Hiking Babky

Sunday we woke up bright and early for church, a little bit stiff after our Saturday hike.  But the best remedy is obviously.......more hiking!!  Or anyway, that's what we did!!  :-)  Saška, my Basic School principal, picked us up at 11:00, then we added her husband Ignace and daughter Zuzana in their village of Bobrovec, and we headed up into the west Tatras.  

The beginnings of the trail were through the pine forest, and there were roots to use as 'stairsteps' in several places.  Jessie, the family dog came along on the hike too!  

This rock formation is Mnich, or "Monk", but they weren't sure the origin of the name except for legends that monks once lived in this area.   

We had to go around Mnich on the trail.  

And here we experienced shades of our Tisovec hike -- chain 'railings' to hold onto as we hugged the rock on a narrow ledge to go around it.  They even carried the dog over this section, which didn't give us a lot of confidence!!  LOL!!  

The views on the way up just kept getting prettier and prettier!  It was a bit hazy, but still a great autumn day for a hike in the mountains.

This bridge led up to a chata (cottage) where we could sit and rest for a while.  (This time I brought my own walking stick, which I had found last year on a hike.  The others had professional hiking sticks that double as ski poles!)  

This chata is where Ignace and Saška first met, so we enjoyed that romantic history as we sat on the deck and had Kofola (Slovak cola) and hot tea, along with snacks we all brought along to share.  Zuzka had made some delicious cakes - yum!!  

After our break, we continued higher, and we came across this deer stand.  I couldn't resist having Tim climb up and pose as a hunter, in honor of his sister, Sue!!  :-)  

The higher we got, the more spectacular the views, of course!  

After a while we reached some beautiful areas of meadows and dwarf pines, above the normal tree line.  It's always fascinating to observe the changes in plants and vegetation as we reach different ecosystems at higher elevations on our hikes.  

During this stretch, there were oodles of wild blueberries, cranberries, and even some currants growing along the path.  We stopped often to harvest another delicious mouthful of berries.  I'm sure I stopped the most often, since my fingers were dyed a dark purplish-red by the end of the hike!   :-)  

We finally reached our second destination - Sedlo Preduvratie - a peak with a view!    We always love these charming markers for trails and scenic destinations.    :-)

Views of the west Tatras, looking over the dwarf pines.  So gorgeous!! 

We were on the lighter color green peak behind Tim and Saška, and then headed along this ridge to the next stopping point.  It was much easier hiking along this grassy ridge instead of the rocky one on the previous day!!  

As we continued climbing, there were some really steep drop-offs, but this time only on one side.  So I mustered up the courage to climb up on this rock and over near the edge for a picture in my fabulous hiking pants.  (Note - I got the pants last year because they're light-weight, wind resistant, easily washable, and comfortable for hiking.  Also because tons of people here wear them for hiking, so regardless of what you might think, I don't stand out here as looking strange, at least not because of the pants!!)   LOL!!  

We finally reached the second peak, and there we discovered some of our wonderful students who had already hiked up to enjoy the view!!  

Babky means 'old women', and there's a legend about how the peak was named.  It seems that long ago, there was a shepherd caring for his sheep high on the mountainside here.  There were three old women who kept coming around and annoying him with questions, so eventually he grew tired of them and turned them into three peaks.  Evidently shepherds like the peace and quiet we experienced up on this beautiful mountain!  

And the views were definitely worth the climb!  We could even see Liptovsky Mikuláš and Liptovská Mara (the lake) in the distance.   We spent some time relaxing and enjoying God's creation, and enjoyed more of our snacks too, including some delicious sandwiches that Saška had made.  

The hike back down was steep enough at times, that we all walked back and forth across the incline instead of straight down, to save our knees from strain.  The hiking sticks helped a lot again too!  When we got back to their house in Bobrovec, Zuzka and Saška cooked up some absolutely delicious mushrooms that Ignace had gathered from the mountain - they were huge, flat ones, about the size of a salad plate!  Now we understand why people go mushroom hunting - YUM!!  

So, that's phase 2 of our weekend hiking adventures.  We really enjoyed both days of hiking, and we'll never get tired of mountaintop views of Slovakia!!  God provides such beauty as well as amazing friends to take us to see His creation!!