ski town called Fačkoske Sedlo, but the chata appeared to be closed for the season. One restaurant was open, so we took an early dinner and hiked on to look for a camping spot... right into a preserve whose welcome sign specifically forbade camping. My earlier research had indicated that wild camping isn´t actually allowed anywhere in Slovakia, but as we´ve travelled the trail we´ve seen plenty of established campsites (complete with log-benches and firepits) right on the trail, so we´ve presumed it´s no big deal. We´ve always set up camp in subtle locations, never made a fire, and avoided camping in the few areas where it was posted as explicity forbidden. This time, though, we couldn´t manage to hike our way of this preserve. (We´re still subtle though.)

Day 12 (July 20th)

Pleasant hike down from Vapeč, once again entering a territory of embattled blazing. I recall reading something about problems with blazes in this area, and in fact the problems look intentional -- the blazes expertly painted out by someone with decent color-matching skills. When we finally found our way down to town (a little village called Kopec) we walked past a lumber mill with a beautifully painted forest-scene mural and put two and two together... blazes resumed once we got to the next good village. We met a German couple hiking in the opposite direction and gave proper warning of the troubles ahead. Ascended and descended Stražov; on the way down I saw the largest ant hill I have ever seen -- at least a meter tall and constructed entirely of pine needles. I tried to get Deb to stand next to it for scale, but she declined. Slept in an old hotel in a pleasant little town called Čičmany, which has a lot of cute painted houses.

Day 11 (July 19th)

Our dodge in Trenčianske Teplice failed to outsmart the rain after all; it finally gave us a good lick on the way out of town the next day. We survived. A lot of missing and obstructed trail blazes today slowed us down a bit. Camped near the beautiful peak Vapeč with a great view and great winds to help dry off our gear.

Day 10 (July 18th)

After another delightful Slovak hotel breakfast (bread, butter, ham, cheese, bacon, eggs, tomatos, cucumbers, yogurt, granola, juice, coffee) we said goodbye to our little shop and departed east towards Trenčianske Teplice. This is a fascinating old spa town full of "healing waters" resorts housed in a mix of old eastern-bloc architecture and older more fanciful buildings. We had a great lunch (and delicious oblatky for dessert) and were planning to hike on -- but just as we passed the last hotel at the far end of the park, the sky turned black and the parkgoers scattered in every direction, so we decided to make it a short day and stop for the night. Good call, nothing but heavy rain all evening. We spent the night in the Turkish and Finnish saunas.

Days 8-9 (July 16th-17th)

Woke to thick fog with near-zero visibility for our hike back into Slovakia. Fog burned off to a lovely (hot) day by nine. Hiking on real trail again, wonderful! Pleasant hike down to Dreitoma and on to Trenčin. Saw some lovely goats! Checked into the Hotel Tatra, which is fancy and even has a computer available. Had planned to stay here two nights to recuperate and resupply on maps and food, but it´s completely booked for tomorrow night because of the Bažant Pohoda music fesival. Through Deborah´s negotations we will be staying tonight in a vacant shop in the downtown shopping area. It´s actually a lot bigger and nicer than our room here at the Tatra. Should be fun.
We´re hiking on tomorrow, as soon as I get time to find and study the maps...

Day 7 (July 15th)

Here the trail heads north into the Czech Republic for one day´s hike. Trail is quite pleasant, mostly on asphalt though. Filled up at the cute spring pictured here. (Many of the springs have these elaborate housings with tiled roofs, little doors with handles, and other decorations.) When the trail leaves the road it becomes terrible! Completely ruined by logging, meter-deep tractor ruts filled with muddy water and the mosquitos that love it. Delighted to get back to the roads at the end and checked into Chata Arnika a few km north of the Czech-Slovak border. Lovely view, great goulash. Crazy storms all night.

Day 6 (July 14th)

Stayed in Myjava until noon resting, taking a short day today. Hiked north out of Myjava to Czech border, and right along the border for the rest of the day. Camped in a lovely windy pine forest near the peak of Durda. Plenty of food and water now.
Distant (hopefully) lightening storms gave us a fantastic show through the tent fly in the evening, a little rain but the wind dried the tent by morning.

