From Korcháň to Babia hora – day 1
Easter’s here, and once again we’ve planned a multi-day hike around Slovakia. Even though the snow’s already melted even in the high mountains, we decided to head into unfamiliar territory, from Korcháň to Babia hora. Because of the weather we start on Holy Saturday. The plan is to cover almost 130 km in 5 days.
Saturday, 19.4.2025
Korcháň – Vojty Lazy settlement
→ 23,5 km ↑ 987 m ↓ 780 m
We arrive in Kysuce on Friday evening. All morning I’m peeling potatoes for potato salad for a whole crowd of people. For lunch dad fries us schnitzels, so we’ve got enough strength, and with our coffee we eat the edges off mom’s honey cake, since it definitely won’t survive till we’re back. At 1:30pm we leave the house, my parents wave us off.
We head toward Zavaleniská and Vŕšky. The red trail goes the other way and skirts around Sagatka. We head straight up over Sagatka to Prieľač.
Except the path curves off the other way, so we turn back and go steeply down through an uncleared logging area. We finally reach the red marker, onto a forest road. Jozef compliments me on picking a good route.
From Prieľač it climbs steeply up. I lean into my poles and pant along. When we reach the ridge, lovely views open up all around. Then the trail rolls nicely through meadows, and the air smells of flowers.
The temperature’s deceptive, nice in the sun, but the moment it goes behind a cloud, it’s properly cold. Around 3pm we arrive in Raková and go to the Jednota store to stock up on a few more supplies. We buy rolls, salami, mustard, korbáčiky cheese, grated cheese, tuna and a few sweets too. And we really didn’t want to overdo it, but better to have too much than too little. We continue toward the local farm. According to the map there’s a path through there, but it’s fenced off, so we find a little track between the fields and start climbing that green hill above Raková.
There’s no path, we go by the navigation on our watches. We join a gravel road leading to Vartovka. We pass by that famous pine tree everyone photographs, so we take a photo too, right next to an enormous pile of manure.
At Vartovka we top up water and start climbing Črchľa. Boy, that’s a real steep one, and on such a waterlogged path too, a real treat. We come out onto the ridge, where it’s blowing pretty hard. As Jozef is waiting for me, he checks every stump around, since Mišo Tlelka apparently hid some beers here a few days ago, so we go looking.
That’s exactly the right kind of geocaching for Jozef. We continue toward Briava along the ridge. Before it we were supposed to turn off down into the pass over Husárik, but we’re still searching. At Briava I put on my windbreaker and we fuel up on croissants. In the end we just run down from there to the Husárik hotel. No beer found. We continue on the red trail to rejoin our original route. It’s a genuinely lovely area here. I don’t get why we haven’t been here before.
The forest road winds between settlements and the sun casts beautiful rays over the surrounding hills, creating a gorgeous spring scene.
We climb Chotárny kopec and we’re tempted to just go around it. We fuel up on candy and head up. Turns out it was pointless, no views up there either, and then it drops steeply down. We descend into Vojtovo sedlo, where 6 off-road vehicles with roof tents are parked and a barbecue’s in full swing. No wonder, there’s a shelter here, a spring, and an exclusive view of Malá Fatra.
If they weren’t here, we’d probably sleep here too. Jozef lies down to fill up water with a canteen on a string. Just to be safe we filter it. We top up both bottles and take a full water bladder too. We’ve got two kilometers left to our final destination. It’s already 7pm and the countryside’s bathed in golden sun. We descend at a brisker pace toward the shelter on Stračia nôžka. As we get closer we hear a dog. Uh oh, looks like it’s already occupied.
We get there and a Polish couple already has a fire going and is getting dinner ready. Just to be sure I ask if they’re sleeping there, they say yes. They’ve got their things laid out upstairs, but I still want to see what it looks like up there. It’s fairly stylish, just a shame it’s not a bit more sealed up, quite drafty in there. He tells us there’s a shelter half an hour from here, at Vojtovo sedlo, so we tell him about those cars. He can’t hide his surprise. Some motorbikers show up below the shelter, we share the same gloomy look, they’ve been revving there a good while already. They even offer to squeeze up a bit, but we’ve got a tent, so we say goodbye and head back half a kilometer to the red trail. We’d spotted a nice little meadow there, in case the shelter was full. We pass the motorbikers, one warns us there’s a bear around here. I nod, acknowledging it, well, I am in the forest. Two of the bikers head our direction. Not sure any bear’s going to show up after all this noise. We just catch the last rays of sun while pitching the tent.
I’ve had quite enough. Since we set off in the afternoon, we walked without a break to make it in time, and on top of that my legs are sore from yesterday’s run. Jozef volunteers to inflate the sleeping pads, since he got himself an electric pump, what a joy. I move my feet around a bit so they don’t hurt tomorrow, and go straight into pajamas. The sky stays a rich orange for a long while. For dinner Jozef first makes garlic soup, and then mashed potato with tuna, garlic, cheese and sugo. So good! We brush our teeth and I even doze off for a moment, but then get down to writing after all. Jozef’s asleep, function as my personal radiator.
