Sunday, July 31, 2005

Borovnica – Bohinjska Bistrica 2005

Zemljevid poti / Map of my route
V našem lokalnem časopisu je bil članek o tem, kako so člani Planinskega društva Vrhnika šli na Triglav. Pa kaj potem, sem pomislila, saj je vsak resen slovenski pohodnik že bil vsaj enkrat na Triglavu. A to je bilo vendarle malce drugače. Šli so na Triglav - peš iz Vrhnike. In takoj je pritegnilo mojo pozornost. V članku je pisalo, da so najhitrejši prišli na Triglav v 3 dneh, povprečni v 4 dneh in ženske v 5 dneh. Odločila sem se, da moram tudi jaz to poskusiti. Nabavila sem zemljevide, si začrtala smer in se podala na pot. Načrtovala sem, da bom hodila 4 dni in ne glede na to, ali pridem na Triglav, ali ne, se bom z avtobusom vrnila domov po tem času. Our local newspaper ran a story about how members of the nearby Vrhnika mountaineering club climbed Triglav, Slovenia’s highest mountain. So what, I thought, every Slovenian hiker has been to Triglav at least once. But this story was different. They went to Triglav on foot from Vrhnika. Now, that caught my attention. The article stated that the fastest members reached Triglav in 3 days, the average ones in 4 days and women in 5 days. I immediately knew that I wanted to try it myself. So I got maps, charted out my route and decided to just go. I planned 4 hiking days and whether I made it to Triglav or not, I would return home by bus after the 4 days.

Izgubila sem se že takoj na začetku / Getting lost first thing in the morning

Zjutraj sem se odpravila iz Borovnice proti Vrhniki. Na Vrhniki sem sicer bila že neštetokrat z avtom in s kolesom zaradi različnih opravkov. Verjetno bi lahko prišla do tja miže, če bi bilo treba. Ampak ker sem bila peš, sem se odločila, da grem po markirani poti skozi gozd, kakor je bilo razvidno iz zemljevida. Našla sem začetek markacij in šla po poti, dokler markacije niso izginile. A pot se je nadaljevala in sem se odločila, da grem naprej, saj vem, da so markacije včasih slabo vzdrževane, gozdarji podrejo kakšno drevo z markacijo, zato oznake niso vedno najbolj natančne. Res je, da se mi je zdelo rahlo sumljivo, ker je pot zavila preveč na levo, a sem si rekla, da je morda pač malo bolj zavita pot in sem šla dalje. Ko se mi je že začelo dozdevati, da sem zgrešila pot, sem se odločila da najbolje, da grem naprej, saj pot verjetno nekam vodi in se bom potem odločila, kako naprej. Končno, pot se je končala, nad ogromnim kamnolomom. Ojoj, ne! Sem takoj vedela, kje sem, namreč kamnolom je dobro viden iz avtoceste, kadar se vozimo proti domu in ni niti približno blizu Vrhnike, kjer sem hotela biti! Preostalo mi je edino, da se obrnem in grem nazaj do začetka poti in grem raje po cesti. Bil pa je res žalosten začetek moje ekspedicije, saj sem porabila dragocen čas in energijo, da nisem prišla nikamor. The first morning I set off from my home in Borovnica towards the next larger town of Vrhnika. I had been to Vrhnika by car or by bicycle countless times before for various reasons and I could probably get there with my eyes closed. But going on foot, I decided to take a hiking route through the woods which was supposed to be nicely marked according to my map. I found the markings for the start of the route and I followed them until they disappeared. But the path went on and I decided to follow it, knowing that markings along hiking routes are sometimes poorly maintained, trees that had markings on them sometimes get cut down but I went ahead nevertheless. I did find it suspicious that the path turned too much to the left, but I figured it was just a roundabout way of getting to the destination. Not sure any more whether I was on the right path or not, I figured it best to just go, because it had to end somewhere and I would then try to figure out how to continue. And the route ended, finally, above a giant rock quarry. Oh, no! I knew where I was, the quarry is a prominent landmark well visible from the highway when we drive by, but is nowhere near Vrhnika, where I wanted to be! The only option was to turn back, follow the path back to where it started and continue my journey along the road. It was such a poor start of the whole expedition, having spent precious time and energy to get nowhere.

Konec poti: kamnolom / Dead end: rock quarry
Takrat še nisem vedela, da bo taka usoda mojega celotnega pohoda, iskanje prave poti, vračanje nazaj, od koder sem zgrešila, spraševanje ljudi za pot, kadar sem seveda bila nekje, kjer so sploh bili ljudje. Napredovala sem počasi, mnogo počasneje, kakor sem predvidela in počasi sem začela ugotavljati, da tako ne bom nikoli prišla na Triglav. Postalo mi je jasno, da če bi resnično hotela priti na Triglav v 4 dneh, bi verjetno morala iti z nekom, ki pozna pot. Ampak sem vseeno šla naprej, saj sem imela za cilj hoditi 4 dni, pa kamor pridem, pridem.

