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Slovenia #3: Logarska Dolina

The first hike of our Slovenia trip had been to Velika Planina. It was a walk on a high rolling plateau which gave us some distant views of the sharp peaks of the Kamnik Alps off to the north. After the hike we drove all the way around the Kamnik massif and approached it from the other side, coming from the north and driving up the Logarska Dolina (Logar Valley) into the heart of the mountains.

The drive was beautiful. The further we went into the valley the more amazing the scenery became. I was craining my neck looking out the window of the van, trying to see the tops of the mountains. Finally we stopped at a viewpoint and everyone could get out. Supposedly it was the standard place to take postcard shots of the mountains. Some of the people in the group complained that the light wasn't quite right, that the valley was too much in shadow, but I thought the view was pretty darned good. You can look at my picture and judge for yourself (it's the third one).

Our destination for the evening was Hotel Plesnik, a family-run hotel in a beautiful setting. Directly behind the hotel was a pretty waterfall cascading down a steep rock wall while looking up the valley it was surrounded by impressive mountains. We would be staying at the hotel for the next three nights, using it as our base for hikes in the area. Besides a hotel and restaurant, it also had a wellness spa which got Sandy's attention when she found out they offered massages. She figured it would be just the thing after a hard day of hiking.

After checking in Sandy and I went to our room on the third floor (actually the second floor using European numbering, which starts with zero for the ground floor). From our balcony we had a beautiful view of the mountains shining in the late afternoon sun while the valley floor was already in the shadows. We also overlooked the hotel's unique "green pool". It didn't use any chemicals or artificial filtration system. Instead it was attached to a pond that was stocked with plants and fish. It was strange to look down on the pool and see the odd fish swimming around in it.

I was excited because these mountains were completely new to me. Ever since I started hiking and climbing in earnest over forty years ago, I have read a lot of books about famous mountains and famous mountaineers. Many of these were set in the western Alps so long before I saw the Matterhorn or the Eiger or Mt. Blanc I knew their names and their climbing history. I could recognize them instantly from seeing many photographs of them. Not so the Eastern Alps, where there were not as many famous pioneer climbs and the mountains are not well known outside of the region. The peaks are impressive, but not as famous as the Swiss Alps or the Dolomites. They had strange sounding slavic names. Ojstrica was a rock peak rising just behind our hotel. It was steep on all sides and reminded me of the Grand Teton. Skuta was another big mountain that rose at the end of the valley, the highest mountain in view. All of the peaks I could see were brand new to me. That's why I had come to Slovenia.

We had dinner at our hotel that night. It was our second dinner with the group, and by now we had done one hike together, so we were beginning to get to know everyone.

Katherine and Flo were two friends who both lived in Manhatten. Katherine was an investment banker and a hard core runner. If our hikes weren't very long, she would go out running afterwards. Flo was an attorney. I had some interesting conversations with Flo during the trip about the time she spent in the District Attorney's office in New York City. She had some good stories to tell.

Dieter and Verena were a couple who were also from Manhatten. Dieter was an investment banker. Verena, when she was younger, had been a trapeeze artist for many years and had traveled throughout Europe and the Middle East with the circus. They were Swiss citizens but had lived in New York City for twenty five years. They were thinking about moving back to Switzerland in the future when they retired.

Cliff and Margaret were both engineers from the Bay Area. Cliff had worked for Hewlett Packard a long time ago, the company where Sandy and I worked for most of our careers. He worked on SOS (Silicon On Saphire) integrated circuits. SOS was a proprietary process that HP used to make its microprocessors back in the late 1970's. I didn't have the heart to tell him that my very first job when I joined HP was designing SOS parts out of a disc controller because they weren't cost competitive with industry standard parts.

Greg was from Michigan. He lived near Detroit, but out in the country on the shore of a lake. At seventy he was the oldest member of the group. He was a strong hiker though. On all of our hikes throughout the trip he was always at the front of the group. His daughter Sarah was an attorney who lived in San Francisco. They were both avid kayakers and were planning to stay after the Mountain Travel trip to go kayaking on the Socha River. We got a chance to see that river later in the trip and I was impressed. I'll have plenty of pictures of it in a later post.

The last person in our group was Kingsley. She lived in Nashville where she had just finished law school. At thirty she was the youngest in the group. She arrived in Slovenia late because of a friend's wedding and traveled separately from Ljubljana to join us at the Hotel Plesnik. Since she had missed our first hike she was anxious to hit the trail.

Last but not least were Sandy and me, world travelers and hardy hikers, which made a total of eleven people in our group.

Most of the people in the group were in their fifties and sixties but all were very strong hikers. All were professionals, with five engineers, three attorneys and two investment bankers. From my experience, it was a typical group for a Mountain Travel type adventure travel trip. It was a good group though. Often there is a complainer/whiner on the trip, someone who is never happy with things. Or there may be someone who tries to dictate what the group should do, expecting everyone to change to accommodate what they want. Everyone on this trip was pretty low key and got along pretty well.

It had been a beautiful day for our first hike and the forecast predicted that the good weather would continue for the next few days. Sure enough, the next morning there were clear blue skies. Our next hike started right from the Hotel Plesnik which was nice. No drive to the trailhead and no time wasted. We started with a pleasant walk along a trail through the woods with occasional nice views of the mountains. It was nearly flat as we headed up the valley. Sometimes we crossed the road that also went up the valley but most of the time it was out of sight. After about two hours the trail reached the end of the road where there was a parking area and a small mountain hut.

