In Kranjska Gora: a hike in the national park

September 25, 2021

The sweet apartment life

Part of the reason that we decided to swing by Kranjska Gora was because it looked like a good place for a multi-night stay where we could rent an apartment. Rachael has been pining for a stop like this where we could settle in for a few days, have breakfast in the room, do the laundry, and make coffee as early as she wants.

Maya’s apartment looks perfect. She offered an earlier check-in if we wanted one, and she’s there waiting for us on a bench in the sun when we arrive at 1:30. Her husband is there too, and after we wheel our bikes into the ground floor of the apartment complex they both help us carry our bags up two flights to the apartment. It looks very spacious, has all the essentials - fridge, range top, microwave, Turkish coffee maker, a combo washer-drier - and comes with a view of those limestone peaks rising above the hills. While she registers me and captures our Covid and contact info, he shows Rachael the ropes - including how to use the utilities. Perfect for a three night stand.

Walking back to our room after dinner, we enter the ground floor entrance, look around the bike room, and are instantly sick to our stomachs. Our bikes are gone. There’s a rack with four other bikes in them, but not ours. We can’t believe it. We look around corners, through other doors, everywhere, thinking maybe we’ve just forgotten where we placed them. But no, they’re definitely not here.

We’re just talking about next steps - contact the hosts, contact the police - when it registers that I don’t remember there being a bike rack when we came in. I go back outside, look around, and see that there’s a nearly identical complex right next store. I enter that, find the bikes, and with elation rush back to let Rachael know we’ve just entered the wrong building.

Spirits are sky high when we enter the apartment. I go back and lock the bikes together, even though they seem safe enough in the small room behind the door where we’ve parked them, and Rachael starts in on the laundry. An hour later we’re still cursing this hunk of steel with cryptic signals all over its face because now that it’s finished the wash cycle we can’t figure out how to run the drying cycle. When we try, it just starts the wash cycle again, which we can’t really figure out how to stop either. There’s a manual on the table, but it’s in Slovenian. Rachael tries leafing through it with the camera and Google Translate, but we’re getting nowhere.

Finally, it occurs to me to browse for an English manual. I find one, we decipher the control panel, and start the drier. All is good.

In the morning Rachael gets up early, excited about being able to fix her own coffee. She loads up the Turkish coffee maker with water and coffee that she bought at the store yesterday, and starts the pot. Nothing happens. It won’t come on. We both try it several times, plugging and unplugging it, putting the pot back in the cradle and turning it on. Nothing.

There’s a manual on the table, but it’s in Slovenian. I’m sharper now and browse right away for an English version, but can’t find one.

So disheartening! Rachael has been so looking forward to being in control of her morning coffee fix. For today she’s got a few packets of instant she can use if she boils water on the stove, but we’ll want something different for the next two days. I send a message to our hosts, and then Rachael turns to look for a pot to boil water.

She finds a stovetop Turkish coffee pot! We know how to use these, from our stay in Croatia last autumn. We pour the coffee brew from one pot to the other, put it on the induction burner, and turn it on.

We can’t figure it out. We’ve worked with induction burners before so we more or less know our way around with them, but they’re all just a bit different. We can’t figure this one out. We can get a burner to come on, but only briefly. It glows red and then immediately fades. After several minutes of trying everything, including looking for a manual on the table (there is none) and browsing online (I can’t find one), I try selecting the maximum temperature on the scale. This works, and the burner stays on.

Within about 30 seconds the pot is boiling but then immediately foams up and erupts, leaving coffee all over the top of the range.

So that didn’t work so well. I spend several minutes wiping burned coffee off the burner, and then we start over and watch the pot more closely this time to yank it off the burner as soon as it starts boiling. This works, more or less.

While we’re finally enjoying our coffee a message comes in from our hosts. It expresses surprise that the coffee pot doesn’t work, because it did yesterday. They tactfully suggest just removing the rubber gasket that covers the electrical contacts, which is placed there when not in use so that you won’t ruin it when washing it out. That works. Tomorrow we’ll wake up and know just what to do.

