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.