Vendarle mi je uspelo priti do mojega načrtovanega cilja prvega dne, na Goropeke tik pred temo, utrujena in precej brez volje. A sem vztrajala, prespala noč v udobju koče in se naslednje jutro odpravila dalje. Bolele so me noge, ker so me otiščali precej novi pohodni čevlji, težko sem jih zjutraj sploh obula, ker so mi noge zatekle. Vendar ko sem začela hoditi, sem se ogrela in me je manj bolelo in sem pač šla naprej.
Little did I know at the time that such was the destiny of my entire trek, finding the right way, backtracking, asking for directions if I was lucky enough to be somewhere inhabited where I could find someone to get directions from. So the going was slow, much slower than I anticipated and I soon realized that my destination of Triglav was doomed. It became clear that if I were to get to Triglav in 4 days I would have to go with someone who knew the way. But I decided to continue the trek anyway, keeping in mind my second goal of going for 4 days and seeing where it gets me.

I made it to the end of my first day’s trek at Goropeke just in time before it became dark, tired and feeling quite hopeless. But I persevered, spent the night in relative comfort and continued the next morning. My feet were aching due to the un-broken in hiking boots that I wore and it was difficult to even put them on in the morning on my tired and swollen feet. But after a while walking I warmed up and just kept going.

Nagrada drugega dne: bazen in točen Heineken / Second day reward: swimming pool and Heineken on tap

Naslednji dan je bil podoben prejšnjemu v smislu, da je bila glavnina hoje posvečena iskanju prave poti, vračanju nazaj in spraševanju za smer. Načrt je bil, da pridem na Porezen, kjer bi prespala v koči. A sem prispela v Cerkno, kjer se začne pot na Porezen prepozno in me je skrbelo, da ne bi prišla do vrha pred temo. Sicer sem bila utrujena in noge so me še vedno bolele zaradi čevljev in sem se odločila prespati v Cerknem. Šla sem v hotel, kjer imajo tudi bazen in ko sem podpisala formularje, da grem na lastno odgovornost, ker niso imeli čuvaja, sem lahko šla plavat. Kako je bilo prijetno, skočiti v vodo po dveh dneh nenehne hoje! Potem sem še odkrila pizzerijo, kjer sem se najedla in zraven dobila točen Heineken, moje najljubše pivo, ki ga je sicer redko najti v lokalih v Sloveniji. Ker je bila ravno sobota, se je v kraju dogajala še veselica, tako da sem večer preživela kar tam, malo posedala, poslušala glasbo, počivala in nabirala moči za hojo v naslednjih dneh.The second day was similar to the first in that the main focus of my trek was finding the right route to go, backtracking and asking for directions. The day’s plan was to reach the peak of Porezen where I would spend the night in a mountain hut. But I arrived in Cerkno, the town below Porezen a bit late and was worried that I wouldn’t get up there before dark and my feet hurt and I was tired so I decided to spend the night in Cerkno. There was a nice hotel with a swimming pool and after I signed consent forms because the lifeguard wasn’t on duty I was allowed to use the pool. It felt so wonderful to swim after two days of constant hiking! I found a pizzeria where I had dinner and they even had Heineken, one of my favorite beers, on tap which is rare in Slovenia. Since it was Saturday, there was a town party going on so I sat around some more, listened to music, relaxed and gathered my strength for the following days.

Milijon malin / Unlimited supply of raspberries
Gor in dol in gor in dol / Up and down and up and down

Naslednje jutro sem se odpravila na Porezen, kar sploh ni bilo prehudo, saj sem bila spočita, le noge so me bolele zaradi neumnih čevljev, a sem morala naprej. Poti so mnogo bolje markirane v hribih in zato se nisem niti enkrat izgubila. Če sem hotela naprej v smeri proti Triglavu, sem se morala iz Porezna spustiti v Petrovo brdo in se ponovno povzpeti na Soriško planino. Prišla sem na greben, od koder sem videla kočo na planini, a sem se morala še spustiti dol po smučišču. Ko sem prišla do koče na Soriški planini, se je že delala tema, saj sem ves dan hodila gor in dol in gor in dol, zato sem vedela, da bom morala tam prenočiti. A kakšno presenečenje, kočo na Soriški planini so ravno renovirali! Vse skupaj je bilo eno samo gradbišče, vsepovsod stroji in gradbeni material in nikjer žive duše. No, pravzaprav nisem bila čisto sama, čreda krav se je pasla tam, glasno so se oglašali zvonci in krepko smrdeli kravjeki. The next morning I had to get up to Porezen which wasn’t too bad as I was rested, only my feet hurt because of the stupid shoes but I had to keep going. The routes were much better marked now that I was in the mountainous region and I didn’t get lost even once. But to move in the general direction of Triglav, after Porezen I had to descend to Petrovo brdo and climb up again, towards Soriška planina. I came above the ridge where I could see the hut but I still had to get all the way down there. It was already getting dark after having spent all day going up and down and up and down so I knew I would have to spend the night there. But what a surprise when I finally reached the hut on Soriška planina, it was being renovated! There was obviously some reconstruction going on, there was lots of machinery and building materials, and not a soul in sight. I wasn’t alone though, there was a herd of cows grazing, their bells noisy and their dung smelly.

