Day 36: View to Trogdor Mountain (8/17/2010)

We slept in until 8:30am today, had breakfast, and got ready for a day of hiking. Dad chose the hike today. It was supposedly a ‘Leicht’ (or easy) hike. All I know is, that if what we did today is considered easy, Slovenians must be really hardcore hikers!


The mountain we climbed was 1700meters tall, but we only climbed the last 600meters. We drove up to a mountain hut and parked the car. We started our ascent around 11am. It wasn’t that out of the ordinary at first, there were some steep parts, but Baerbel assured us that once we made it to the peak it would all be down hill from there. That was true, but it wasn’t long before we reached the part of the ‘trail’ that had an incline of 60 or 70 degrees. We literally used all four limbs to climb! Last I checked, use of hands to scale a mountain path was not in the description of an easy hike, or even a medium one!!!


We decided to have lunch after we scaled a rock wall that came out on a fairly flat mesa. We were starving by this point, so we didn’t want to wait to get to the peak before eating lunch. We had only been eating 5 minutes when we noticed a huge black cloud coming up the valley next to our mountain. Davin and I hurriedly packed up our stuff and continued up the trail. The last thing we wanted to do was climb the sheer surfaces in the rain. Dad, Baerbel and Jonathan weren’t phased by the cloud and kept eating. Once we almost made it to the top, we stopped to eat and wait for the others to catch up.


Jona, Davin and I enjoyed complaining the whole way up the mountain. Actually, I think I was the only one who enjoyed complaining. I thought the whole trail was so ridiculous that it was hilarious. Davin said it was the most hellish hike he’s ever been on. I think it’s definitely the steepest!


We reached the peak at 2pm. We admired the great views of the valley and the tallest mountain in the area, Triglav, after which the national park is named. Davin decided to call it Trogdor mountain instead. Davin, Jona, and I signed the visitor book at the top. Davin wrote in the margin, “This was the most HELLish hike I’ve ever been on!” Jona got out his juggling balls for the photo opportunity. Then Davin had the idea to make a parody of a famous photo from Iwo Jima.



Then we started down the backside of the mountain. Davin kept slipping because he doesn’t have real hiking shoes. The way down the mountain was a lot better than the way up, but it was still ridiculously steep! After another hour of walking we came to an Alm hut. There we stopped to have drinks. Three ice teas and a lemonade. I asked if it was 45 more minutes to the car, and Dad and Baerbel laughed. Nope, it was 3 more hours to the car!! Lol.

An hour and a half later, we arrived at the next Alm hut. When we were almost there I slipped on wet grass and fell flat on my ass! It knocked the wind out of me, but I was just happy that I landed on something soft, and not on all the rocks we’d been climbing over all day!

At the hut, Dad and Baerbel had espressos and warm milk. I had a tea which turned out to be presweetened and disgusting. I enjoyed petting the cows that lived at this hut and made my lil brother take pictures of me with a cow. Cows are so cute!


While we were resting, Davin and Jona decided it was time to use the frisbee that we brought all the way up the mountain so we could use it, take pictures, and say that we did it. Lol. In this picture, Davin catches the frisbee! Amazing!


We had an hour and a half left to go. We headed down the trail and some cows were coming the other way. One of them had a calf which was scared of people so the Momma cow started making moves like she might charge us! I put the pointed edge of my walking stick in her face as I slowly backed away. I didn’t want her to get any ideas, and I wasn’t going down without a fight!! She let me move, then moved towards my stepmom who danced back out of the way. Finally the cow went past. Phew. Goring by cow is not an experience I need to add to my resume!


The rest of the trip down the mountain was uneventful, and for the most part the trail was better than it had been all day. We made it back to the car at 6pm, so our hike lasted 7 hours. A pretty decent walk I think. Jona collapsed into the backseat of the car and said, “I never was this happy to sit in the back!”

We drove back to the apartment, took turns showering, had leftovers for dinner, and I wrote the update for the day before. I was too exhausted to write today’s too! Then Davin, Jona, and I played poker for an hour. We went to bed at around 10pm.