We stopped for a rest and a drink. I earned some husband points when I went in the hut and found out that they had Pepsi. Sandy doesn't really like to drink Coke. She much prefers Pepsi but when traveling internationally it's pretty hard to find it. She was grateful when I appeared with a cold Pepsi for her.

After a rest the trail started to climb up the head of the valley. It only took about fifteen minutes to reach the main attraction of the trail, Slap Rinka (Slovenian for Rinka Falls). At 344 feet it's the highest of the twenty waterfalls in the Logarska Valley. There is an inn called Orlovo Gnezdo which is literally built on a platform extending out of the cliff right next to the waterfall. We didn't climb up to it but it must have provided an impressive view of the waterfall. I'm not sure I would have wanted to eat lunch there though. I think I would have been nervous suspended in mid air.

From there the route wasn't obvious as the valley ended in a steep headwall. The trail started some serious climbing up a steep wooded slope to the left of the waterfall. After some hard work we were above the falls and crossed a bridge over the stream just before it plunged over the cliff. Above that the route was even steeper. First we climbed a series of wooden steps and then scrambled up a rocky gully beside the cascades that tumbled down to the top of the waterfall. It was a beautiful setting but it was hard work and we took it slowly and carefully.

Eventually we reached a level spot where there was a large spring. This is where the water emerges from the mountain, goes down the cascades we had just climbed beside, and then plunges over Rinka Falls. Below the falls it continues down the valley as the Savinja River, which eventually flows into the Sava River and ultimately the Danube.

It was cool and shady in the rocks next to the spring, a pleasant place where we rested after our long climb in the hot sun. We filled our water bottles and drank the delicious ice cold water right from the spring. It was a good place for a long break and Roman entertained us with a lecture on slavic swear words. He told us that Slovenian is a very polite language without a lot of graphic language. When Slovenians get really mad, they swear in Croatian or Serbian.

The example of Slovenian swearing that he gave us was "three hundred hairy bears". I have to agree that it doesn't really sound like a blistering curse. It's not the kind of thing I would think to shout when I hit my thumb with a hammer, or yell at a driver who cut me off in traffic. Our group adopted it though and for the rest of the trip you would hear "three hundred hairy bears!!!" whenever anything went wrong. Rather than sounding angry, people were more likely to be laughing when they said it. Maybe that's a good thing though and all swear words should be like that.

After the spring we continued climbing but it was more gradual and on a regular trail through the woods. Eventually we reached the Frischouf Lodge, a mountain hut where we stopped for lunch. After the long, hard climb up from the valley we rested in the shade on the patio in front of the mountain hut. There was a view of the valley where we had hiked that morning with the mountain wall of the Kamnik Alps rising above it and stretching off to the east.

The hut was just a starting point for the high mountains. Beyond were trails that continued to a saddle on the crest of the range, to other mountain huts and to the start of climbing routes on the major peaks. But this was as far as we were going today. It had been a good hike and we had a spectacular view so it was a good enough destination for us.

The menu for lunch was Slovenian cuisine. Although I really liked Slovenia for many reasons, neither Sandy nor I liked the food much. We hadn't cared for the buckwheat mash and sour cream with pork fat the day before. Today Sandy tried the goulash. She was expecting a dish with a lot of noodles but it was just a heavy soup, bitter and what meat was in it was very fatty. I had Carolean sausage, another Slovenian specialty. I'm not a huge meat eater and sausage with large chunks of fat in it isn't my favorite. I ate most of the sausage by picking out as much of the fat as I could but Sandy hardly touched her goulash.

Fortunately I had some candy bars with me so Sandy didn't go completely hungry. She would need energy to get back down the hill.

After lunch we had a long rest to let our meals settle before we started back. The steep slope was just as much work climbing down as climbing up, and was even trickier in spots. We also had to contend with traffic as there were a lot of hikers going the other way now, people who had started later in the day than us who were still heading up. At one point we had to scramble down a steep rock step. While I was thinking how difficult it was as I climbed down, a dad with a toddler riding on his shoulders climbed past us going up it. He held his daughter with one hand while using the other hand to climb the rock. I was impressed by his sure-footedness but it certainly didn't look safe to me. It wouldn't have taken much to send the poor kid tumbling down the rocks.

We made it down the steep gully, across the bridge above the waterfall and back to the valley floor. When we finally reached the hut at the trailhead I noticed a sign that read "There is no WiFi in the forest but you will find a better connection". True dat.

From the end of the road we had two options. While we had been hiking to the hut and back, Jan had gone back to the hotel and driven one of the vans up to the trailhead. Some of the group, including Sandy, opted to ride back to the hotel from there. Never one for moderation, I decided to hike the rest of the way along with several others. I walked with Flo and Katherine. It took over an hour but was slightly downhill and very easy. We had a chance to chat most of the way back.

For dinner that night we took a short drive to a nearby restaurant, one that we had passed on our hike through the valley that day. We had lots of food, beer and wine and a chance to talk over our experiences on the hike. It was a good end to another great day in the mountains.