This September, 2010, I finished the Slovenian Mountain Trail (Slovenska planinska pot
ali transverzala št. 1). As far as I know, I’m the first American hiker to walk the entire
distance of this trail, which is 630.5 km from Maribor to Ankaran.
Having hiked across Slovenia’s highest mountains, green pastures, expansive forests,
through picturesque villages to the Adriatic coast, I can say that in my opinion the
Slovenian Mountain Trail is probably the most magnificent long-distance trail in either
the U.S. or Europe. In the U.S. we have the Appalachian Trail, which is a grueling 3507
km hike from Georgia to Maine. But the Slovenian Mountain Trail, which crosses most
high Slovenian peaks, is more beautiful and enjoyable. The word is also out among
European hikers I’ve met that “When it comes to mountain hiking in Europe, the best
place to come is Slovenia.”
The Slovenian Mountain Trail took me a total of 24 days. Starting in May 2009 and
ending in September 2010, I hiked in continuous stages, starting where I had left off the
last time. The trail can also be done as one long hike, or in many unconnected parts. It is
listed on the internet as a 30-day hike and the book “Trekking in Slovenia” recommends
49 days. I’ve read about one Slovenian “running” the trail in just 13 days without a
backpack.
Although I was born in the U.S., I have lived 11 years in the Brežice občine with my
Slovenian-born wife. Living in Slovenia allowed me to hike the trail in 11 different trips.
On the first five hikes I crossed Pohorje, the hills from Uršlja gora to Raduha, the
Kamnik and Savinjskih Alps and the Karavanka. My 6th trip on June 28, 2010 started at
Aljažev dom, went up Prag to Dom Staniča, across the deep snow to Kredarica, up
Triglav, down to Dom Planika across to Koča na Doliču down towards Trenta and up to
Luknja before returning to Aljažev dom (a 13 hour hike). The last five trips crossed the
rest of the Julian Alps and then went almost 200 km south across the Cerkljansko and
Idrijsko hills, through the Trnovski gozd, across Nanos and on to the Adriatic Sea.
As I progressed on the trail, I developed a routine. To develop a plan, I studied maps,
including Google Earth, and read the book Slovenska Planinska Pot by Jože Dobnik.
Then I would get up in the middle of the night, drive my car from Brežice to the
beginning of the trail, hike 10-14 hours, sleep at a mountain hut and continue the next day
and maybe a third day. Eventually I would come to some road and return to my car either
by hitch-hiking, public bus, taxi, or call a friend to pick me up.
Occasionally I was accompanied by friends. Once I was lucky to have as my hiking
partner former U.S. Ambassador to Slovenia Thomas Robertson, who returned to
Slovenia this year on a visit and hiked with me from Golica to Mojstrana. Readers might
remember that Ambassador Robertson is an avid mountain hiker who hiked the Slovenian
section of the European trail called E-6 while serving as U.S. ambassador to Slovenia in
2007.
But most times I hiked this trail alone. This has led a lot of Slovenians and even my
family in the U.S. to ask “why”? The simplest answer is that the Slovenian Mountain
Trail, by its very nature, is long, tiring and time-consuming. It is like a marathon which
takes a total of about 250 hours. At various times I hiked through drenching rain, snow,
fog and burning sun. I had wet feet, blisters, diarrhea, and aching muscles. I sometimes
hiked up almost 3000 meters a day and then back down. For example, one day I went
from Aljažev Dom to the top of Mt. Razor, down to Mlinarica and back up Mt. Prisojnik
before coming down to Vršič. The next day I hiked across to and up Mt. Jalovec and
came down to the izvir Soče, then hitch-hiked back to Aljažev Dom. There are times I
dragged my aching 63-year-old legs a few steps at a time up to the summits of these
mountains.
My wife puts it very simply, “The mountains are not crazy. You are.” So although I
asked other people to come along on almost every trip, I found very few who had enough
condition or were able to make the needed commitment of time and energy.
But I found that hiking alone opened new adventures. Of course, there is the aspect of
self-reliance, when you alone must find and follow a trail which you have never been on
before. Luckily the Slovenian Mountain Trail is very well marked in its entirety and there
were only a few times I got lost and had to ask local people or retrace my steps.
Hiking alone also forced me to be more aware of nature. I focused more clearly on the
beauty of the land, the flowers, the mushrooms, the trees and animals. I heard more
distinctly the birds.
