Our first big hike with David. Only me and him, the first time hiking, which could be called a ridge hike, without the possibility of shortening.
It mainly required courage, patience, playfulness and a lot of food and water 🙂
We start under the Calvary in Žarnovica and follow the blue hiking trail the whole time. As we climb, we enter the forest, where it is pleasantly cool, in some places we must climb over fallen logs – remnants of logging, in other places we stop to pick up lots of sweet blackberries.
In a clearing under the power lines we managed to meet three small wild boars and a little further in the forest a deer. David even found a praying mantis, invisible to me because it was the color of dry grass.
praying mantis
A picnic in the meadow gave us strength and a bag of sweets helped us overcome the crisis 🙂 We refreshed ourselves in a spring below Ihanovo, where there was plenty of water despite the dry summer.
well
The highest point was hill Johan, which is also part of the Novobanské povesti educational trail. It also offers the most beautiful views.
hill Johan
The last few kilometers, Dávid made up games for us (now we can’t step on any stone…) and so it went by quickly. We ended the hike at the Zvonička in Nova Baňa, Dávid with a well-deserved popsicle and juice and I with a craft beer.
Views from Johan
Yes, it was long, sometimes challenging to motivate, and my legs were sore from standing and waiting, but it was also beautiful, and I am incredibly proud of him.
He was freshly 6 years old at the time of the hike.
15.59km, 582m ascend, 5h46 min active time, 8h 33min total
The weather forecast was absolutely calling for taking a few days off and spending them outside the city. I immediately had the idea, let’s go through the Veľká Fatra. Jožko immediately agrees, but suggests a route that neither of us has ever done, the real Veľká Fatra ridge hiking trail, from Ľubochna (not from Ružomberok as most people, including me, usually hike). I agree without much thought.
The plan is to run the whole hiking trail in one day, sleep at Kráľová studna, and after breakfast run down to civilisation. We pack our little backpacks, they are full and heavy, because we also take things for the colder evening, sleeping, hygiene and more food than usual, after all 47km and 3500 meters climbed will take us some time.
View from Kopa
In the morning we get on the bus, have breakfast and get off in Ľubochňa at 8:20. The beginning is gentle, great for start moving the stiff body. But then the real fun begins 😀 We climb steeply towards Kopa, where on the top a cross and a beautiful view await us.
Water in Vyšný Rudno, first refreshment
Then we descend to the Ľubochnianske saddle and again steeply up to Vyšné rudno. The road is either overgrown or there is no marking after logging and there are lots of big branches lying on the path. We push forward and through the Príslop saddle we begin the ascent to Kľak. The climb is long, because Kľak is 1394 meters above sea level, but at the top there is a great view in all directions, we sit on the rocks, take out lunch (meaning a slice of bread with butter and cheese:D ) and enjoy the views.
signpost on KľakView from Kľak
I say to myself: fine, there is already a cottage under Borišov, there I will have a beer, it will be good: D but the route still leads either steeply up or steeply down and my energy is declining, thighs from steep downhills hurt. And as a bonus, I lightly injured my knee when I climbed the fallen tree on the way to the second well (100 altitude down from the ridge, just because of a half -liter of water? but past experience has taught us that going without water is even worse than going down the hard-earned meters to it)
The knee then became quite swollen and turned blue.
We are climbing to Javorinka and I’m quite exhausted, I’m chewing a cookie at the top and the signpost says that we should be in Borisov in half an hour.
on the path to Javorinka
I tell myself, okay, she’ll be over the next hill. I climb up the hill and she’s really there… Except not under the hill I’m standing on, but on the opposite one, and not in the saddle, but a good bit uphill. I curse, grit my teeth and go.
Jožko is already waiting for me with beer and radler.
It’s still a long way from the hut under Borisov, but it seems surprisingly easier than before, the climbs are not as steep, the terrain less technical, but I don’t have as much energy as I would like. We walk for a while, we run for a while, the further we go, the more we walk and the less we run xD.
On the way to Krížna
These paths are already familiar to us, so I send Jožko ahead to arrange dinner for us on Krížna. We must hurry, so that they don’t close the kitchen, because we don’t have any food left. I run a few more straights, but then I’m definitely out of energy and from Kráľová skala I just walk.
From Kráľova studňa
I enter the room, lie down straight on the carpet, happy that I did it, but really exhausted.. And now Jožko is urging me to take a shower, we have 15 minutes until the kitchen closes 😀 My stomach is tight and it takes me a good hour to eat dinner. But I’m proud of myself, this was the hardest run of my life so far. We drink a beer and night falls on the Veľká Fatra.
47.89km, 3467m ascend , 11h15min, from which 10h40min active time
