The abovementioned shelter.
Cooking of the breakfeast:
oatmeal on US cooker a.k.a. Clinton in the front
tea on Russian "Ogonyok" in the behind.
In some places there was a lot of snow
Blooming [der Safran] somewhere
bear track elsewhere
We chose the weekend before Easter, 7 people came (JH, RH, LH, VH, MK, PF+1), it seemed to be worse before the hike, up to two-digit number of people. The meeting point was the main square in Dobsina, from there we started to saddle Dobsinsky vrch, going along a garbage dump (a lot of communist brochures laying there). Up in the saddle we took the midday rest, then decreased to Mlynky and continued along the southslopeof Velka Knola to Grajnar saddle. The morning hot got milder, several expectd showers in the afternoon. We headed for Javor cottageat Grajnar, which used to be abandoned a few years ago (according to LH reference). Now it was still abandoned and also well locked. As the rain grew heavier, we placed ourselves under a small overhanging roof and a tourist shelter (table+seats).
The abovementioned shelter. | |
Cooking of the breakfeast: oatmeal on US cooker a.k.a. Clinton in the front tea on Russian "Ogonyok" in the behind. | In some places there was a lot of snow |
Blooming [der Safran] somewhere | bear track elsewhere |
In the morning back westward (Mala Knola, Certova Hlava). Originally we intended to hike around Slovensky Raj and only in the last day to crawl through the flooded canyons. But when we got everything wet in the snow fields, we changed them for a warmer water in the canyons: down to Dedinky and up through Zejmarska roklina. Everybody who knew this place in the summer, was suprised by the water level: in the beginning we tried to find a dry path, then gave up and went through middle of the stream.
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The launch we made up on Geravy, from there to Glac plain and down to small dam Klauzy. There we found a suitable sleeping place (quite noisy due to the running water) and explored Tomasovska Bela canyon. There we rediscovered a cave originally found by VH+MK, returned to the dam and cooked a lot of soups.
The last day we climbed up Sokolia dolina (great waterfalls there), then down by Sucha Bela. Actually, climbing the canyons down is prohibited and I don't encourage it: in the summer it means annoying up-climbing people, in other seasons it is very slippery. We met just one group of Hungarian tourists, so it was not sobad.
Sokolia dolina, WA2 on the ladder.
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Down (Podlesok) we dried our boots, ate remaining food and continued through Hornad valley to Letanovsky Mlyn (iron steps in the rocksabove water, chains, a funny story how "5-year child is capable to get through this path"). Through a gypsy village (a crowd of begging children) we went to Letanovce train stop, from there to Poprad (RH struggling with his pocket zip in the station self-service restaurant). We left him there and took off (RH thought that he found a better connection through Bratislava).
Photos by JH (shelter, bear track) and RH (the other).