Porezen
Spanje z vrečo cementa / Sleeping with a bag of cement

Ko sem se pripravljala na pot, sem vzela s seboj tudi spalno vrečo, za vsak slučaj, če mi ne bi uspelo priti pravočasno v kočo ali najti primernega kraja za prenočitev, tako bi lahko prespala tudi zunaj, če bi bilo treba. In ker so se krave sprehajale naokoli, si nisem ravno najbolj želela prespati tam zunaj. Preverila sem gradbišče in ugotovila, da je možno vstopiti in čeprav je bilo vse en sam beton, je bilo pokrito in varno pred kravami.Ob steno so bila prislonjena stara lesena vrata z napisom "Kuhinja". Izgleda, da se je nekdo odločil obdržati stara vrata, kar mi je prišlo zelo prav, saj sem položila vrata na tla, razprostrla spalno vrečo in tako sem lahko spala na lesu namesto na betonu. Ko sem se ulegla, sem opazila vreče gradbenega materiala z napisi Kema Puconci in to se mi je še najbolj vtisnilo v spomin, namreč da sem spala med vrečami cementa ali karkoli že je bilo v njih. Spala pa sem kar dobro.When packing for my trip I decided to take a sleeping bag just in case I wouldn’t make it to a suitable hut or place where I could spend the night and so I had the sleeping bag in which I could sleep outside in case of emergency. I didn’t really want to sleep outside, what with the cows strolling around so I checked the construction site and noticed that I was able to go inside. It was mostly concrete but at least it was sheltered and safe from the cows. There was an old wooden door with a sign saying “Kitchen” so I guess they decided to keep the old kitchen door. I lay the door on the floor so I could sleep on wood rather than on cement and spread my sleeping bag over that. As I lay down I noticed lots of bags of building materials labeled Kema Puconci and that is what I remember most about this night, that I slept among bags of cement or whatever was in those bags. But I slept reasonably well.

Soriška planina
Naslednje jutro sem se spustila proti Bohinjski Bistrici, kjer se je moja pot končala. Bil je že četrti dan in ni imelo smisla iti dalje na Triglav, saj bi trajalo vsaj še en dan, česar nisem načrtovala, razen tega sem bila izčrpana in se nisem mogla upreti oditi naravnost na avtobusno postajo, ko se mi je ravno ponudila priložnost.The next morning I descended towards Bohinjska Bistrica where I decided my trek would end. It was my fourth day, there was no point in going further on Triglav because I would have needed at least another day which I hadn’t planned and I just couldn’t resist heading straight towards the bus station when I had the opportunity.

Ugotovitve / Lessons learned

Torej, uspelo mi je, vsaj delno in vsekakor sem se mnogo naučila iz te izkušnje. Če bi želela tak podvig še kdaj poskusiti, sem spoznala da:
  1. Morala bi oditi na pot z nekom, ki dobro pozna pot, ali pa sama raziskovati pot po kosih, tako da bi vedno vedela točno, kje je treba iti
  2. Morala bi imeti boljše čevlje ali vsaj take, ki so bolj uhojeni
  3. Morala bi premisliti, ali je res najbolj učinkovito iti na pot v ravni črti; morda bi bilo bolje iti malo bolj naokrog, ampak z manj hoje gor in dol in gor in dol
Ali bom poskusila še enkrat? Priti na Triglav? Kdo ve, resnično me jezi, ker tokrat nisem uspela. Morda se bom nekoč v prihodnosti včlanila v Planinsko društvo Vrhnika in odšla na pot vsaj enkrat z njimi, da vidim, kje je najprimernejša pot.
So I made it, at least partially and at least I learned valuable lessons if I were to ever attempt such a feat again. Here are the lessons:
  1. Go with someone who knows the way or explore the route partially to make sure that there would never be a question as to which way to go
  2. Get better walking shoes or use shoes that were more broken-in
  3. Rethink the idea that going in a straight line is the most efficient way to get there; it might be faster to go the longer way around without having to go up and down and up and down
Will I attempt to do it again? To reach Triglav? Who knows, I hate leaving it uncompleted but I think I might join the Vrhnika mountaineering club in the future and go with them at least once to take advantage of a guided trek.