Day 57: Wrong-way hiker

Last night the wind picked up, coming from all directions and I put my rainfly over the tent. Then I couldn't sleep because it was noisy and I was afraid my tent might brake...

The next morning, I managed to start early. But it was still windy and I was wearing long pants and a pullover for a change. But not long after, it was warm again and I changed to my usual hiking Cotham of T-Shirt and shorts.

I would have liked to stay on the ridge, but there was no official hiking trails on my map. There were some trails, but I didn't know of they would involve real climbing, so I chose the safe way: dropping down around 1000 my and then up again.

It was crazy. Steep, hot and Saturday, which means really EVERYBODY was walking up and I felt like being a wrong-way driver in the rush hour!!!

However, my trail back up was just lovely! Hardly any people, not too steep and lots on the shady forest with beautiful views later on. However, when I came to the juntion for the last ascend, it was crazy busy. No wonder, I was directly looking down on the bog city of Zakopane!

It felt a little too crowded, but it was a beautiful day and although everybody seemed to do the ridgewalk along the border, I still likes it. Just when I came to Kasprov vrch, it was really like a circus. That's the mountain with chairlifts!

Then I was really a wrong-way hiker!!! I walked up to 2301 m high Gladki Wierch, where I felt totally underdressed! Everybidy had at least gloves, lots were wearing helmets, microspikes and iceaxt... All nice but not really necessary, although there was quite some snow left on the chain-secured climbing bits!!! And I was slightly worried about my coming route. I wanted to drop down on the other side. On my map, there was a trail but no official marked hiking trail. But I had gpx tracks from other people, so I knew it must be possible to walk there. And when I came to the trail junction, there was even a trail marker. There was also a sign saying, that the trail is closed due to recent rockfall and that there is still a risk of falling rocks. But a guy just came from there, so I decided to give it a try. The next guy I met, I asked if I can walk there. His English was poor, but he said no. So I asked if it is possible  (I mean he just came from there) and he sad yes, but couldn't explain what else he wanted to say. So I continued. REALLY slow, basically climbing all the time along chains. When I was nearly done with that part and there were only a few snowfields left, I met 3 guys. They spoke English and explained, that this trail is a one-way trail only and I was walking the wrong direction! Ups... Luckily I was nearly done anyways.

Then I dropped down to some lakes and decided to call it a day. This time I set up my tent better protected from wind ;)