Thursday, May 22, 2025
Stage 10 of the Juliana Trail
Grahovo ob Baci to Most na Soci ~30,000 Steps
There is no other way to say it. Today was our wettest day hiking, ever.
We got up around 6 am, and got ready for the day. Breakfast at Hisa Brdo was served at 7:30, and we ate with the other guests and chatted with Roger and Louise before departing.
We set off on today’s hike at around 9 am, and optimistically set off in our sunglasses, and sun hats. Almost immediately upon leaving Hisa Brdo, the rain started.
We both put on pack covers, and I put on my rain jacket.
The rain was slow at first, and it wasn’t terrible to hike in. We walked on the path, past the friendly, big dog we were warned about, cheerfully hiking in the rain.
We got to a big meadow, with tall grasses, and immediately my pants get soaked, so I stopped to put on rain pants. We never like hiking in rain pants, and always try to avoid it, so it did not surprise me at all that Nathan opted not to put his on.
We continued hiking, through gates for sheep, past the sheep, and on, and we come to another section of meadow, with even taller grasses, denser than before. At that moment, Nathan decided it was time to put on his rain pants.
Its a good thing he did too, because it rained all damn day. Light rain, medium rain, heavy rain, and full on downpour. We heard thunder, but most of all we heard the sound of the rain on the path, trees, and leaves. The sound of water rushing down the street, or out a drainage. Water everywhere.
At around 11:30 am we got to the Sopota Waterfall trail. We take the trail up 10 minutes to see the waterfall, and its fabulous, but by this time it was raining pretty hard, and we are quite wet. I attempted to sign the guest register at the waterfall, but the pages got all wet. Hopefully they can read it.
It was about noon when we left the waterfall trail and continued hiking on the road. By now, we’re drenched, through and through, and wondering how we’ll get our lunch eaten.
We came across a bus stop, in the middle of no where on this road, and take the opportunity to eat our lunches. It’s kinda gross, and we eat standing, but at least we aren’t getting poured on right now.
After lunch we just kept going. We passed scenic overlooks, but with the clouds, we couldn’t see anything.
We’re making good time today, but not stoping to rest or enjoy what we are doing. It’s hard to enjoy it when you’re just worried about how wet everything is getting.
Even our boots are getting a little squishy, and I’m hoping it was just my socks getting wet, and not the actual boot getting wet through and through.
There were parts of today’s path that were so beautiful, like walking through the shire, that’s its really such a shame we had to hustle.
Towards the end of the day, I was actually worried that our phones were getting too wet, so it came as a relief that as we left the forest to head towards Most na Soci that it seemed to have stopped raining.
We walked through the town, and near the lake, before finding our hotel. The lobby and restaurant seem really fancy, and I feel bad that we’re so wet and look like the mess we are.
We get in our room, start unpacking and hanging all of our wet things. The towel dryer has been turned off for the season (!) so we turn the mini split AC unit to 31 C and hang our wet things around the room. The hotel has a warm mechanical room in the basement, and that is where I set our boots to hopefully dry for tomorrow.
PS – If anyone has a hankering to give us an anniversary gift, turns out we need new rain gear!