Back on the mainland.

Well, little did we know, but the seaman of Greece decided to strike while we were on Kefalonia. Luckily, the strike ended a full hour and 45 minutes before we had to catch the ferry off Kefalonia. We were both happy to see this bad boy pulling into port. 

So, on our way back to Athens we decided to do some sightseeing by driving south, first to ancient Olympia, then through the Peloponnese to Athens. Olympia was a cool site, not the best ruins I've seen, but to be there, at the site of the first Olympic Games, and where they currently have the torch lighting ceremony was pretty neat.  

All of the archeological sites across Greece were free today and will be tomorrow also, so that was a nice bonus. But even with that incentive, it's launching into the slow season here, so the ruins were quiet and it was easy to escape people.  Some pictures below from our visit. 

Between the pillars, the day was heating up when we were visiting, so we stuck to the shade whenever possible!

Original mosaics still preserved. 

Going for the gold (or let's be honest, bronze) at the original Olympic stadium. 

After a somewhat lengthy drive across the Peloponnese, we arrived back in Athens, returned our rental car and checked into our last hotel of the trip for a full day of sightseeing tomorrow.

The view of the Acropolis from our hotel room, we will explore that in the morning!

Mount Ainos

We hiked today. 9 miles roundtrip, 3600ft of elevation gain. Clouds, goats (wild and herded), up-up-up, fir trees and solitude - we saw no one else on the entire hike. Absolutely perfect. 

We got a very late start, around 11am, a lazy breakfast takes priority on vacation, of course.  But the days are cooler here because it's September and the temperature has broken, so heat wouldn't be an issue.  We hear it was well over 90 until a week or so ago, but now the temps are topping out in the upper 70s.  Anyway, we got a late start but tried to make up for it by hiking steadily to our destination, the summit of Mount Ainos, the tallest peak in the Ionian Islands. 

The trail started off rocky, exposed, and a bit uphill, then we caught a break on a dirt national forest road for awhile with amazing views of the surrounding countryside. 

Starting off.

Views. 

Then we started to climb (and I mean CLIMB at about a 45-50% angle) through an awesome forest of fir trees, moss was everywhere.  There were also tons of downed trees, the weather must get a bit windy up there.  We passed a small group of wild goats that scurried off when we got too close, and kept hiking. 

I spotted sunlight through the trees above us and thought we were near the actual summit, instead we popped out on the ridge, but we weren't up yet, we still had more climbing to do. It was pretty relentless. We were cheating a bit with our "we live at 6000ft" red blood cells, and I kept thinking that it would be darn hard without that advantage. 

Finally, finally, about 2h10min after we started, we popped out above the trees and in the clouds, on a very rocky saddle. To our left was a lesser peak of the mountain (2nd picture below) but we took a right and scrambled up to the summit. Tom ascending to the very peak below. 

Looking toward the other lower peak, in the clouds, the trail winding back down into the tree line. 

It was both surreal and peaceful up there. We were buried in constantly swirling clouds, and we would get glimpses of coastline, sea and the other peaks that surrounded us in quick succession. Truly bizarre. We just stood, turned in circles and watched the ever changing picture show. 

Same peak as above, a few minutes later. 

The very summit, from just below it. There was a register that we signed up there. 

After grabbing a snack, getting quite chilled and taking a quick break, we decided to head down. 

The bonus on the descent were the goats. Goat herders here put bells on their goats. But they aren't what you'd think of as livestock bells.  They're not clanky at all, in fact they sound like wind chimes, it is absolutely the most beautiful sound. On another hike earlier this week, a herder crossed our path with a small herd of goats. We simply stopped and listened, amazed. About 3/4 of the way down this hike, we ran into a large herd of goats, with many bells. We sat down, watched and listened quietly as they passed all around us through the trees. So very cool.  

We stopped on the way back at a small outdoor cafe for wonderful well-earned apple pie. Yum. 

Ancient trails and deserted beaches.

The past two days we've been staying in Fiscardo on the northern tip of Kefalonia. It's a beautiful area and has many hiking trails and tiny beaches accessible only by foot or boat. We chose foot. :) 

The weather was rainy our first day here, at least until the afternoon when it cleared up and we were finally able to explore the awesome huge rocks that makes up the shore here. We relaxed, swam and snorkeled for a while. Very beautiful. 