Today’s hike

The other reason Rachael has been looking for a multi-day stay is because she’s ready for a day off the bike and would like to take a hike somewhere. Kranjska Gora looks great for that, being situated right on the edge of Triglav National Park. We’ll take a hike today, a day ride east toward Bled tomorrow, and then head back west toward Italy and the Alpe Adria on Monday.

With lots of possibilities, we find the perfect plan: a hike east up Vrsic Pass for five miles to a mountain hut that looks like it probably does meals. We’ll walk up there, have lunch with what we hope will be an amazing view of the Julian Alps towering above, and then walk back.

And, unlike our confusing experience with the apartment, our hike unfolds just as we envisioned. It’s a brilliant hike. The first three miles are an easy walk along a stream through the serene Mala Pišnica valley, and then we break away from the stream and start climbing. The last mile is a challenge, rising 800 feet in a mile on a rough trail and fording a pair of streams, but it’s nothing we can’t manage. At the top we round a bend and Rachael gives out a cheer when she sees that the hut is open and people are seated outside eating.

We start walking just as a major trail running event is starting. We knew of this event but hoped they wouldn’t be on our trail. They are, but at least it’s at the start and they’re still all bunched up so we just wait them out.

The first three miles are along this stream up the Mala Pišnica valley, following it into the interior of the national park.

The path takes us past Jasna Lake and its small lodge, crowded today with sun-seekers enjoying a weekend wilderness experience. And they’re in luck, because Covid doesn’t exist in Slovenia.

Entering Triglav National Park, Slovenia’s largest. And only.

In Mala Pišnica Valley. The mountains rise larger the further upstream we go.

Three miles into the hike we cross the now dry stream bed to pick up a trail on the other side.

An old hunter’s cabin, now more or less an open-air museum.

Open air, and open door. You can just walk in and look around.

It looks like a warm, cozy place to shelter in the winter.

An outbuilding, for livestock and supplies presumably.

A bit further up we pass the Russian Chapel, built by the Russian prisoners of war in World War I who built Vrsic Pass. The chapel was built to memorialize their many fellow soldiers who died during the project.

Awesome views as we climb higher into the mountains.

We don’t eat outside though, because the few tables out there are all of course occupied. Instead we eat inside, out on the balcony of the hotel (and it’s a good thing we remembered to bring our vaccination cards), with the killer view we had been hoping for.

Reflecting on a Laško, probably Slovenia’s best known beer.

The GBO sees his chance, and takes it. Rachael is not amused, thinking this isn’t the best use of the community bread bowl.

On the way back we more or less retrace our route, and make it back to the room about 4:30. I’m ready - ten miles is getting to be a long hike for me, and I’d have been quite happy to have been done a mile earlier.

Ninety minutes later, rested up and laced with ibuprofen, we head out to find a meal. Only outside seating is available because the town is still full from all the runners and their supporters - some of the competitors were still returning to town in the early evening, and there’s the sound of music and celebration coming from the nearby central square. We find a good restaurant though, have a good but chilly meal sitting outdoors, and then book ourselves for an indoor table for tomorrow night.

If I were a really nice guy, I’d pack this out and mail it back to Patrick Hugens for his license plate collection. Sorry, Patrick. I’m nice, but not that nice.

The walk back is as scenic as the way out - and downhill!

It’s not as bright later in the day, and the views seem even better on the way out.

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Hiking stats: 10 miles, 1,500’

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Jen RahnBeautiful!! If you're still in Slovenia, maybe there's a chance to meet up with the Bike Wanderers.

I'll send you their Instagram contact just in case ..
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2 years ago

Scott AndersonTo Jen RahnYes, but not really. We’re five miles from the border and leaving this morning. Slovenia’s a small country, but probably not that small.
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2 years ago