Zakopane and the Tatras Mountains

 

"I ain't scared of no bears!" Well as long as they are in another town and another country. I do believe bears recognize borders and will not cross them.

Zakopane. At first glance you might have a combination of Banff and Blue Mountain. As you get the feel for the place and get away from the "tourist strip" it is anything but. The town is surrounded by the High Tatras Mountains which means ski hills, a lot of ski hills. I think this place would be faily epic in the winter but now it is hiking season. How can you tell you ask? Well there are quite a few older people walking around with walking poles, which I completely support. There are new hiking clothes, especially pants on all the young and beautiful people and much like ski season, everyone is smiling and looking healthy.

My first night I grabbed room right on the strip. I had another room booked about 3 km outside of town for the next three nights, but my first night here I wanted to just hang out. There was a nice couple from Thunder Bay who had all kinds of interesting travel stories to share and we ended up talking for quite a while as the Mrs. brought out the red wine. There was a shop right next door to the hostel so we were well sorted.

Darn nice brew pub, Beer was quite good with resort pricing

Tourist photo as I move to my new chalet

Day two was moving day. I jumped on a tram and headed to my "hiking chalet." First, it was cold and raining so there was that to look forward to. There are ample trail heads all over Tatras National Park and my new location was no different. Kwatery Prywatne-Romanówka was rustic but not remote. There was a deli across the street which came in handy. The owner spoke no English but we communicated easy enough and she was lovely. At first, it was cold inside, I mean sleep with a sweater cold but she sorted that out with the heat, which she controlled. 

The second morning I was all rearing to go. I got up, got dressed and went outside to check the weather. I came inside, got undressed and went back to bed. Maybe in an hour it will warm up. Now 3 degrees Celsius is no big deal and I do have a touque but I do not have any heavy clothing and these trails can get remote and a bit isolated if you get unlucky. It got a bit warmer by 10 AM but then came the rain, a misty and cold "fuck you" type of rain. Just enough to ruin hiking but not enough to keep you shut in. So, into town I went, about a 45 minute walk.

View from the top of a ski lift

I wandered over to the ski park, which did have two ski jumping hills. One of them had a ski lift running to I jumped aboard for the nice ride up. The view was nice and the air was clean and cool. Now, I am a skier, well I used to be a skier and I have no problem going up a ski life. The going down a ski lift is a whole new ball game! My gut jumped a few times and I found myself hanging on just a bit tighter than I needed to. Safety First Dammit! 

Morning three, it's go time. However through google translate the owner of the chalet told me that because of the rain, the trails in the area would not be good. Always always trust a local, especially one that has been there for 75 years or so. She told me to go the main park entrance and there are many trails there that will be fine, and so off I went. A bit of food, water and good spirits into Tatras National Park.

There was a nice Welcome to Tatra National Park sign as I entered the park. Then the second sign I came across was this beauty warning me about freaking bears. I am more afraid of bears when I am hiking than I am of sharks when I am diving. That is until I meet a 14 foot Tiger shark of course. I was not going back country by any means and there were quite a few people on the trails so off I went. 

I found a nice average trail with a two hour turn, so a 4 hour hike would be a good day. It started out easy enough but then up it went. I forgot that when hiking in the mountains you need to climb up and there were NO chairlifts available. 

The hardest part was the first 2KM of the trail were all large rocks embedded into the ground to make a road. Great for the Park Rangers that reassuringly drove by now and again, but not so great for the ankles. Now while I am on it. I am pretty tired of cobblestone streets. They look wonderful in photos but repeatedly walking on them from town to town beats you up pretty good and they get juicy slick when it rains. I saw more than one person do a "Benny Hill" and grab onto the person next to them.

Sure, I took quite a few pictures of the mountains and the view but they never do the situation any justice. What caught my attention were all the fantastic mountain streams along the way. The water was crystal clear and flowed fast over large mossy boulders. The entire area was surrounded by massive Norway Spruce and Scotch Pine. I had to look it up as I am no Dendrologist but I do play one on TV.

I did come to a few clearings that opened up to show some impressive snow covered peaks, said hello to quite a few people on the trail and was just having a nice time. Then I started so shiver! Yes, it was cool and I was sweating which as you can imagine is a recipe for trouble. Now of course there was no panic, I reached my turnaround and it was all down hill, but I could not open my coat or remove my sweater to dry off, because it was too cold. I am no mountaineer but I am experienced enough on the trail to know a few things. I was going to challenge myself to get to one of the lakes but it was definitely time to head down. 

In all I had about five hours on the trail with rests and photo shoots. I can only imagine how spectacular this area would be with the sun shining and the temperature around 25 Celcius. However, there are other mountains, in other countries that I will be spending some time exploring. So for now, that was Zakopane and the Tatras Mountains.  I have fallen in love with Poland and who knows if I will ever return. If I do, Zakopane and the Tatras Mountains will be right at the top of the list of places that I will come back to.