With the spring in full swing, it was time to head back to the higher hills, instead of staying in the lowlands. Given that May is known for frequent but short rain showers, this is never an easy time to plan hikes, but the results this year were quite nice.
The weekend after my 5-day trip (described two weeks ago), the plan was to visit a place that I’ve seen many times, the last was in December. It’s a place that’s quite popular, especially during the main season, so it’s often crowded. The forecast for the day wasn’t that optimistic – mostly cloudy with a chance of rain showers. The morning was cloudy, and it seemed the hill wouldn’t be as crowded that day.
The rock formation, often surrounded by crowds, was strangely empty – which, outside of winter, I haven’t yet seen. And this emptiness continued through our way up the hill. Given the gloomier weather, I focused more on enjoying the day than on taking photos, especially as it’s an area I tend to visit often.
The views of the mountain fields were nice, whether all the way up, or near the towns in the valleys.
Before heading down, though, I took a detour around another rock formation, this one a bit too hidden in the woods.
And only then headed to the village. Where I had enough time to read for a while, though I was interrupted by a very short rain shower.
The next weekend, I planned to go on a hike with my sister to a place I have seen only once and she hasn’t yet but I believe she’d like it. Unfortunately, the forecast in the area included a noticeable chance of storms, so we had to postpone it to some other time and choose a different, safer location.
Our day started with low clouds, which meant we’d be going without any far sights, but our goal was to see some hidden rock formations, for which it wasn’t any major hindrance, as we walked through a dense forest.
In the lingering mist and dense woods, many of those formations looked ominous. However, the dense woods provided few opportunities for photos. Maybe I’ll return there some other day, in better weather.
The last hike of May led me to another place I visited a few years ago. This time, the weather cooperated more, once the morning mist, caused by the rains of the previous day, started to dissipate.
Reaching the first, “appetizer” peak wasn’t that long, but it was a noticeable warm-up. A short break followed as we descended to the next valley, only to start ascending again soon after.
Once above the woods, we could see a lot of the surrounding mountains.
We decided to spend some time up there, walking around to some of the other peaks to take more photos. We also saw some of the other mountains hit by localized rain showers, some even with thunder, in the distance.
Unlike years ago, those avoided me, though I took the chance to tell the people with me how I walked this trail with sloshing boots back then.
Our stay at the mountain fields was long, so we then had to pick up our pace a bit. But we still managed to enjoy the scenery.
Which included this restored castle ruin from across the valley, though I was, unfortunately, out of time to have a closer look.
By the time I reached the pick-up point with my group, we had 15 minutes to go, making full use of the day.
So, that’s a look back at my one-day hikes in May. The month was already quite warm, and more’s coming, with more places to see in June and beyond.
Tomas - the wandering dreamer 