Koruna Turca – day 8
Friday, 25.10.2024
Útulňa Javorina pod Kľakom – Útulňa SNP Sklené
→ 40,5 km ↑ 1420 m ↓ 1761 m – total 216,4 km
We get up at 6:30am. Slept nicely, warm in our sleeping bags. I lie there and finish writing the blog. Jozef gets breakfast ready. First he hands me bread with Pali pâté, but I don’t like it, so he makes me chocolate oat porridge instead, with tea and coffee.
Before we leave we visit the top-notch outhouse and tidy up the shelter a bit.
Today we’ve got the most kilometers of the whole route ahead, and we’re already setting off fairly late. It’s 5 km downhill to Vrícko.
First through forest, already covered in a pile of leaves, so we need to watch for rocks, then along a cycling route through the valley. The start of this road’s pretty marked up by logging, and even though we try to go around it, we end up looking like little piglets. We’re moving slower than expected.
In Vrícko we go shopping at the Jednota store. To our surprise they’ve got a fairly decent selection. We buy stuff for the last day: pasta, soup, tuna, mortadella, garlic, ham, a smoked cheese spread and good rolls. As a snack now we have a chocolate roll, a walnut pastry and a beer. We sit outside the shop for quite a while and then continue along the paved road about 4 km to Vríčske sedlo. I’d originally wanted to take the forest road, but it had more elevation, and given we’re in bear country, we figured this would be the smarter choice. At least it goes by fast on the road.
At the pass we join the SNP trail, which we’ll follow all the way to the end of our crossing. At the same time we also enter the Žiar mountains, which we should cross entirely today. We start with a fairly steep climb to Závozy through some unattractive forest. Then it continues more gently, with the occasional view.
Autumn’s really in the air now. Beautifully colored trees everywhere and leaves fluttering around us. But every time I try to film it, they stop. Jozef’s starting to think I have some kind of obsession with them. Here and there I remember bits of my own SNP Trail hike, like where I took a nap, and that in the forest before Vyšehrad pass there’s a little box with stones engraved with “Cesta hrdinov SNP.” If anyone feels their pack’s too light, they can add a bit of weight there.
Just before the pass, in a fence with cows, we have lunch, those amazing rolls. I catch up on the blog, though it takes a long time and probably means we won’t make it before sunset. It’s already past 2pm and we’ve still got 19 km to the end. Ahead of us is the last bigger hill, Vyšehrad. We move really fast and are up within 25 minutes.
We take some photos on the rock and jog downhill. From here the route should be gently rolling and mostly on some kind of forest road, which we can cover fast.
We push it to top speed and even run downhill. We barely stop, only for water, and in the second half I have a Mila bar to keep my strength up. There’s a lot of dense thicket here, so we whistle and tap our poles, but don’t spot any sign of bears.
5 km before the end we pass by Jožkovňa shelter, where I’d originally planned to sleep, but I want to check out the new shelter instead.
The kilometers tick by, and 500 m before the shelter we top up every bottle we’ve got. It only flows in a thin trickle, so it takes about 10 minutes. We cover the last stretch through the forest in near-dark. At 6pm we arrive at the shelter, genuinely happy with that timing. We go straight upstairs to lay out our things. There are nice mattresses, so we don’t even bother inflating the sleeping pads, just lay tyvek on them. There’s even a solar panel, so I charge my watch and we’ve got a light on. Jozef goes straight to cooking and I get started sorting through photos. First we have chicken soup with leftover Slovak rice, then pasta with garlic, tuna and mortadella, and finally herbal tea. I’m glad we’re finishing tomorrow, we really pushed it today and we’ve had quite enough. Our clothes could use a wash too, and I’d love to wash my hair. Jozef of course goes to sleep earlier, and I write the blog until 10pm. I don’t manage to finish it, but tomorrow’s a short day, so I’ll do it in the morning.
