Cycling on flat-lands

After a break of four years when I only did a bit of utilitarian cycling, this year I started to do a bit more cycling again. Not mountain-biking as before. Since I started to do trail running more seriously,  I feel that running is much better suited for the type of mountain trails we have around Brasov. This time I have returned to road cycling after many years... On roads I am exploring other landscapes around Brasov, not than just mountains. There are many secondary roads with good surface around Brasov, just perfect for road cycling.

The highlight of the cycling season was a cycling tour in the Netherlands. It was a last minute decision. Myself and my wife had some holiday days left for the end of the summer. As she is still recovering from an ankle injury, hiking was out of the question, but cycling was OK. 

Knowing how good the cycling infrastructure is in Holland, I proposed that we could go there for cycling in a safer road environment than in Romania.

My wife quickly searched the web for a fully organised tour. As we have never been cycling in Holland before, this was the safest option to ensure a last minute successful holiday. Most organised cycling tours seem to target the older generation; have short daily distances and e-bike option. Anyway, my wife managed to find a tour operator that had road bike tours on the menu: Holland Bike Tours. As both of us are quite well trained for endurance, we went straight for the most demanding tour they have on offer: Lake Ijssel Round Rrip; 400km in four days.

The tour was very well organised. It was an individual tour. The tour operator provided us with good quality road bicycles and a GPS device pre-loaded with the tour route. They also gave us a set of lightweight tools, a pump and a spare tube. In case we had more trouble, full bike assistance was included - luckily we had no need for it. We only had a punctured tire during the whole trip.

The hotels on the route were all booked by the tour operator, including our luggage transfer from one hotel to the next one on the route.

The GPS device was very helpful ans saved us a lot of time - especially important on the long stages. Due to the many canals that criss-cross the landscape, getting from A to B might not be as simple as it seems... Just using a compass is not of much use for finding your way in Holland...

Cycling on flat-land was tougher than I thought! We live in the mountains, so most cycling routes are 50% up-hill and 50% downhill. Moreover, the mountains protect us from strong winds. Covering a similar distance on the plains felt harder, especially with head-wind. Sure enough, half of the tour we had to work hard against the wind! Even with tail-winds, you still have to pedal, unlike on mountains down-hills...

We both enjoyed the tour very much. The landscape of Holland is as different from home as it can be! It felt like being in a delta, which in fact is the case. What I find amazing is that all the landscape we were cycling through is man-made! Yet, along the route there were many wild areas, with forests, lakes, canals and lots of water birds, reminding me of the Danube Delta.

The second day we had the longest stage. 160km. It was the one we enjoyed the most. It included Afsluitdijk, the 32km dam between the North Sea an IJssel Lake. We had west and north-west winds during this day. The first 40km until we reached Afsluitdijk were quite hard as we battled the quite strong head winds and a few light showers. The 32km on the dam were OK; we were sheltered by the top of the dike so the side wind was not so strong. The cherry on the cake were the last 85 kilometers! We flew most of the distance with strong tail winds along the lake shore and across the plains! Without the tail winds it would have been very hard to reach our destination in time that day.

Here is the route of the second day:

And some photos we took along the four day tour:

Cycling along Afsluitdijk

By the North Sea

Rain on the last kilometers of the tour...

Hit The Top!

What a wonderful mountain running race I had today! Hit The Top, 6'th edition. My 3rd time running this race, after previously taking part in the second and fourth editions.

My previous participation in 2014 left a very deep impression on me. That year it rained from start to finish and it was also quite cold, making this intense and tough race even harder! Some runners that were not well prepared for such a race had a quite hard time that year.

This year the organizers decided to open the race just to well prepared runners. Only those invited by the organisers or athletes with a convincing portfolio of high altitude running could take part. There is a good reason for this as "Hit The Top" is a rather technical mountain race. Although the route follos marked hiking paths, it is quite a steep and technical route, climbing almost one vertical mile from around 1000 meters altitude near Bran, to Omu Peak (2505m), the highest peak in Bucegi mountains, one of the highest peaks in the Carpathian mountains.