At the end of a long, exhausting day of hiking, I always found a warm welcome at the
mountain huts. I was surprised by the graciousness of the people, especially those
working at the mountain huts. There were times they would keep the koča open an extra
night so I could sleep and eat breakfast. When other hikers found out that an American
who speaks Slovenian was hiking from Maribor to Ankaran, they would invite me to
their table where we would drink and often sing until I would fall asleep. On this trip
people gave me t-shirts, apple cider, fruit, wine, beer and šnops. I always found a hot
dinner and breakfast, with a warm comfortable bed usually in a room by myself,
sometimes including a hot shower. I never made a prior telephone reservation. As a
current member of the Planinska Društva Brežice my bill for everything usually came to
between 30 and 35 euros.
As a comparison, I used to hike sections of the Appalachian Trail with my family and
then later when I was a university student. The usual accommodation there is the lean-to,
which is a 3-walled structure without any caretaker. Yet even the Slovenian bivak is
better than the lean-to. There are 250 lean-tos along the Appalachian Trail, many infested
with mice. People have occasionally been murdered and the trail has quite a few black
bears and poisonous snakes, including the rattlesnake. Slovenia, on the other hand, has
169 mountain huts and 94 hiking clubs. Over 50 of these huts are located on the
Slovenian Mountain Trail. The trail is safe in terms of people and wildlife. The difference
is like the difference between night and day.
The final adventure on my hikes was always the challenge to return to my car. I found
that hitch-hiking in Gorjensko with a backpack was always easy. For example, when I
came to Petrovo Brdo I returned to Trenta in 2-1/2 hours with 7 rides. On each ride I
would meet interesting Slovenians. When they found out that I was an American hiking
alone, yet speaking Slovenian, they told me about challenges they had overcome. One
told me a story about almost dying in a kayak on the Soča. Another stopped the car to
show me pictures from her art studio. A third opened his garage to show me his
collection of 90 chainsaws.
I never had a bad experience with any people I met either on the trail or while hitchhiking. I discovered that Slovenia is not only a big, diverse and beautiful country. But it
is has warm, friendly people who are willing to help someone from another country. My
adventures into the unknown always ended with positive experiences and memories.
The Slovenian Mountain Trail is one of the brightest jewels in Slovenia. Each section has
a different terrain and even local culture and dialect of the Slovenian language. Each
section is full of surprises, such as glorious vistas, green meadows full of cows, trails up
sheer mountain cliffs and unique mountain huts. It has a distinguished history as the
oldest long-distance mountain trail in Europe, established in 1953 by Maribor Professor
Ivan Šumljak. And finally it is maintained by one of the most active mountaineering
associations in Europe, the Planinska Zveza Slovenije, the country’s biggest and most
active club.
The Slovenian Mountain Trail has the potential to become as popular as the Appalachian
Trail in the U.S., which has thousands of hikers each year and is maintained by 30 trail
clubs and managed by the U.S. National Park Service. But to reach its international
potential there must be more written material in other languages, especially English.
Slovenska Planinska Pot is an excellent guide to the trail, but is available only in the
Slovenian language. Since 2009 there has been a book in English called Trekking in
Slovenia written by British writers Justi Carey and Ray Clark. More internet material in
English about this trail also needs to become available and, in my opinion, it should get
priority over inter-European trails E-6 and E-7, which also cross Slovenia but are not as
spectacular or well-organized. It would also help if there was one source to supply all the
maps needed to walk the trail. And perhaps in addition to maintenance by local chapters
of Planinska Zveza Slovenije, there could be national administration similar to the
National Park Service in the U.S.
I have all my žigs from the Slovenian Mountain Trail. Now I have to get many more in a
section of the book called “Točke Razširjene Slovenske Planinske Poti.” I don’t mind the
extra hiking over the next few years because I live in Slovenia. But if we really want to
attract international hikers to the Slovenian Mountain Trail, perhaps we need to develop
one simple award, similar to the one given by the Appalachian Trail Conservancy. This
organization gives the name “2000 Miler” to anyone who completes the entire
Appalachian Trail. Currently there are more than 11,000 hikers who have “2000 Miler”
awards. If the Planinska Zveza Slovenije had one simple award to those complete the
Slovenian Mountain Trail (without also doing the Razširjene Pot), I think even more
international hikers would try to complete this extraordinary trail.