We also got massages and checked out the village of Fiscardo. Lots of great restaurants and a beautiful small harbor with expensive sailboats. I guess renting a boat to travel the Greek islands is quite popular, if you're rich. :)

Today, we woke up to blue skies. Yay!  So, we chose the longest hiking trail we could find and set off. It started out near town and quickly climbed into the forest. These paths are so cool, they follow old donkey and foot paths that connected villages now in ruins. Rock walls are EVERYWHERE on Kefalonia and this path wound through, and over, tons of them. Some were moss covered and clearly old, and some looked to have been more recently constructed. 

We found this deserted village along the way. Ruined buildings and old narrow pathways that we walked right through. 

We took a detour to a WW II battery and Tom poked around the gun mounts and the tunnel network that still exists below ground. 

The battery was set on the very northern shore, which had rougher seas than near our hotel on the northeast side.  Tom looking tiny below. 

We met a couple from Holland that we traded picture taking with...

Then came the beaches. Oh the beaches... accessible only if you put some effort into it. We stopped and swam/snorkeled at three of them, one of which we had completely to ourselves. 

Dafnoudi Beach, Tom heading out. 

A small inlet next to Kimilia Beach, no one in sight.

Kimilia Beach proper:

We probably hiked about 7 miles in total, most of the trail was well marked, but we missed a couple of markers and had to search around until we relocated the trail and headed on, so it could be confusing if you're not avid hikers. This is a wonderful, recently marked and cleared trail system that everyone should try out if you're in the Fiscardo area. There are three separate marked trails and many more unmarked ones. The three marked ones are different lengths, so something for all abilities. 

On the way back, we stopped in town for a late lunch and hung out on the rocks at the hotel until the sun went down. A great day!  Tomorrow, we move to the southwest side of the island for a few nights where we hope to hike up Mount Ainos and who knows what else. Westside = Sunsets here we come!

Across the country.

Yesterday we travelled 7 hours by car and 1.5 hours by ferry from Meteora to Kefalonia, one of the Ionian islands in the northwest of Greece. Of course, it's beautiful here, if not a bit cloudy and rainy today. I'm sitting on our patio listening to impending thunder as I write this. They're heading into the rainy season here and the past two days have seen some rain.  

This morning was very stormy so I lost to Tom shooting pool for about 12 games straight. Damn that man can shoot pool. I'm pretty decent myself, but come on!!  :)

We will spend today dodging storms, snorkeling right off shore, getting massages and who knows what else. There are walking paths near us, on the north part of the island that we hope to trek tomorrow or later today if the weather cooperates.

Some pictures from our travel day yesterday below. 

Pretty impressive bridge. The toll was about $15!!

Scooby snack anyone?

Tom, catching a few zzzs in the ferry. 

 

Kefalonia as we approached. 

The views of Ithaca, a neighboring island, from our drive on Kefalonia. 

Monasteries and hikes in Meteora.

We spent spent about 8 hours on foot today, exploring Meteora. There are six monasteries here perched high on rock pillars. Remember that Bond movie "For Your Eyes Only"?  It was filmed at one of the monasteries...James Bond climbs up the side of the rock with a bad guy hammering out his anchors one at a time until he finally perseveres, gets to the top and lowers the bucket down for the other good guys. Yep, Meteora. 

When we arrived we found a hiking map for the area, so I was happy!  We set out after breakfast, first on small country roads that wove past private monasteries, not open for visitors, like the one below, set right into the rock. 

This is a hermit cave. Monks go and live there for punishment. Who the heck knows how they get to this one!?

The small unpaved roads turned into trails and we made our way up and over passes, only taking a wrong turn once, pretty good for us. As Tom said, "it's not vacation unless we end up walking through someone's backyard while hiking". So true. Tom taking a break below at Valhava Monument.  Where we are headed next is that low spot in the horizon just to the right of middle.  

After hours of hiking, we came up over a crest and finally found some people, and lots of them. At two of the six monasteries, the Great Meteoron and Varlaam. This is the view of Varlaam from the Great Meteoron. We went into the biggest one and spent about an hour looking at beautiful stonework and frescoes. 