I was very pleased and honored to be invited. If you followed my blog, you might know that over the the last year and a half I reduced the intensity of my running sessions, trying to increase the quality of my running. As a consequence I greatly reduced the number of competitions... but I could not refuse this invitation!

This year I was afraid that we will experience again the rainy and cold weather. I was following the weather reports for the whole week before the race, and as the days were passing, the weather reports got worse and worse... The weather report the night before the race got a bit better, but it was clear that the weather will be very unstable so I had to be prepared for anything!

Luckily, in the morning the weather in my home town Brasov was quite good: a few patches of blue sky and even some of morning sunshine. However, I could see that the atmosphere was saturated with humidity and it was clear that it could rain at any time. If the morning would have been rainy, I have doubts that I would have had the will to go to the starting line... and that would have been quite a mistake...

On the way to the starting line in Bran, a pouring rain suddenly started... It did not look too encouraging, but the rain eased after 5 minutes. One hour before the start the weather became quite calm and we had good reasons to be optimistic. The volunteers up the mountain also reported reasonably good weather... unstable with a few rain drops, a bit windy and rather cold in the wind, but nothing to be scared of. And indeed, the weather was quite good. It rained only a bit during the race and it was even sunny for a while after the race!

The trails were quite good, given the very rainy last two months. Of course, there was some mud on the trail, but nothing out of ordinary.. The snow up on the mountain was almost completely gone. We had to pass only a few snow patches here and there above 2300m.

We were just 52 athletes at the start. Few compared to other more popular and commercial trail running competitions in the area. But this is why I like this competition. It is kept very simple, yet very well organized, with very good athletes taking part.

The start was precisely at 9:30 AM exactly as  announced by the organizers in the race schedule!

I did not push too hard uphill but I tried to keep a constant and sustainable pace during the ascent. On the way down I was quite relaxed and careful. I knew that several runners will overtake me on the descent, but I did not care. The safety and the health of my knees were my top priorities so I really enjoyed the descent and had absolutely no knee issues. Back home, analyzing the GPS track of other competitors that started the descent from Omu peak at about the same time with me and I have seen that I finished the race 5 minutes behind them. No bad at all given my relaxed descent.

My dirty running shoes after the race.. The only photo I took today...

If in a popular mountain race I can finish in the first 10-20% of the runners, here, running along so may elite runners the situation is different!  My realistic objective was to finish not too far behind the middle of the pack. I think that I kind of have achieved it: 38th out of 52 finishers. I reached Omu Peak in 1 hour and 36 minutes and descended in almost precisely one hour.  This was about 35 minutes faster that in 2014, but this year the race was shorter, as the start/finish line was moved around 3km up the valley, at the end of the forest road. The race started directly on the mountain trail - not a problem in a race with so few competitors, especially that for the first kilometer the trail is quite wide.

Here is my GPS recording of today:

As in the previous years, the race was very well organized. A big thank to the organizers and the volunteers, especially to the volunteers that endured the wet, cold and windy weather up the mountain!

I hope that this race will continue with new editions during the next years! See you then!

Semimaraton Intersport, Brasov, April 5, 2014

In 2012, the first edition of Intersport half-marathon, was my first ever trail running competition. Back then I was into trail running for less than a year. Better trained and with more experience, I returned in 2013 and did it 20 minutes faster than the previous year, almost reaching the top 15% of the finishers! 

This year I decided to have a look at this competition from a different angle and I did not register. I am trying to reduce the number of competitions. Lately I tend to prefer slightly longer trail races in the 30-45km range and also with more elevation gain. I am not a very fast runner , definitely not a flatland runner, and this race is a rather fast one with only around 600m of positive elevation gain. This time I preferred to relax and enjoy the atmosphere, so I went on the route to take photos of the competitors in the half-marathon race. I know how much I enjoy finding photos with me on the Net after a race and I know that others do!

The competition takes place on the beautiful wooded hills around my home city Brasov, along the paths that I love and where I usually run. First 8.5km are a long uphill to Poiana Brasov mountain resort, along a winding unpaved forest road giving enough room for overtaking. From Poiana the trail returns to Brasov along  a beautiful single trail that follows the top of the hills until Tampa Mountain saddle. The start/finish area is just a couple of minutes from my house in Unirii Square (Piata Unirii, more traditionally called Prund). I could even see the finishing gate from my home and I listen "live" to the speaker announcements!

