Day 99: Grateful

I complain so much, but today there were a lot of things I was grateful for: beautiful weather, nice fresh water, a cool breeze while walking up, cold milk, amazing views, marked trails, not getting bitten by dogs, bread, being healthy, messages from friends, GPS which shows me where to go when there is no marking, cool and quiet forests,... I would know plenty more things :) What were you grateful for today?

In the morning I descended on a beautiful trail to the road, the river on one side, rocks on the other. Then I road walked a bit, got some even more expensive food and walked towards the naturally dammed lake Lacul Rosu. I didn't expect a fairground with lots of stalls and even some kind of merry go rounds. Insane! So I passed quickly and continued my way up in the Cheile Bicazului Hasmas National Park.

I walked mostly on meadows today, sometimes with only a few cows and horses, sometimes with the usual nerve wracking sheep flocks and sheep dogs. Especially tonight I walked from one encounter to the next and my campspot is somewhere in the middle of all these pastures. I found a little bit of forest, where I am camping on a trail... Not perfect, but it seems there will be pastures for the several kilometres.

The trails were good and I even met 3 groups (2 hiking, 1 biking) of day tourists!!! Beautiful views, nice limestone rocks and a steep drop of Hamas mountains to the west and all this in nice sunny weather!  All in all very good day ;)

Walking down along the stream

Beautiful forest and maintained trail 

Lacul Rosu

Nothing unusual in Romania

Day 98: A frustrating morning and relaxed afternoon

It was frustrating this morning. The trail disappeared into bushes, overgrown patches and there were tons of downed trees again.  I had hoped for some real trail and relaxes hiking on a sunny day. Instead I bushbashed and swore. I had no fun. In addition, I had no water left but was thirsty since I didn't drink enough the day before. Since the trail stayed on the ridges, it didn't look like there would be water soon and with the super slow pace I didn't expect to get to water...

But then I came to open meadows  (without animals at first) and decided to skip a peak and shortcut further down. Despite the tall grass, so much easier to walk  But in the sun and I was sweating like crazy fighting my way up. But then there was a tiny trickle in the grass, which I used to fill my bottle. I saw, that there might be more water in the meadows further on, but didn't wanted to risk it. It took me ages, but it was so nice to have water!
There was a relative strong stream later on, but I was happy with the water I had and just filled my stomach there.

I had a two dog fights.
On the first, the shepherd actually tried to get one really aggressive dog to leave me alone and apologized, which had never happened before. I had used some of my backup stones, but refilled later on.
The second encounter was rather nasty, but because I was still so annoyed from all the bushbashing, they didn't stand a chance. I was throwing stones like a crazy person, which was possible because I was on a path with stones and not a meadow.
Some more dogs later on, but not too bad. I know I write about dogs a lot, but it's such a big thing for me! I just have to laugh about myself now, that before Romania I was afraid when only ONE street dog was barking at me :)

I had a VERY measure afternoon with at least 2 h of lunchbreak. It was only a few kilometres to a very steep dropdown and then road walk.  Because it was too far to do all the road walk in the afternoon, it didn't make sense to continue. The last meadows were very picturesque and I would have loved to camp there, but no way with the animals and dogs.

Now I am camping at the edge of the meadows (actually a bit too close in my opinion!) in the forest, just before a marked trail will drop down to the road

Info the bushes...

... and over trees

First gooseberry - not quite ripe but I still ate the inside ;)

Escaping the frustrating forest into high grass meadows

Beautiful adder 

Amazing view in the afternoon!!!

And some more water!

Day 97: Stairway to heaven

I was tired this morning. Yesterday night I had watched the stars above me and the lightning of an approaching thunderstorm.

I descended through meadows with tall grass (yeah, no dogs!), walked through Grinties where I luckily found a bridge not too far from the gpx track, which just crossed the river. Might be easy at other times, but thanks to the thunderstorm it was a brown, fast flowing stream.

Then I walked over a little mountain range into the next valley. Mostly on some trails, but some where pretty overgrown.

In Darau, I bought some expensive food. Darau is the entrance gate to the Ceahlau Nationalpark. I ascended towards the conglomerate rocks and made it up the staircase to 1904 m high Toaca. I got nice views including the dammed lake Izvoro Montelui, which I could already see this morning.

I descended over another, obviously not so popular trail and walked over a low ridge, where I had the same problem as the day before: no campspot. So I walked much longer than I wanted, although I was quite exhausted from all the ups. However, a beautiful day in Ceahlau National Park and no thunderstorm so far :)

Ceahlau is the mountain range in the back

Trail...

