June had seen me return to old places. In this post, I’ll cover the first two.

5.6. – Not too far

If you’re reading my blog for a while, you know I prefer to go hiking on Saturdays. The reason is simple, it gives me Sunday to let my body rest. But June weather turned out quite tricky. On the 4th, the forecast was promising clouds and rain showers while the 5th looked way more promising. Thus, if I go hiking on Sunday, I choose a place near home to make it a half-day hike.

This time, I chose a trail I probably only used in winter – simply because it’s the mildest ascension. So, seeing this field in full bloom was new to me. That said, despite the clear skies, the rain showers in the previous days brought the morning temperature down to maybe 10°C. Being clothed lightly, I had to pick up my pace to keep warm. I maybe overdid it as I reached the peak with my T-shirt soaked. I sat there for a moment, exposed to the sun to dry off a bit, then started just as hasty descent.

At the end of the hike, I took this picture – a replica of the winter photo I took at the same train station (before the second stage of its renovation, though) after a winter hike in December 2014).

Aside from that, as this was the 18th visit to the same mountain, I’ve taken only two or three more pictures.

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11.6. – Third time’s the charm…

The second hike led me to the Slovakian Vel’ký Choč peak. I’ve first visited it back in 2009.

I’ve tried to find the rock where I had this picture taken back then but, as I walked that section of the trail in the opposite direction, I failed. Despite being mid-June, the 2009 hike surprised us with a 5-minute snow shower. While the snow melted immediately, it made the trail muddy, and more than a few people reached the pick-up point with a mud-stained backside.

The second hike was back in 2015. That time, we were lucky to avoid a snow shower.

The third time was originally planned for 2020, delayed to 2021 because of COVID restrictions, and then again, so it came to pass in 2022. The start was in a spa village with a waterfall in its center. Unfortunately, the recent removal of mud sediments left tire marks in the basin below it.

After leaving the village, the ascension was sharp, giving us a chance for a small reprieve roughly midway through on a small field with a nice view of the peaks above, as well as the surrounding flowers.

The peak itself was a bit crowded, given the nice weather. It was also quite windy, so most of the present people chose spots where the rock sheltered them from the wind. The low clouds limited the view distance but that barely affected the nice day.

So, as with the previous week, I sped up the descent to keep myself warm. As soon as I left the wind-buffeted peak, it took only a while to be warm again. Unlike in 2015, there was another small lookout created, providing sight of the main peak. I remained there for a while, just gazing at the peaks around.

The second lookout was just a short distance away, providing a view in a slightly different direction. From here, the unfinished highway (which was in construction back in 2015 already but a combination of geological and political problems had sent it into a spiral of delays) could be seen along with all the nearby mountains.

From this lookout, it was a sharp descent to the outskirts of the town below, where we had our pick-up point that day.

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So, that’s about the first two June hikes. I’ll cover the remaining two in another post sooner or later.