I did the race route twice earlier in the week and noticed that the trails were in a very good condition. The route was already well marked a few days before the race. Two huge fallen trees that were blocking the trail were cut and taken out of the way. In the previous years there were some serious mud problems. In 2013 part of the route had to be diverted to avoid a 500m stretch with knee deep mud. Following a very dry and warm winter, this time there was not a trace of mud on the way! Perfect conditions for a new best time of the race. The second time winner, Vitalie Gheorghita, finished in an unbelievable time for a 20km trail race with 640 meters of elevation gain: just 1:15:30! Actually it was 25 seconds slower than his own time of the the previous year. I would guess that the slightly longer time was due to some wet and slippery trail sections.

Vitalie Gheorghita, the second time winner of the race

The weather forecast this year was not good at all. In 2013 the weather was just perfect. In in 2012 the rain stopped just before the start of the race, but this year it was the other way round... the rain started just before the start. For the race day, the National Meteorological Authority issued a warning saying that the weather will get cold, wet and windy during the day. Although overcast, the morning was nice, quite warm and dry. Knowing that the weather can turn bad at any time I rushed out and did a 19km trail run session on the hills to Poiana Brasov and back. I ran partly along the race route, but my route had a bit more altitude gain, also reaching Tampa mountain top. From there I rushed home, in time to get some rest. I then grabbed an umbrella, some warm clothes and a camera and then I rushed up the hill to Stechil meadow, somewhere in the middle of the race route, the place where I took the photos.

With 700 registered participants, there was quite some traffic along the route!

The start countdown started a couple of minutes earlier than 12PM, the official start time. I guess that the rain that was just starting made everybody inpatient. I arrived in the square just as the last runners were disappearing in the distance. I knew that I only have 40 minutes to climb the 400m to Stechil Meadow. I arrived in time to prepare for taking the photos. As it was raining I did not take my best camera. Instead I took my little compact waterproof camera... So at least I have an excuse for the bad shots... I am really sorry that I missed a few runners! A few shots are also out of focus and some are not so well framed, but overall I am quite pleased with the results! Most jpeg files came out just fine out of the camera!

Here is the full album, of more than 500 shots!

You are free to use any photo, as long as you give credit to the author. You can also contact me for a larger resolution version of the photo.

The umbrella was very useful as it rained almost all the time. I also noticed that while I stood taking photos for 1.5 hours, the weather got colder and colder. After an hour I had to put on my gloves as my hands started to freeze. In the morning before the race, the temperature in Brasov was almost 15C. By the end of the prize ceremony the temperature went down to 2C... Actually the weather was not too bad for running. The rain was quite light, most runners finished before it got too cold and there was almost no wind.

The start/finish area in Prund (Piata Unirii). The race route follows the hill tops in the distance

Overall, from what I could see, the 2014 edition of this race was again very well organized! Congratulations to the organizers and to all volunteers!

See you again in 2015!

Winter Preview

It is not unusual in Brasov and especially on the higher mountains around to get a few snow flakes during the autumn. But not so early, so much and at such a low altitude. The thick clouds are continuously pouring now for more than 48 hours. It started with rain on Sunday night. Then it got gradually colder. Yesterday morning (Tuesday the 1st of October), the rain transformed into heavy snow. It snowed heavily in Brasov for the whole day. Towards the evening it got a bit warmer and the snow flakes transformed back into rain drops. Now, on Wednesday morning it is still raining!

I measured 7cm of very heavy and watery snow on my roof! If it was light powder snow, it would have measured 4 times more... And if all the rain was snow, the town would have been buried under a thick blanket of snow... The skier in me is dreaming!

I am a bit concerned about the conditions for the Saturday's Piatra Craiului Marathon. It looks like we will have snow on the route this year. The weather is getting warmer and the soil is still quite warm, so I do not expect the snow to last for too long. But it also depends on how much it was snowing in Piatra Craiului Mountains... The marathon route gets close to 2000m above sea level, with the most technical section of the route above 1500m.

