Hrebienok Hikes - Day 2

We got up on Tuesday and were delighted to see bright sunshine on the train ride up to Hrebienok this time!    :-)

This is the site of the big avalanche which blocked the trail on Monday.  It was all cleared off Tuesday morning and easier to negotiate, but the trail up and over the avalanche was now about 5 feet higher than the rest of the trail.  At least it was flat this time!!  

We tried a new trail hoping to see some views of the mountains!  

This was a typical pose, as Tim had a lot of  "WOW"  moments looking up at the peaks surrounding us!!  :-)

Yes, we're still on the right trail!!  Always checking!!

This little critter surprised us near the tiny little tourist hut.  It kept its distance but clearly was looking for hand-outs from the hikers!  

Such a beautiful red fox!  

The clouds were rolling by off and on, but we still had actual views of the valley on our Day #2 hiking.  And the byproduct of all the previous day's fog was even thicker hoarfrost decorating all the branches and limbs.  

On a new trail across the creek at the bottom of the valley.

Now we're climbing up the next mountain, across the valley - foggy again!

I always have to climb up somewhere high on our treks!!   :-)   It was nice that the sun came out again.  Earlier in the hike, we had walked along the lower part of the mountain behind me.  

This was our farthest destination - a chata where we had hot tea, juice and a snack.  On the right is a huge ice cascade, which was man-made for ice-climbing.  It reminded us of the rock-climbing walls in the U.S., with belay lines.  

One of the many hikers we exchanged photo-taking with, took this picture for us.  It was fun trying to communicate with our minimal Slovak and their minimal English!  :-)

Headed back to Hrebienok!

We really had some gorgeous views, and we appreciated them even more after all the fog the day before!!

This is the view back down the valley towards Poprad.

We loved seeing the mountain tops playing "peek-a-boo" through the clouds, and it reminded us of some of those surrealist paintings with clouds shrouding the scenery!  

Here's another picture - worth 1,000 words!   ;-)

All of a sudden, some thick fog rolled in again - crazy!  And then we spotted the top of this pack bobbing over the shrubs along the trail.  

Evidently, the supplies for the chata are hauled up on these gigantic back-packs!  We had  seen many pictures of these packs on the walls of the chata, but didn't realize that was the system for restocking the restaurant shelves!  It was tough enough for us just walking up the hills without carrying a huge, heavy pack!!  This guy was in great shape!

The building across the way is at the top of the funicular railway at Hrebienok, where we started our hike.  We went around the side of the mountain to the right, then down across the valley, then up the side of the second mountain.

The waters were crystal clear - you could see every stone on the creek bottom. 

Some of nature's snow sculpture.  

Looking upstream from the bridge back in the bottom of the valley.  

Another big waterfall, partially frozen over.  

And finally we reached the chata where we had lunch the previous day.    And this time we could actually enjoy the views across the valley, so we tried new things on the menu and stayed for lunch again!   

There was one more steep trail up to Hrebienok from the chata, nestled down against the hillside.

One more trip down to Stary Smokovec on the cog train after lunch.  

The windows on the ceiling and sides were great for seeing the scenery on the ride.

The clouds rolled in one more time, but we were grateful for the sunshine we did get to enjoy out on the trails!  

I'm not sure what this building is, but it was impressive out the train window.  

There are two cars on the rail line, one goes up and one down, and they meet in the middle to pass each other at this junction each trip.

Looking back at the Vysoké Tatry mountains, where we were hiking.  We enjoyed one last look out the train window on the way back to Liptovsky Mikuláš!

We ran into one of Tim's students for the train ride, so it was fun chatting on the trip back, which was only about an hour and a half.  Eva came for her lesson that evening too.  Then Wednesday we were back at school for a short week of teaching.    :-)