Slovenia Mountain Trail – Day 19

7/28/2022

Daily Miles: 8

Total Miles: 188

We had a great few days off in Bled, with a very comfortable apartment that we rented. Leah came to town the day after we did, so we met up with her for lunch each day. The three of us also rented a row boat and went out to the island with a church on it. Our second day, we all went to the Vintgar Gorge. It ended up being a lot of walking, but we had a good time.

We felt very rejuvenated this morning when it was time to head back to the trail…Beardoh even had a new pair of shoes. We got a bus from Bled, and with just one transfer and about an hour of riding time we ended up in Mojstrana (our next trail town).

We ran into Leah in town, but quickly parted ways as we wanted to stop for lunch before starting our walk. After lunch, we stopped into the Alpine Museum in town and checked it out. It was mostly about rock climbing and mountain rescues, but it had some interesting things.

We finally started our short hiking day after 1pm. We were basically walking up the Vrata Valley to the end where our hut for the night would be. The trail started out walking along a pristine river and was quite wide and flat. The trees gave some very needed shade as it was hot and humid again today.

The trail was about half off road and half on a paved road. The paved road part wasn’t great, as the road was quite narrow and there wasn’t a lot of shoulder. But at least we could get through it quickly.

We took a short side trail to a view point for a pretty great waterfall. It was quite impressive and the mist made for a cool spot.

We caught up with Leah about forty minutes before the hut. We walked together and it was fun to chat…definitely made the time fly.

The hut where we are staying is in a very stunning location…at the foot of a wall of rock. It is very close to a large parking lot and has a different feel than the other huts we’ve stayed at, with lots of people, dogs on leashes, and children playing. There are probably a lot of people staying here who are coming to hike the highest mountain in Slovenia…Triglav.

In the Triglav National Park, the SMT route has a lot of via ferrata sections. So, we have made our own route (using the SMT when it is not technical) for getting through the national park. While the trails we found are listed as “easy” according the Slovenian Alpine Association, there is a likelihood that the trails will still be intense for us.

Our route will not have us going over Triglav, but we had accepted that reality already. When we talked with the French couple a few nights ago, they were the first hikers we’d met on this trail who were also avoiding the via ferrata routes. They had also bought the equipment for the trail, but after a few sections, decided not to do anymore. A very similar situation to us.