Update - 3rd of october 2012. The weather got in fact colder. Still a few more snow flakes today. Above 800m it is real winter! For safety reasons, the Saturday's Piatra Craiului Marathon was postponed to 2nd of November. The weather should now gradually get warmer and sunnier. But there is a lot of snow on the mountains and it will not melt too fast, especially that it is going to freeze during the nights as the sky will become clear next days.

For the moment, here are some photos I took yesterday (1st of Oct. 2013) in Brasov, in the picturesque Schei District where I live and work.

Ciucas Trail Marathon 2013

This Saturday I ran my fourth full marathon. I participated in the Marathon Race of the Ciucas Trail event. The event has three races. A half-marathon, a marathon and an 100km individual ultra-marathon. Last year I ran the half-marathon so this time and I wanted to do the full marathon race.

One month before the event I did a reconnaissance run on the marathon route; an illustrated description of the route can be found in an older post. Knowing the route meant that I did not have any orientation issues during the race. The trails were very well marked, except a few key crossroad points that could have been better signaled. Unfortunately a few of the best runners got lost and ended up doing a different route... not necessarily easier.

The weather was cold, wet and quite windy on the exposed mountain top. When I left Brasov in the morning it was raining heavily and I was mentally preparing myself for running in the cold pouring rain. Luckily the rain gradually eased and eventually stopped just before the race start! I ran with a thin merino wool shirt. I also had my running jacket with me and used it on the windy sections. At the end it wasn't that cold and the woolen shirt was a bit too much and got quite wet, but without causing too much discomfort.

On my way to Ciucas peak  - photo by Camelia Varsescu

Once more, I ran the race without any watch or GPS device. I really like racing this way. I study the map before the race and I make a race plan. During the race I always have a good idea where I am and how to manage my energy. I also tried to run my own race, not paying too much attention to the other competitors. I did not want to get exhausted and also did not want to hammer my knees on the downhills. At the beginning of the race, in the forest, the trails were a bit muddy. However, much of the route had really good running conditions. The wet trails were better than during the reconnaissance run when they were very dry and dusty.

After the first 10 kilometers my place in the race stabilized. I am quite good on uphills so I almost caught up with a few runners on Ciucas top. However, soon, on the downhill they disappeared in the distance ahead of me as I was carefully running downhill. During the downhill I was expecting to be overtaken by several runners, but nobody did. Later I learned that just after I started my descent from the peak, it was covered in a thick fog so the next runners got lost in the fog for about 10 minutes. Actually after passing by Ciucas Hut one runner (Florin Simion) overtook me. He was ahead of me until the hut, but stopped there, while I decided to skip the hut stop on my way down to the finish line.

I finished with quite a good time: 4h52. Almost the same time as on the reconnaissance run, but that time I skipped a 5.5km section of the route that also included a long 300m elevation gain ascent. I could probably be 10 minutes quicker if I would have run faster downhill. I preferred however to be careful with my knees and to avoid slipping on the muddy sections. I managed to finish the 13th of the 168 competitors, and the 7th in my age category. Not a bad result, but many good runners were either absent from this event, or were running the ultra or the half marathon races.

I want to thank the organizers and the volunteers for the effort they spent to organize this event. It is not an easy task to manage three different races in the same day. The bad weather made it more difficult. I also know that they had some serious unexpected issues that made organizing the event even harder.

I am now concentrating on my last marathon of 2013. The famous and spectacular Piatra Craiului Marathon. See you there!

Adventures on Piatra Craiului Ridge

Two weeks ago I did a reconnaissance hike in Piatra Craiului mountains on the north section of the main ridge, from Turnu Peak to La Om Peak. The grander plan is to hike along the whole ridge from Turnu peak until Funduri Saddle in an one day speed hiking tip. On good weather with good training and light equipment, it is a totally reasonable tour.

Piatra Craiului Ridge as seen from the East from Bucegi Mountains - Photo taken on 20th of October 2012

So yesterday, 23rd of August 2013, together with Cristian, an experienced trail runner and orienteering sportsman we set out to do the ridge hike. I wasn't convinced that it is the best day for this trip as the evening before it rained in Brasov and the weather forecast announced more rains for the next day, especially in the afternoon. However, the cooler weather was perfect for this trip.

