On every Easter holiday we use a few days off for our vacation in Slovenia; ok, it’s not really a vacation because we always destroy ourselves with outdoor activities but we call it vacation still 😊. In recent years we have mostly chosen Bohinj region or a small town Bovec near to Italian border because of the richness of the mountains in these areas, beautiful trails and the unspoiled nature.
This time we were going to Bohinj where in several villages surrounding Lake Bohinj you can find solid accommodation for a decent money. Also, it is not necessary to travel far by car for some cool daily hiking or cycling trips. Considering that this time of the year is practically offseason – there is no skiing at the nearby Vogel and it is not yet summertime when the lake is crowded with tourists – we knew that we’ll really enjoy ourselves and will be completely separated from our normal, working lives for a few days. Since we have already climbed a really large number of surrounding mountains by now, we decided not to set a plan for some big climbs – so this time, we loaded our bikes on the roof of the car, picked up some hiking gear (just in case) and hoped that we’ll have a nice weather for a next few days.
There was still enough snow in mountains surrounding Lake Bohinj and that meant each climb would be spiced with ten-hour or more hiking in knees-deep, wet snow, so we should choose our paths carefully. However, already the first day we made a mistake – we were guided by heart, not reason and we decided to make a hike from Ukanc (546 m) and Savica waterfall (894 m) to Črno jezero / Black lake (1294 m) and then up to mountain hut Koča pri Triglavskih jezerih (1685 m) and Dvojno jezero / Double lake. All of this would be fine if our classic scenario had not happened – at the Dvojno lake we decided to do a round tour to avoid returning by the same path (because, it was early in the day so why not?! 😁) – via mountain hut Koča pod Bogatinom (1513 m) back to Ukanc which was our starting point.
The Bohinj valley was completely snowless so we expected that most of our route will also be in that fashion. The first indications that there would actually be some walking through the snow were at Črno lake.
We continued on towards the Dvojno lake and soon realized that there was more snow that we anticipated and that with such wet and deep snow we obviously wouldn’t be coming back to the valley dry. But this was not too important – the weather was beautiful and as we arrived to Dvojno lake we realized that we will enjoy the relative solitude, the snowy idyll and the views of the frozen lakes (Dvojno means dual lake, two small occasionally connected lakes). Recommendation for a summer must-have hiking day-trip is Blato (parking lot) – Triglav Lakes Valley (after Dvojno lake there are Veliko (Big) lake and Zeleno (Green) lake) – mountain peak Kanjavec and back, but only if you are in a good shape – I am still in pain from this hiking trip and it happened a few years ago😊.
If we wanted to make a round tour today, we couldn’t go visit all the lakes or climb any of the peaks nearby – unofficial plan was to climb the Velika Zelnarica peak (2320 m) or to extend our hike to Veliko lake, if there was not too much snow. It was clear that we couldn’t do it due to massive residual snow. Since we always hated to go back down the same trail we found our way to Bogatin and looked for the necessary markings, not knowing that we had a long way to go – the search for the markings and the occasional missed turns took us some time and the wet and deep snow was not helping at all.
Orientation was not easy due to the amount of snow, but as we already knew this area pretty well we managed to find the right path and slowly reached the hut Koča pod Bogatinom. All the way through we enjoyed the view of Spodnje Bohinjske mountain range and Lake Bohinj. Mountain peaks of Spodnje Bohinjske are the only peaks we had not yet climbed in this area. Tthis time of the year these mountains are perfect for touring skiers, which we are not. Also, very often we are mesmerized with the mountains positioned north of the lake which are higher in height and offer fantastic 360 degree panoramas – once you manage to reach some of the peaks.
On an endless zigzag path we descended from Koča pod Bogatinom to Savica waterfall and, pretty tired, embarked on a well-deserved rest – completely wet and ready to lie down and sip a beer (or two) in our apartment 😊. Of course, we couldn’t see how we were going to be ready for some crazy action the next day so we decided to make further plans in the morning.
The situation was not much better in the morning – we were definitely not walking again. Luckily, we took our bikes with us. Llocal and marked cycling paths from Bohinj Lake to Bohinjska Bistrica were already known to us and we wanted something new. A quick look at the map and the decision was made – we’ll take a circular ride through Srednja vas – Jereka – Pokljuka – Bled – Srednja vas. It was already visible on the map that it was a huge circle but we did not seem to be learning anything from yesterday’s trip😁. We assured each other that this was not a big deal!
The ascent from Jereka to Pokljuka exceeded about 900 meters uphill in 7 kilometers long, winding road that constantly rewarded us with fantastic views, wherever we turned. Clearly, we didn’t know what was waiting for us so we left our soul (and butts) in this climb – at least we enjoyed the views because the nature around us was beautiful😄. The ascent ended at the Sport Hotel Pokljuka where we merged onto the main road and after a few kilometers we reached the Pokljuka Biathlon center. Here we took a short break before continuing on our way to Bled. The descent to Bled was fantastic and, thankfully, the traffic was not too demanding so we didn’t have to use the brake very much as we arrived at the next resting point – well, I didn’t use brakes much but she managed to burn them 😄. In any case, after the ascent we had this descent came as a well needed rest. As the day was really beautiful, in Bled we decided to sunbathe a little by the lake, we ate lunch and recovered some of our energy – we still needed to go back to Srednja vas. Meanwhile, paddling tourists around the lake gave us an idea for the next day – we might as well paddle, but we thought Lake Bohinj is a more wild and appropriate location for us.
The return exhausted us to the end – we realized that we had made a circle of 70 km with a big climb and this time we had to promise ourselves that we would really take a rest tomorrow. That’s always a problem – it’s never enough, we always want more, we always want to make the most of the day. Maybe the head and the heart can do it but the body certainly can’t – these two days we had squeezed the throttle to the end and it was obvious that tomorrow we would not be good for anything.
That tomorrow came quickly and again brought a beautiful and sunny day. We went to the lake to rent a wooden boat and enjoy this day rowing. The guy who rents them asked us for how long we want it, about an hour or two – we responded enthusiastically: “Half a day, at least.“😄. The guy laughed and said, “All right, all right, take it and give it back when you’re done, I won’t write down the time right away.“. Of course we returned it after just under three hours of rowing, completely exhausted. Beside a wooden boat, a canoe or a kayak can also be rented here, but we had our SUP boards at home and this seemed too similar to us so we decided to try something new. The decision to take my cycling gloves turned out to be a bullseye – in the ten kilometers I paddled I would have accumulated such blisters that I could no longer use my hands until the end of the vacation 😁. She wasn’t lazy either, rowing about 4 km before she resignedly said she couldn’t do it any further and sank into the boat, ready to sunbathe 😄.
At the end of the paddling (because it was still early in the day) we decided to explore some of the surrounding hiking destinations – by car because we were tired, but just to familiarize ourselves with them for next time. We drove to Uskovnica mountain and parked our car little below mountain hut Koča na Uskovnici (1154 m). Because we were already here, we decided to explore a little bit…😄. We took a leisurely stroll to Koča na Uskovnici and explored the markings and trails that lead further – we didn’t even notice that we had already reached Konjščica Mountain (1438 m). Here we drew the line saying “now is enough “, returned and got back to the car, with a 10 km walk. This was just a proof to how much a person, with all this physical fatigue, can be carried away by what he or she loves to do.
Totally tired and well exhausted we ended this day and this holiday we had really enjoyed. We used tomorrow’s travel-home day to walk for a bit around Ljubljana city center and thus rounded up nicely this short Easter break.