| |
|
| | |
|
| Hiking | 9.40 Miles |
4,300 AEG |
| | Hiking | 9.40 Miles | 9 Hrs 10 Mns | | 1.03 mph |
| 4,300 ft AEG | | | | |
|
|
| |
| Linked |
|
none
[ show ]
| no linked trail guides |
| Partners |
|
none
[ show ]
| no partners | | Trem is highest peak on Suva Planina, the biggest mountain SE of Nis. I was last up there 9 years ago, and posted a very large photoset on HAZ. This time, I hiked it in the rain, so there are many less pictures.
I did this hike with Braca Stojanovic, who lives in Nis. I've been friends with him on Facebook for many years after I posted photos of one of hikes on Suva Planina. Braca is living the dream of early retirement and knows this mountain better than anyone. This was a nice opportunity to get back to Trem and finally meet Braca in person.
Because my time is limited on my visit here, I decided to go ahead with this hike despite the weather forecast. This was the most drenched I've ever been on a hike. The rain was on and off, but early on we were walking through a lot of heavy brush, which was already soaked.
I wanted to take a different route up to Trem. I've taken the main route that most people take from the west. My original plan was to try an approach from the east, but it would involve driving on some 4WD roads, and was likely to be an 18 mile RT hike on a not very well maintained trail. Braca suggested a route he knows that approaches from the south, starting in a small village called Sopotnica. This route goes to a peak east of Trem called Georgina Cuka, then a trail from there leads to Trem and back to another nearby small village called Dusnim.
The route up is just that, a route, not a trail. The route is marked by red and white paint, but they're very easy to miss if you don't know where to look. Braca does. Within the first mile I was pretty soaked, and it only got worse from there.
As the route ascends, it gets steeper and harder to walk. The vegetation is so overgrown at this time of year that it's basically a bushwhack. Low branches, high grass, loose rocks, all wet and shedding water on us as we hiked through it.
After 3.5 hours, we hadn't even gone 3 miles yet. Braca could go faster, I could not. I'm already a slow hiker on trails, add the off trail part and 3 days after I hiked Olympus, and I was struggling. At least the weather was bad and we had no views. Braca decided that it was better to skip Georgina Cuka and head straight for Trem to make up time. This was good idea except for the fact that we had just got to where the terrain was about to be less steep, and going to Trem meant staying on the steep part.
To make matters worse, some serious fog had started to roll in. We were out of the overgrowth and in a more open area, so Braca had allowed more distance between us. But with the visibility so poor, I was losing sight of him constantly. There was fog in air, fog on my glasses, and some rolling hills in the terrain in addition to the steepness. And the rain began to pick up a bit more. Fun times.
Finally, we got to Trem. We ate a quick lunch. The air was noticeably colder up at 6000' than at 2000' where we started. It was 4300' AEG in 4.5 miles with no trail. I remember the views up top from 9 years ago and they are spectacular. You still can see a little bit over the cliffs, which drop straight down. Braca said it's a 1km vertical drop.
Here's the photoset from my previous visit.
[ photoset ]
It was nice to finally walk downhill, but the wet conditions made the footing dicey. At one point I was getting leg cramps, so I drank more water. I think the Olympus hike only 3 days earlier may have had an effect on this as well.
The last segment of hike follows a dirt road to Dusnik, which is also hard to walk. The last 45 minutes, the rain picked up with a vengeance and didn't let up. Braca had texted my wife to tell her to meet us in Dusnim and bring me some dry clothes. We stopped at his dad's house in Dusnik so I could get changed and everyone else had coffee.
When we got back to Nis, I had 2 big bowls of bean soup for dinner that really hit the spot. Went to bed kind of early and got over 8 hours of sleep for the first time in years. |
| _____________________
| | |
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Route Editor
Route Scout
