Today was a tough hike. The route is called Rudno Polje to hike from the Pokljuka parking lot up to the
summit of Triglav. We did not go to the summit, but stopped for the night at the dom Planika mountain hut, which is located high up on the mountainside of Triglav. It was just 6.6 miles of hiking, but over 4000' of elevation gain from Pokljuka to dom Planika.
To reach the trailhead, we rode the free green Lake Bled shuttle for one stop - from Pokljuka Goreljek to the end of the line, Pokljuka Rudno poljo. It was only one stop, but it saved us 5 Km of walking to the start. The free bus only runs at 8:02 AM, 10:02 AM, 3:07 PM and 6:17 PM, so it was important for us
to catch the earliest shuttle in order to get a decent start to hiking. Unfortunately, the hotel breakfast did not begin until 7:30 AM, so our packs were ready and as soon as the restaurant doors open, we bolted in and ate as quickly as possible so we could hurry
out to the bus stop. We made it on time.
The starting point was the same as the start of the previous day, but quickly the route we took today diverged into a different direction. Initially, there was a lot of climbing up through forests until we reached a bowl surrounded by mountains - this was Rod nad Klancem. We had looked down into this bowl from the eastern pass on yesterday's hike without realizing
that we were going to be hiking it today. Our route took us up the western pass, called Studorski Preval. However, Anthony went right, up the eastern pass to Srenjski preval, where we stood yesterday, because he wanted to retake some photos that didn't turn out quite right from the previous day.
He didn't catch back up to us until lunchtime. From the top of Studorski Preval we hiked along a path that took us around Mt. Tosc. We had views of valleys below us and peaks around us. There was even a tiny glimpse of distant Lake Bohinj, where we would be after a couple more days of hiking. Eventually we came around a corner, out from some trees and got a dramatic view of Mt. Triglav above us.
And there on the side of Triglav, much higher than our current position, we could see the tiny dom Planika mountain hut - our destination for the night. There was a lot of climbing still ahead of us. At Vodnikov Dom hut we stopped for lunch. They had cold drinks there, so I bought a couple bottle of coke. They also had a free water fountain, so I refilled all my bottles. After lunch we set off again for the final stretch. We encountered four dicey sections along the trail, where we had to either grap metal bars hammered into the rocks, or walk on metal steps mounted on the mountainside. I do not like those "airy" parts of the trail, but fortunately all were short and we didn't encounter
anyone coming the other way. (People coming from the other direction had climbed Triglav and now were heading down the mountain.) There were switchbacks and more climbing. It was slow going but eventually I staggered to the top and stood outside dom Planika. It was about 3 PM when we reached it. I was glad to be there! The dom Planika hut had five choices for a dinner option: 1) stew or cabbage soup, 2) Goulash with polenta or pasta, 3) Goulash with some bread and a crepe, 4) Sausage with sauerkraut or 5) Sausage with mustard and bread and a crepe. I went with option 5.
At about 4 AM, I got up and left the hut to use the restroom, so I had to go outside. Melanie was up, so she came along too. It was surprisingly warm - near the summit of Triglav at 4 AM and I was fine in just a T-shirt and shorts. We looked up at the looming silhouette of Triglav, and we saw numerous lights up on the mountain - a lot of people were climbing in the
dark to reach the peak before the sunrise.
Mapcarta which I used to try to identify some of the mountain peaks.