Stairway to heaven - or to 1904 m high Toaca ;)

Day 96: Strawberries and a bottomless stomach

Another day where I started late. I followed a dirt road 1000 m up along a stream. But with a very nice gradient! I had to pass some cows  guarded by 3 dogs, but exactly at that moment a women on a motorbike came my way, so we walked past together without having ANY trouble!!! 

Instead of using the sunny morning to walk, I ended up picking strawberries for at least an hour. My route was doing nearly a circle and then heading back, but I cut out a tiny bit by walking up a river.

Then followed some climbing over/under/around dead trees on a marked trail, before it got thunderstormy again. Some drops but nothing bad until it got really dark. I set up my tent but there was only little rain. The thunder and wind continued.

At around 6 I decided to  walk st least a little further. In the meantime I had been reading and eating the food that should have lasted 3 days... Since my big pot of noodles, my stomach seems to be bottomless! But I hope I can go to a store tomorrow.

I wanted to camp way before it was getting dark but ended up walking 1 h until I found a spot in the bushes to set up my tent after clearing it from some raspberry plants. I made it just at sunset. After a long time I found a tick again tonight but couldn't get it's head out. Guess it'll grow out.

Such a cute little fire salamander!

Walking along a stream- the track got smaller later on!

My route seemed like a big detour today

Yummy!

Slow process - over, under or around...

I was just done setting up my tent!

Day 95: A long day

Today passed by quickly. Some forests, some meadows, only very mellow dog encounters, all hiking on easy tracks, some rain and at the end of a long day road walk into Borca. A quick stop at a store and it was nearly dark when I finally had a campspot.

One of the few beech forests

I found lots of raspberries when looking for a campspot

Day 94: Rockoutcrops near Rarau

Today was a slow day. When I woke up, I was still tired and took my time until I was ready to leave, although it was a nice sunny day. Soon I reached a paved road, that I had to follow for 2 km. I was heading to Rarau, which is a ski resort and has beautiful rock outcrops. I had another scary dog encounter, where the shepherd just sat there, not doing anything while another guy standing far away seemed worried and asked me if I got bitten...

After noon, the trail markings left the forest roads and I walked along a ridge with several rock outcrops. Mostly not a trail but only markings and lots of vegetation or dead trees, often very steep in addition. Once I slipped and slid down the hill for a few meters on my butt before a tree stopped me. I had a few nice views and decided to camp rather early directly on the trail, since the thunder was rolling again. But it seems like it might stay dry after all.

Today pictures are in the wrong order...

Day 93: A relaxed hike up Mt. Giumalau

Today was a pretty laid back day. I slept longer, ate even more, did some updates on my phone that took ages and messed up things on my phone, took another shower, tried to but failed to get my organisational things done and went shopping again for a new 1 L bottle. I ended up buying an energy drink which was pretty ugly but certainly got me going after drinking it on ex before leaving :)

I wanted to leave around 1 pm, but ended up leaving at 2 pm, as I said goodbye to Lili (the owner of the pension) and her husband. It is incredible: staying with them, you become a part of the family, even when communication isn't easy. Very heart warming and if you ever come to Vatra Dornei, I can highly recommend staying at Pensuinea Magda!!!

I finally managed to leave after several attempts and left the valley to ascend Mt Giumalau on wide forest roads. Oversugared, sleep derived but doped,  I enjoyed the hike through forests. No need to worry about sheep dogs, some sun, an easy trail... And I couldn't believe that my cloths are clean and smell good. I don't know if Lili had to wash them 3 times as they were incredible ugly, but they are really clean!

The last bit up was on an open meadow and steep 4 AD track, that reminded me of the hiking in the Ukraine. And also here, it seems a common thing to take a jeep on a Sunday and drive up the mountains.

My shoes are REALLY crappy and I wonder how long they will last. I think they are not even worth 5 Euros but no alternative. At least they made the 20 km on roads today ;)

Another thing that really sucks, are my hiking poles. I bought Leki Khumbus and the lower segments don't seem to be properly (or in any way) connected, so if there is no pressure from above but tearing from below e.g. walking through mud, being stuck underneath a branch etc, the segment comes off. I don't want to judge too early, but wrote to Leki. Amy guess is, they are just glued together and this came off. But if that's true, it is a very horrible mis-construction that is incredible considering these hiking poles cost about 70 Euros!!! A simple screw thread would have done the job. Well, still waiting for an answer, but it really sucks on muddy trails, having to pull out the segment with every step and walking through mountain pines I'm constantly worried to loose the segment because just carrying them in my hands (not even using them), the segment might get stuck on a tree branch and is gone. Very annoying. Whenever I'll get an answer from Leki, I'll let you know in my 'hiker hack' category!

Saying goodbye to Lili

Mt. Giumalau and some scary looking clouds - but it stayed dry

Tonight's camping spot