I had a very light equipment. No camera and no GPS device. The GPS is of not much use on the ridge anyway. The camera would slow me down and reduce my concentration during this technical hike. All the photos posted here were taken during the hike I did on the same route two weeks before.

I had a small and light backpack. The most important items in the backpack were two bottles that contained 2.5 liters of water and isotonic drink; there are no water sources on the ridge! Then I had a bit of food with me: a few whole bread slices, hard cheese, an energy bar, and a chocolate tablet. I made sure that I ate very well the evening before and in the morning, so my batteries were fully loaded...

In the backpack I also had a tubular Buff headgear and an ultralight rain jacket. Additionally I had a very small first aid kit; and of course, my telephone!
On me I had normal trail running equipment: trail running shoes, t-shirt, tight shorts and a white running cap.

View from the rocky ridge of  Piatra Craiului, on the steeper west side

In the morning, I checked the webcam on Cheile Gradistei resort. This webcam shows the whole ridge of Piatra Craiului. The whole mountain was visible, with a thin layer of clouds high above the ridge. It looked quite promising. My hope was to finish the hike along the ridge before the forecasted afternoon rain...

Piatra Craiului Carnation (Dianthus callizonus) - an endemic plant to Piatra Craiului Mountains

We started the ascent from Prapastiile Zarnestilor, a spectacular deep gorge near Zarnesti town. The weather was cool and very calm, although there was a bit of humidity in the air. We reached the main ridge on Turnu Peak, at 1823m altitude in 1h45.

On the way up to the peak, in a forest clearing, just before the first cables of the trail we almost met a bear. We heard a short bark like sound, from the thick bush, about 40 meters ahead of us. The sound was immediately followed by the noise of breaking tree branches as the creature that produces the noise retreated deep in the forest. Judging by the noises it must have been a large and heavy creature, most likely a bear. Of course, we stopped on the trail and made some more noise to inform the bear that we are there. I guess that the bear knew very well that there was a touristic path as it disappeared quickly out of our way.

The forest clearing where we almost met the bear

Turnu Peak is considered the northern most peak of the main ridge. From here we started the walk to the south, along the ridge. It is a very varied hike that makes one use all of his muscles... Although not terribly technical on good weather, the ridge has many rocky sections where one must use the arms to climb up or down. The trail goes up and down along the ridge, getting gradually higher and higher until it reaches La Om Peak, the highest peak in Piatra Craiului Mountain (2238m). This peak also marks the limit between the northern and the southern sections of the ridge.

The ridge as seen from Turnu Peak

As we hiked along the ridge, the weather was calm and cool. It was sunny down in the valley, but up here we were unxder a thin layer of clouds. There was perfect visibility along the entire length of the ridge. Just perfect conditions for hiking: dry, cool and windless. After hiking about half of the ridge, when approaching La Om peak, we heard the rumble of a thunder in the distance. It was to the north, behind us. Then every few minutes a new thunder. It did not sound that bad so we continued our hike ahead on the ridge. In fact we had no much choice but to hurry up ahead to la Om peak, where we had the closest escape path down from the ridge. So we would decide there if we continue or retreat from the ridge.

On the north ridge. In the distance La Om peak (2238m)

When we got close to the peak, a few drops of rain started to fall. Then... surprise! I could see a lightning strike just ahead of us, no more than 500 meters away. It struck close to the peak. Cristian who was 30-50 meters ahead told me that just before the strike, he felt his hair rising. That made him to immediately go lower, below the ridge. We both knew that the ridge is the worst place to be in a thunder storm. It did not look like a serious thunderstorm, but it did not feel safe at all to be on the ridge! We hurried ahead to the peak where the descending path starts.

After I returned home I did a little research about lightning strikes on the Internet... It was quite terrifying to see that if your hair raises it means that there is a lot of electrical charge in the cloud above and a lightning strike is imminent!

