Day 15 Preddvor Loop

In bright red letters the preamble for this hike read, "Please only do this longer route in perfect and dry weather!" They even said please. The rain stopped almost 24 hours ago, so we went. It was treacherous.

The route went as follows:

Preddvor (a town) up a STEEP climb

to St. Jacob's Church (closed, but tea available at the attached hut),

to a peak (X marks the spot, fogged in and cold!),

across a ridge (one-foot-wide walkway with steep drops on both sides),

to a mountain hut (also closed, no tea here), 

back down STEEP trails (wet tree roots, loose gravel, no fun)

to a couple of villages (smiling people, friendly dogs, beautiful gardens 😃)

to the pension (we were virtually crawling).

Had the fog rolled away, giving us the incredible views reported by previous travelers, I'd have a different report. As it was, this is definitely a been-there-done-that experience. The conditions were still too wet for us to enjoy, but it was a good, hard workout.

No wonder there were so few others on the way. I call this the silent hike. In the fog we barely heard another soul, animal or bird. We were too busy concentrating on not slipping to chat for most of the day.

Surprise of the day came toward the very end of the hike. We saw a small group of trees that look very much like coastal redwoods. Mature ones, too. We're not sure what type they actually are or if they're coastal redwoods someone brought here long ago. In any case, they are thriving.

At Pension Zaplata we enjoyed comfortable accommodations, two delicious dinners, and a taste of blueberry brandy - a regional specialty. Tomorrow we will be transferred to a trailhead from which we'll "meander" up 1700 feet and down 3000 feet for about 9 miles to the next hotel.