We decided that hour was enough of crowds so we looked at the map, picked out a trail to some cool spots and hiked on. Below are the remnants of the monks prison. 

Next we hiked up one of the big pillars, quite a climb, and wound up on top, after a short scramble near the top. 

Tom on the way up. 

A chapel, literally carved into the Rock. Behind a blue metal door, that made a horrible scraping sound when we opened it, we found this beautiful spot. 

And our reward for scrambling up the final pitch was a bell we got to ring. I rang it three times. 

The town is a lot further down than it looks, for sure. That is a straight drop off, for a long long way. 

Great couple days here, all in all.  Heading to Kefalonia tomorrow, one of the Ionian islands in northwestern Greece. 

Cold and rainy.

My friend Andi and I really tried to wait out the cold rain to summit Pacific Peak in the Mosquito Range last weekend. 

It looked cloudy when we started out but we wanted to give it until tree line to make a call. What we found above tree line was this:

After we topped out in the upper basin, we stood there and watched as all the surrounding peaks were eaten up by low clouds. Well, clouds at 12000ft. But when you're at 12000ft, you consider them "low". 

The clouds and rain made for a beautiful, rare hiking day not only above tree line, but above cloud line. Very pretty and peaceful. 

We waited for at least a half hour, watching the clouds swirl around us, hoping they'd part and we would continue the trek. Then we were cold, wet (even with rain jackets) and decided a wet, cold, very windy scramble with somewhat frozen fingers was a bad idea. 

So we started back down reluctantly. 

The trails had turned muddy and our pants were soaked, but along the way, wow, just beautiful. 

And of course, as we were almost down, the clouds parted. Bummer. 

Pacific Peak, I will be back. This fall or next summer, you will be mine. 

Lake Constantine birthday backpacking weekend!

A couple weeks ago, for Tom's birthday (his 30th again, ha!), we decided to visit an old friend - Lake Constantine in the Holy Cross Wilderness.  This lake is very picturesque, a good 5 mile hike in and not too crowded with backpackers.  Well, at least it wasn’t on Friday night, a group of early 20 something's showed up as we were packing out, loud and obnoxious - we were happy to be exiting the area.  If you're going to hike in 5 miles, please respect the tranquility of the area and don't setup camp right next to someone else - there is plenty of wilderness out there!!  (stepping down off soapbox now)

Tom took most of Friday off, so we were able to get a good start from Denver, drove up to Minturn, just west of Vail, and hit the trailhead early afternoon.  It was just under 5 miles in on a fairly good, if not a bit rocky, trail.  Ellie and Tom, scrambling up a bit of rock below - it's always more fun when it's wet and you have a 30-40 lb pack on your back, ha!

Ellie Mae wasn’t a fan of the graupel that fell on us about halfway up,  (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graupel, if you’re not sure what that is, it’s quite common in the mountains here), so we waited it out under a tree and hoped it’d pass soon. 

Luckily the sun popped out and we headed onward and upward.  We arrived at the lake, searched for a campsite for 20 minutes or so and found one with a good fire ring, logs for sitting around the fire and a good flat spot for the tent.  Tom gathered wood and I setup house, those caveman roles really do stick around in modern society.  :)  Our campsite is just ahead in this photo, taken from the trail down to the lake, you can barely see our tent, to the right of the trail under the first trees.

 

Our sunning spot for the weekend, you can see Tom and Ellie out on the big rock (taken from camp):

 

It was a beautiful weekend to be up in the mountains, a few passing clouds and pretty darn chilly, but we had a great time relaxing by the lake and enjoying one of the last few weekends of summer in Colorado.  Oh, sure the weather will be up and down (we’ve had plenty of upper 80s since that weekend) but the nights are chillier and you can smell fall in the air.

Some random photos from the weekend below, Happy Birthday Tom!!

Sitting around the campfire - Ellie Mae has this weird habit of "people sitting" - she likes to be upright.  Weirdo.

 

Breakfast on our favorite rock by the lake.

The view from our breakfast spot.

 

Ellie keeps a keen eye on Tom when he's not within 10 feet of her - you can see his blue shirt walking away below, she's very concerned.

Tom being manly - he's pulling down a dead tree in the first photo and then walking with a huge log on his shoulder in the grassy area in the second photo (you can barely see him).