As we walked fast towards the peak, another lightning stroke; this time even closer to us. We now had a grassy slope below the ridge so we could immediately get lower. We walked on the grassy slope round the peak until we met the descending path. When we reached the path we rushed down the mountain. We could hear a few more thunders from the summit, but lower on the mountain slope it felt much safer.

We met two hikers going up to the summit. We told them to abandon the hike at least until the weather gets better. They looked at us in disbelief. We were just 200 meters below the peak, and here it did not look too bad... It started to rain a bit, but the visibility was good, no fog, no wind, the clouds were higher than the mountain and the thunders seemed away.

The ridge as seen from Vladusca pastures on the eastern side

As we descended it started to rain quite hard. Soon we reached  Grind refuge, which is located at the edge of the forest. A few foreign hikers were also sheltering here from the rain. We just stopped for a couple of minutes, until the rain eased. Then we continued to run downhill to La Table cross-roads point, and from there back to Prapastiile Zarnestilor, where at the lower end was Cristian's car.  We ran the 8 or so kilometers until the car at a comfortable pace in less than one hour. Lower the valley the ground was dry. It did not rain here! A bit lower, in the town of Zarnesti it was sunny!

Down in Prapastiile Zarnestilor Gorge

We completed the hike in 6h15 including all breaks. We missed the southern section of the ridge, meaning that we did the same route as I did on the hike two weeks before. However this time we did it at a much faster pace. I think that given the weather conditions it was the best choice to abandon the hike along the ridge. The southern section of the ridge is very rocky with steep rocky sides so in case of a storm there is no place to shelter and no easy way to go lower. I felt a bit sorry that we could not continue, as I felt very well and I knew that I would have no problems to complete the whole planned hike.

Next time when going up on the ridge, I have to be more careful about the weather forecast. In fact, thunder storms and lightning strikes are one of my biggest worries on the high exposed mountains. This time I thought that we could finish the hike before the afternoon rain that was forecasted... well, once again, the mountain showed us that we should not push our luck and that we should pay attention to everything that the mountain is telling us!

This year I plan to visit Piatra Craiului again on the 5th of October when I want to take part in the Piatra Craiului Marathon race. In the meanwhile, who knows, on a clear weekend day, maybe I will attempt the ridge hike again.

Piatra Mare. Running for 4 hours in the rain

8 June 2013. St. Medardus Day. There is a saying in my city of Brasov (and not only here) that if it rains on this day, it will rain every day for the next 40 days. There is some truth in this saying, as the month of June is often quite wet in this mountainous corner of Transylvania. In any case, last two weeks were very wet and quite cool in Brasov - it rained almost every day. But after the unusually dry and very warm month of May the rains were more than welcomed! 

For this day, I planned to do a training run with Andrei in Piatra Mare massif.  We plan to run together as a team this July in Bucegi Marathon 7500 Hobby race. Even the shorter Hobby race is a tough one. For safety, because it takes place in high and steep mountains, this race is run in teams of two runners. 

Due to the very wet weather we almost canceled the tour. Normally, on rainy days I stay closer to home, but this time we decided to ignore the weather, stick to the plan and do a tour that we will remember. At the end, running in the rain was a very good way to prepare for the Maraton 7500 race as the wet trails were tougher and more interesting.

The good thing was that almost no wind was forecasted for the day - also no thunder storms. So there was no danger to go up the mountain. Piatra Mare is not a very high mountain, a good choice for a day like this. It is covered in thick woods, except the higher part which has a small treeless and more exposed plateau.

The route we chose followed the main ridge of the mountain from the south to the north. We started the climb by DN1 main road, going up on Tamina forest road. The starting point can be reached by train. Timisu de Sus train stop is not far. But we just took a taxi from Brasov. Andrei left his car lower on Timis valley at Dambul Morii (also by DN1 road). Our route ended there.

At the beginning the route follows the Tamina forest road for about 5km. It has a gentle slope suitable for running. After 3-4km, the road passes very close to the Tamina waterfall. It is a spectacular waterfall in a narrow limestone gorge. We did not visit it as we were already wet enough from the rain. On a hot summer day it would have been a different story...