Day 5 (July 13th)

Still woke up automatically at 5:30 despite the night´s excesses. Hot dogs for breakfast. We´re locked in the pool grounds and have to rouse the staff to let us out. We´re a little woozy but still have an incredibly pleasant hike to Brezová pod Bradlom, a cute town (pictured to the left) where we finally got a real lunch and grocery shopping. Planned to stay at the chata on Bradlo, but it´s closed, so we hiked all the way to Myjava and checked into the classy Hotel Štefánik -- nice place, unfortunately no computer available and no internet cafe in town.

Day 4 (July 12th)

Dobra Voda was a bust! No hotel, one food store which is closed on Sunday! But good news, a pub is open and they happily feed us sausage and pizza. (In Slovakia, "pizza primavera" means with mushrooms, corn, and ham.) We found the town map (all good towns have a map) and it encouraged us to head to the nearby resort village called Mariaš, with hotel, restaurant, pool, and public campground. Sadly, only the pool actually exists! Deborah negotiated poolside camping rights for €20, an outlandish price (for comparison, drinks at the pool bar are half a euro) but hey, we can use the pool too... which feels great. Still no way to resupply on food, so we bought extra hot dogs at the pool snack bar for tomorrow´s breakfast.
After pool hours we hung with the staff and owners, drinking (borovicka and hruskavicka) and conversing in German, and finally stumbled back into our tent around midnight -- crazy late for us; we usually turn in around eight. Slept very well.

Day 3 (July 11th)

Brezinky was a bust! Just a couple of old ruined buildings overgrown with ivy. We were counting on food and water, so both are a little tight now. With a little creative rationing and wildcrafting, we should be fine -- Deb is an ace at spotting the wild blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, plums, apples, and cherries, also we have some food we saved from the airplane, so we´re actually eating very well! We´ll be fine as long as there´s food and lodging in Dobra Voda tomorrow.
Beautiful weather today and a lot of great ridge hiking with excellent views in all directions. We camped a little east of the old castle above Brezinky, and were lulled to sleep by the (hopefully) friendly grunts of a wild boar.

Day 2 (July 10th)

Chata Baba seems abandoned, had to add up our own bill and left cash. Very tired from yesterday´s big walk. Foggy and damp, light rain. Beautiful giant stands of beech trees. Spotted a wild boar in the woods! Camped in a great spot on Malá Vápenná; rain began immediately as soon as the tent fly was up. (Camping regulations are a little ambiguous, btw, but there are many established campsites on and near the trail, and this one was discreet with a great view. Since we´re not cooking, we don´t have to camp near water, which makes it easier to find a spot...)
Hoping to make it to the chata at Brezinky tomorrow for lunch. (We aren´t carrying too much food since it should be possible to eat and restock en route.)

Day 1 (July 9th)

Excellent breakfast at Hotel Skuritz, hiked from Bratislava´s old town joining the E8 directly in front of the American Embassy on a hill overlooking the city; must be one of the nicest spots in Bratislava. Lovely weather, beautiful scenery. Arrived at the TV tower too early for a snack, but the caretaker let us get water. The trail heads north through a large preserve, and lacking any good camping options we decided to push through to the first presumed available lodging at Penziska Baba, about 33 km of hiking altogether. Finally arrived at the ramshackle chata around 6 and collapsed after wienerschnitzel and beer. Storms all night.

From the Vienna airport, we hiked a little along the south bank of the Danube along Austrian Weitwanderweg 07 toward Bratislava. Mainly I wanted to see Devin Castle -- it was a nice sight, but the trail is pretty poor, a great muddy mosquito factory. We followed it as far as Wolfsthal and then caught a bus to Bratislava.

This is a fun, friendly, and beautiful city, a good place to shake off the jetlag. We stocked up on hiking maps and Slovak cuisine and I got a haircut, and now we're ready to start hiking for real.

We're heading north from Bratislava tomorrow on a trail called Štefánikova Magistrála., eventually connecting to the western terminus of the Trail of the Heroes of the Slovak National Uprising. (These trails and many others are strung together to make the E8.)

Leaving today

Flying to Vienna today. Here's our proposed route to Prešov, mainly along European route E8:

Part 1:

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Part 2:

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Part 3:

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Part 4:

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Part 5:

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