From Korcháň to Babia hora – day 2
Sunday, 20.4.2025
Vojty Lazy settlement – Sedlo Príslop
→ 35 km ↑ 1619 m ↓ 1418 m – total 58,5 km
The first rays of sun wake us before 6am, but it’s nice and warm in the sleeping bags and we really don’t feel like getting up, so we doze off for another hour and a half. We get up at 7:15am. Jozef makes coffee, gets rolls with salami and korbáčiky ready, and I do my Spanish Duolingo.
I climb out of the warm sleeping bag, stretch a bit, and go hang the water bladder on a tree so it can filter. I change straight into hiking clothes so I can start packing. We have chocolate with our coffee, brush our teeth, pack up the tent and set off. Breakfast and packing took us an hour, a good time for the first day. We continue on a gentle path around some settlements. The route I’d planned goes over Kýčerka hill, but we’d rather go around it, half a kilometer longer, but with nicer views.
We turn onto the blue trail heading down to Oščadnica. It’s a pretty waterlogged path, so we hop from side to side, and sometimes there’s nowhere to jump, so our shoes get soaked. Luckily we can already hear trains, so we’re close. By the train stop there’s a spring where we go top up water and make tea. If you thought some kind of teabag, you’d be wrong. Crouched by the railway track I sip Darjeeling while editing photos. Ahead of us is 12.5 km and 850 m of climbing to Veľká Rača. We cross the railway and a bridge over the Kysuca river.
We walk a bit along a cycling route by the river. I also go check out a viewpoint above the river with a view of the railway. Then we start climbing across a meadow above Oščadnica. We go around Čarovná lúka (Enchanted Meadow), an area where they grow flowers and lavender, where people come to take photos, but it’s still all covered over.
The village built a “bandits’ trail” with some funding, which by pure coincidence we now find ourselves on, so every kilometer we pass a big wooden statue of some highwayman with a sign next to it describing the history of banditry in the area. My reaction is basically: “that must have taken some real effort, and for something so pointless.”
At noon we take a break by the lookout tower below Kalinový vrch and eat rolls. We sit there about 10 minutes and a family with kids arrives to grill, so they set up at the next table . Jozef’s getting antsy and wants to move already, but I’m updating the blog, so he has to wait. The next break will be at the hut on Veľká Rača. We continue along the blue trail.
After 5 km we reach Dedovka, which is fairly busy, so we don’t even stop and climb the green trail up Rača. My energy’s starting to run out, so I have a candy and drag myself uphill. We pass more ski lifts. We were here about three years ago, but I don’t remember any of it. At 2pm we finally reach the hut. Jozef gets žurek soup and I get strawberry pierogi, with a beer of course. We pay by card and settle onto the terrace with a view. We wait about 15 minutes for the food, I’m starving by now. The strawberry pierogi turn out to be blueberry instead, which doesn’t bother me at all.
Fueled up, we set off on the next 15 km of today’s route. From here we more or less continue right along the Slovak-Polish border. The trail rolls along the ridge and every so often views open up on the Polish side.
After 4 km we stop by a little spring and top up water. We mix pomelo Tang, which we brought back from Argentina, into one bottle, for a bit more energy to keep walking. From there the trail continues mostly through forest, alternating between beech and spruce.
We really don’t feel like walking much anymore, but we need to keep a brisk pace to make it before dark. Two kilometers before today’s destination we fill all our containers at the Dvojistá voda spring. We also give ourselves a quick rinse, so we don’t go to sleep quite so dirty. Ahead of us is still a steep climb up some kind of rock formation. It reminds us of the climb up Veľký Polom.
From Rycierova hora it’s just 300 meters down to Sedlo Príslop above Vychylovka. This pass separates the Kysuce and Orava Beskids. On the opposite hill we can see what kind of climb awaits us tomorrow. That’ll be quite the warm-up. There’s a shelter at the pass, so we set our things down there. Jozef pitches the tent and inflates the sleeping pads while I loosen up my feet a bit.
For dinner we have Asian chicken instant noodles, then pasta with tuna, sugo and cheese. We eat at the table like proper people, so meanwhile I post a few videos to Instagram. After sunset birds chirp loudly, and every so often we catch some singing from down in the village. It’s turned cold now, so we brush our teeth and go warm up in the sleeping bags. I’d meant to write too, but my hands are completely numb, and once I’m warm, sleep really pulls at me, so I leave it for tomorrow. As I’m dozing off, I suddenly hear a big noise in the forest and cracking branches. That really sounds like a bear. For a second fear grips me, but then I rationalize it, probably not here to eat me. Likely, once it senses us, it’ll head off another way. And that’s exactly what happened, within a few seconds I heard the cracking sounds moving further away. I don’t have the energy to think about it any further and fall asleep.
