Follow the Mountains : Day 108: Piatra Mare

It was a beautiful day, but I am totally exhausted, although I hiked only about 20 km!!! Seems like I will have to get used to being VERY slow at the moment.

In the morning I walked up mostly in the forest to the 1844 m high Piatra Mare. While it was nice sunny down in the valley towards Brasov, there were gray clouds hanging over the mountains. However, the day turned out to be nice and dry.

I was tired and slow today, since I'm not fit at all. I didn't move much within the last 4 weeks. Thus I took my first break one hour after my late start in the morning and took every excuse in form of raspberries and blueberries to stop!

There was nice hiking after Piatra Mare, some forest but also some partially open areas. I saw some bear prints and since I left Brasov, I have been on marked trails or 4WD tracks. I enjoyed it a lot and when I saw that they had planted some trees in the open area, I was sure there won't be any sheep at least in that part! Only the motor bikes, cruising through the mountains in the weekend were annoying!

However, in the afternoon I came to Mt. Paltin, where the grass was grazed again. I used the water source underneath Mt. Paltin as excuse, not to walk over the peak but to contour around. I was already done for the day and wanted to camp... But first I had 2 sheep flocks to pass. One went without problems as it was far enough away and the dogs didn't even bark. The second was directly on my way. So I took loads of time, hoping they will move down. They did partily but some sheep were still up on the ridge, where the trail was. Then I whistled already from faaar away to attract the attention of the shepherd. He didn't move. There were some dogs already barking, but they were still far away. I stood there for a long time. Finally it seemed like the sheep were moving down, but the stupid thing was, that I couldn't see them and the entire trail anymore from where I was standing... I had the pepper spray in one hand, a big stone in the other and slowly passed the herd, never knowing if I will walk into some sheep, because I couldn't see ahead. I passed without any further problems and the dogs kept their distance from me. Puh!!!! I have to admit, that it is just no fun hiking in those mountains, when I have to be alert like hell. I mean I already hated it before the incident and could never relax, but now it's really bad... I was thinking about hiking at night, but I guess it doesn't make it better, running into sleeping dogs at the huts at night ;) I am also not so sure anymore, if the pepperspray will really help all the time, since it was very windy on the ridge today. Maybe it works once they are so close, I can touch them or they already bit me... my trust in that stuff isn't that big anymore.

Once I descended the grazed Hills into the forest, I set up my tent. Tomorrow I will have to face walking up the next sheep hills and of course I will have to walk the same way back again in a few days...