The track presented below is recorded last year on an hiking tour, but the route is identical to the one described in this post, except the last two kilometers.

After a little more than 4km on the forest road, in a small forest clearing we reached Tamina Chalet. I have no idea who owns it. It probably belongs to the Forest Authority. There is an abundant water spring here. From here the route leaves the forest road and continues with a steep long climb. Today, on rain, it was quite muddy and slippery.

After a while the slope eases and it also becomes less muddy, continuing the ascent through the pine forest on Galbeaza mountain flank of Piatra Mare.

Wet forest, wet and misty camera lens...

At about 1600m the trail comes out of the forest. From here to the top it follows the treeless high pastures. On a clear day it offers stunning views towards the surrounding mountains... Today we were happy that the fog is not thick and we can easily follow the path.

We pass by a shepherd hut. There are many cows around on the pastures and a few donkeys and horses by the hut. Luckily there are no dogs in sight. The weather must be too bad even for a dog...

Higher we reach the small top plateau and the slope eases even more so we can run again. Shortly we reach the summit at about 1800m altitude. The top is very close now.

A short run and we reach the summit.

No panoramas this time, yet the fog gives an mysterious atmosphere to the place.

I have time to take a quick self-portrait and then start running downhill. It is quite cold here as the peak is quite exposed. There is only a slight breeze but it feels cold as my t-shirt is soaked with rain water.

A bit lower from the peak we meet a beautiful patch of flowering rhododendron bushes. Time to stop for a couple of minutes and take a few photos.

We continue to run downhill towards Piatra Mare Mountain Hut. As we feel quite warm we decide not to go inside for a cup of tea. I am afraid that if we stop it will be very hard to go out and start running again through the rain. By the hut I take a photo of a shepherd that overlooks a flock of sheep. A classical shepherd pose!

Again, no shepherd dogs in sight!

Lower on the mountain it becomes warmer and the rain seems to stop. We decide to take the longer route to Dambul Morii, by making a detour to Bunloc hill. The trail to Bunloc is not very popular and passes through some quite wild forest. It is not an easy route as it goes up and down several times. We run very slowly as the trail is slippery, soaked in water and it often gets quite rocky and technical.

After we just pass the the entrance to "Pestera de Gheata" (The Ice Cave) we find right on the path a baby deer. It looks week. It has no wound signs but it may be sick. I have to admit that I do not know much about deer - I cannot even tell how old it is. We make a few phone calls to ask for advice. We follow the advice and the common sense. We do not touch it and we leave it there. Better not to interfere with nature. Hopefully its mother is close.

As the trail descends towards Bunloc we come in and out fog. The forest looks amazing, with fresh green in the foreground and ghostly three silhouettes further in the fog.

I stop many times and take photos of the forest. At some point my old camera succumbs to the rain. It is not an waterproof camera. It is my oldest camera, an 9 years old Nikon Coopix. It only has 3 mega-pixels but I still think that it takes much better photos than most mobile phone cameras. It is small and I ran all the way with it in my hand. Slowly, as the water makes its way inside the camera the buttons stop working one by one. Luckily the shutter button is the last one that stops working. The photo below is the last one I could take... The foggy lens gives a nice atmosphere to the photo. Once the camera stopped working, I took the batteries out and put it in my back-pack inside a dry plastic bag where I keep my dry exchange t-shirt. I dried the camera at home and it works fine again! Of course, I would have not done this treatment to a newer more valuable camera...

Finally we reach Bunloc hill and get out of the forest. On the pastures it suddenly becomes warmer. It is not raining anymore and although covered by clouds, we can feel the sun's warmth .. We are at lower altitudes now - below 1100m and have left the cold and misty mountain peaks and thick woods behind. The last few kiometers to Dambul Mori are an easy run on moderate downhill slope.

This was a slow paced run that I enjoyed very much. We could have run faster, but there was no rush. The trails were slippery and muddy at times; I preferred to run slower, avoiding to fall or twist an ankle.

It is not too often that I go far from home and deep into the woods and mountains on such a rainy day. The views and landscapes were amazing. Once again, I am convinced that running is the best and the most enjoyable locomotion option on such terrain and on "bad" weather.