Weather: ☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️
Picnic: 🥪🥪🥪 (3 out 5, wraps with Nutella and a breakfast, because the wraps are almost finished too…)
Track: 🇸🇰🇸🇰🇸🇰 (3 out of 5, Nice but tough track through the forest, with nice views)
Track intensity: 😯😯😯😯, 4 our of 5, a second 30+ km day is a bit much with this elevation profile, but the hut made it all worth it!)
Mountain hut: 🛌🛌🛌🛌 (4 out of 5, good beds in private room, warm shower and good food)
Name of followed trail: SNP trail
Special mention: Our fellow SNP hiker Marcin, whom we have met the last two days on our lunch breaks and at the hut. Thank you Marcin for your company and arranging us a room at Lajoska!
We left our campsite after a good night of sleep, which did wonders for our mood after yesterday’s encounter with the inflexible people at Stos Kupule 😁.
A new day, a new start. And this day starts with a steep track uphill.
At some point we think we are at the top, with some nice views, but we ge up even further. By lunchtime we are at the highest point of todays walk. There is a nice viewpoint and a picnic bench, so we have a break here. While we sit here, the German/Polish hiker we met at Volovec comes our way. We have a cup of tea together and he introduces himself as Marcin. The rest of the day we meet him every time he (or we) take a break.
Marcin tells us that he spent the night at Stos Kupele. He had a similar experience at the hotel, but apparently the bowling pub, 10 minutes walk from the hotel, had a possibility to spend the night at a shelter…🤔
We have lunch with wraps and a leftover breakfast, because we are slowly running out of lunch and snacks, so Mark is hungry. The track goes down through a nasty bit of forest where the wind has done quite some damage. Luckily, it has been a while ago, so the path has been cleared.
We also see that we’re not the only ones that celebrate our kilometer milestones by marking the numbers. So we find out that we are now 200 km from Dukla pass 😁.
We continue until the Erika hut, where we find Marcin with a beer. Unfortunately this hut is full, so no luxury of a short day today! But the possibility to have some food, and pay by card (because we ran out of cash too.. 😅).
We want to continue towards the mountain post office, 7 kilometers further. Marcin is aiming for a hut 3 kilometers further than that. He offers to check if there is place for us too…. We’re in for a nice bed and shower, so we decide to go along with this plan. We exchange phone numbers and when we are on our way again, he lets us know that we are expected at Lajoska! Yay, what a good prospect! The 10 kilometers go a lot easier now we know that there is a reward at the end!
And the hut is a very nice place indeed! Friendly host, nice beds, good shower and good food! The menu is simple, with 2 soups, 2 kinds of sausage, 2 kinds of savoury dumplings and 1 kind of sweet ones. Enough choice for hikers, because noodles and couscous aren’t on the menu 😉.
We have a good meal and a beer, together with Marcin and toast to hiking and meeting new people.
Then it’s time for bed, because after 2 30+ km days, we need a rest!