7-19-2022
Daily Miles: 10
Total Miles: 129
We got a late start today, as we had some work tasks to do and we had breakfast at our little hotel. By the time we headed out, it was 10am and it was already quite hot. We’ve heard that there is a stretch of hot weather starting now and we could really feel the difference.
As we headed out of town, our GPS showed the track going off the main road for a bit before coming back to the road. We followed the track, which was a mistake…it was a terrible route which had us going up a steep road and then down a steep farmer’s path. We weren’t even sure if we were on public land, and we really don’t like to walk on people’s private land, especially in a place where we don’t speak the local language. In the end, we realized the GPS track did not follow the actual trail and it probably took us three times as long as if we had just walked down the main road.
Once we bushwhacked our way back to the main road, we had a mile or so to walk on it, as we headed down to the valley. The road was quite tight and there was no shoulder, but the cars were quite respectful, so it didn’t feel dangerous.
After a mile, we turned onto a smaller road which headed back into the valley. We ended up walking the length of the valley, following a small and very clear stream the whole way. We stopped several times to wet our bandanas in the stream, since it was so hot.
Eventually we ran out of road and started in on trail heading up and out of the valley. We missed our turn off for the trail and finally realized we needed to turn back when we got to a big rock slide with nowhere to go. Once we turned back, we saw the markings for the turn.
The trail got really steep as we walked up through a nice dense forest. We were thankful for the shade from the trees. We passed an old, apparently abandoned hut with a nice water source filling up a hollowed out log. We have seen these “log reservoirs” in various locations on the trip and they seem like such a good idea…it makes collecting water from springs so much easier.
As we came to a nice view point, there was a bench, so we stopped for a little break. We could see hang gliders up above the peak as we sat there. We expected to see mountain goats on the steep scree slopes, but didn’t see any today.
We finally made it up out of the valley and onto a grassy saddle. We had Storzic mountain to one side, where we could see hikers going up and coming down, but we were headed in the opposite direction for tonight as our hut was on a 15 minute dog-leg from the trail.
When we got to the hut, we realized the hut manager knows zero words of English, and with our three words of Slovenian, things were a bit tough. There were three Slovenian 20-something’s who got recruited into being the translators. We were so thankful they were here, but bummed they were just day hiking and wouldn’t be around for the evening. They helped us get sorted out with our dinner and our sleeping arrangements. They even gave us some suggestions on places to visit before leaving Slovenia. They also told us that the joke in Slovenia is that the country is shaped like a chicken…definitely not something we’d heard before!
We washed up and headed to the dining room for dinner. We shared a bowl of chicken and vegetable soup and a roll stuffed with cottage cheese and baked with a sugar topping that looks like a big burrito. The cottage cheese roll was something new for us…a savory filling with a sweet topping. All the food was very good, and the hut manager even brought us out some crepes as a treat at the end.
We are the only ones staying at the hut tonight and it is so quiet here. The sun is coming into our room and we have a great view of Storzic from our window. A pretty great day.
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