Our first rest day off the bikes since the day we arrived. When I planned our trip, I knew it was ambitious to ascend the tallest peak in Slovenia, Mt Triglav, on our day off. It's 9,396 feet, or 2864 meters. But Jared likes to climb the high point in every country and we were biking right by it, so why not? 
We actually weren't biking Right by it, but it was a good excuse to turn left at Slovenia. Cuz until 1947, Slovenia didn't exist....I think the country is younger than my dad. 
So we rented mountaineering gear, took a shuttle to the trailhead and started heading straight up, literally. In Slovenia, the signs don't say mileage but go in hours, which is frustrating when hiking with kids. It was technically 3 hours to the hut. 20 minutes later, the next sign said it was still 3 hours....
In Slovenia, you can't wild camp. You have to stay in huts. Which was nice as we don't need to carry extra gear, except now we had harnesses, carabiners, helmets, mountaineering shoes. I still felt like my pack was a lil heavy, but maybe its because I had three peoples harnesses. The hut even cooked for us barley soup and spaghetti...and for the 50 other climbers who showed up that day.
It was the first time I was really glad to be a female The male to female ratio was 10 to 1. Who's not waiting for the bathroom this time YO!!!
But we trekked along through the Corinthian Alps to Vlodikov hut, below the peak. It was stunning. I highly recommend. The wildflowers were off the hook. I have little to say about it except here's some amazing views. 
Day 2 -- Summit attempt Day
We knew when we booked the trip it was a 50-50 success story. There was still snow. And the weather could have been tumultuous. Most huts were still closed for two more weeks. So I got a little psyched out when the hut cook told some dude he needed crampons or shouldn't go up. So we figured we would just go as far as we could.
We woke at 615, started hiking at 7 after a sad hut breakfast of white bread and jam. Then basically went up and up and up. The kids traveled light that morning and made amazing time. At one junction, we had a choice between two passes, both going to the summit. But which one had less snow? That began a series of wrong decisions. We chose the Planika hut that ended up having more snow on angled terrain near the top. And one misstep meant sliding into rocks.
So we tried to reroute around the mountain to the other hut but that cost the kids energy and time. They were true mountaineers on class 3 terrain ...which I don't have pictures of cuz I was holding on to loose rocks. Then we made it to the other hut, Vodnik mtn hut, which was stunning. 
But there was still a snow chute at about 60-70 degrees before the crux of the climb to a false summit. It was already 11am and most people were descending. Plus if the kids couldn't get up the steep snow (which technically required ice axes and crampons, then they would slide down to pain or death.
So Jared and I gave up our summit bid in exchange for the kids not dying. It was a hard choice...but I know it was the right decision. OK. OK
the kids living was, is, always the first choice. I truly think they could have done it, but we chose caution over their pleas. So we stopped at 2515 meters, 8284 feet.
And it was a good thing too because we still had a long way down to the trailhead with no way to get home.
At a downhill junction, we had 2 choices....go the way we came and hope to hitchike back 30 minutes (I saw one car on the ride to the hike.) Or take another trail which left us much farther from our destination, but closer to a busstop. So we opted to go near the busstop. WRONG CHOICE again. The route down was either straight down, on thick leaves with sliding rocks underneath, or small loose rocks that were horrible with mountaineering shoes. I didn't take pictures...cuz I was distracting my children from uncertainty. So here is a goat and wildflowers that made us happy.
And even though both trails were 3 hours from the hut, we were uninformed that the busstop was another 2 miles from the trailhead. Plus it went the wrong way -- so we had to go east to go west.
It was a painful way down. The kids were spent and struggling. We arrived at a hostel and I asked about rides, but only two cars drove the rode daily. It was already 530pm. Then we walked until our phones worked and called a taxi. The one taxi man was enroute to the airport...so no go. I told Jared I would walk to every house on the road until I found a car. I was willing to pay massive dollars to prevent the child meltdown that was eminent. Mainly because not only were they tired, but they were walking in mountaineering shoes which is like cement under your feet. Great for snow and jagged rocks, horrible for normal trails or roads.
Then I saw an atv go to a small cottage. I would give the man my house to fit us all on his one person atv. Truly. But he knew it couldn't be done. So he called a friend and after offering us coke and beer (the kids consumed their very first coke that day), his friend came up to give us a lift and dropped us at the bus station with 6 minutes to spare. 
They were our heroes. Truly.
Sawyer...when he got home.
So that's that. We didn't summit, but the views were worth the experience. The kids learned a lot I hope and now I want to walk and bike through all of Slovenia. But first...we must bike to Venice Italy. Starting tomorrow. As this was our rest days.
This featured blog entry was written by risajs from the blog Bicivida = Bikelife (with twins).
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