The sunrise from the Toaca Peak, Ceahlău
Date: 13-14 August 2018.
Team: Myself, Dragoș, Matei.
Route: Izvorul Muntelui Hut--Piatra cu apă--Dochia Hut.
Dochia Hut--Peak Toaca (1904m)--Dochia Hut--Izvorul Muntelui Hut.
The continuation of this article.
I already explained how the idea of running a half-marathon appeared in our minds, but I didn't say anything about the trip into Ceahlău Mountains. We started to carefully organize the excursion two weeks before the half-marathon. Talking to Matei, I realised that since we already have to travel soooo far, in Vatra Dornei, we might try another mountain group in the northern side of the Carpathian Mountains. Hence, we decided to see the sunrise from the Toaca Peak, in Ceahlău.
We spent the day after the race reading books in bed and played video games. We were extremely sore and every little step was painful. My knees hurt so bad I needed something like 3 minutes to climb 2 floors. I really wanted to hike in Ceahlău, but in that day I was not sure that I will be able to do it. Anyway, the takeaway pizza in Vatra Dornei is delicious!
We left towards the Izvorul Muntelui Hut ("the spring of the Mountain" Hut) by cars on Monday morning. Sebi, Adi and Rareș decided to stay there over the night, while myself, Dragoș and Matei were going to climb and sleep at the Dochia Hut. After we lost a lot of time waiting for the food at the restaurant, we payed the entrance fee into the National Park and finally started the hike. The estimated time written on the road sign was 3h 30 min-4h.
Izvorul Muntelui Hut--Piatra cu apă--Dochia Hut (blue strip, 2h 15min)
The whole trail goes through the forest. The path is large and trodden, but the ascent is almost continuous. I must admit that after 15 minutes, I was ready to go back in the village if someone else would have suggested this, but the guys didn't catch my subtle remark. I was trying to keep the conversation alive (in order to keep away the bears), but it wasn't as naturally as it would have been for the boys to talk about football or video games. I think I will never complain again about those subjects. Our total time was shorter than expected, mainly due to the fact that we tried to keep up with Dragos (who is quite fast) on 99% of the trail. The Voltaren gel made this possible for my knees...
The path is large but sometimes it hides in the darkness
Perfection in a forest
The ladder
I was still feeling the soreness after the half-marathon, even after the rest day. Anyway, a thing that really helped us to stay motivated is that Matei used the app called Munții Nostri ("Our Mountains"). We could permanently see us as a red dot on the map and see how many meters we still have to ascent.
Majestic
Piatra cu apă (the Stone with water) and the Thundered stones
Detail
Road signs near the hut
I was happy to remark that the national park is well taken care of. We saw plenty information boards about fauna and flora, stories and legends about some rock formations, one really had many interesting facts to learn about Ceahlău on the way up. We arrived at the hut around 18:10, just in time to catch the sunset with its beautiful lights. The Ceahlau Monastery is few minutes away from the hut. A small wooden construction, surrounded by peace and mountains.
The highest peak of the Ceahlau Massif is called Ocolașul Mare (1907m) and it is a scientific reservation, the access on the top is forbidden. Regardless, one can get a glimpse of it from the distance :D.
1. Solar rays
2. The Toaca peak in warm light (both photos: Matei)
Tower in the sunset
Shades in the Eagles' bathingplace
1. The evening light in front of the hut
2. Ocolașul Mare peak
The Dochia Hut (1750m) is actually a very big building. We were quite socked to see that the orders get a special number and that your name is called out at a microphone in order for you to pick up your dinner. Maybe it is just a matter of taste, but I didn't really feel the "hut atmosphere". Our accommodation was a clean, simple room with 15 beds. We were colleagues with a group of 8 young people which were even more "greenhorns" than us:)). They were quite noisy when we were getting ready for sleep, but finding out that they had the same political views as ours suddenly made them less annoying :).
The clock rang at 05:00. Even though I tapped snooze from the bottom of my heart, I was on my feet in the next 5 minutes. Since it was almost dark outside, we packed using our headlights. Afterwards we brushed our teeth and left the hut. Along the way, we met a lady who asked us if she could join our group, so we had a team of 4 people on the trail to the top. Using the headlights :D.
Dochia Hut--Toaca Peak (red strip, ~30 min)
We didn't find any road sign towards the peak, but the path was clear. If the hut is behind you, take left :).
Using headlights
We saw an endless metal ladder near the meteo station. An information board was there to explain that it was built recently. Usually I wouldn't agree with such a construction in the middle of the nature, but it had a special charm, it fitted quite well in the picture. I have some photos of it taken at the way back.
"I will not crush the world's corolla of wonders
and I will not kill
with reason
the mysteries I meet along my way
*in flowers, eyes, lips and graves.
The light of others
drowns the deep magic hidden
in the profound darkness.
I increase the world's enigma
*with my light
much as the moon with its white beams
does not diminish but increases
the shimmering mysteries of night-
I enrich the darkening horizon
with chills of the great secret.
All that is hard to know
*becomes a grater riddle
*under my very eyes
because I love alike
*flowers, lips, eyes, and graves."
(I will not crush the world's corolla of wonders, Lucian Blaga, translated by Andrei Codrescu)
(I will not crush the world's corolla of wonders, Lucian Blaga, translated by Andrei Codrescu)
The photos with * are made by Matei.
We were amazed by the landscape. We admired, for more than one hour, the spectacle given by the clouds in front of our eyes. After that we ate our breakfast thinking about Vama veche and the Ravel's Bolero. However, this song was ringing in my head, especially because it was somehow related with the violent events from Bucharest...
We were amazed by the landscape. We admired, for more than one hour, the spectacle given by the clouds in front of our eyes. After that we ate our breakfast thinking about Vama veche and the Ravel's Bolero. However, this song was ringing in my head, especially because it was somehow related with the violent events from Bucharest...
Symmetry
1. Traditions
2. Life is rarely so simple
Hit the Egg 2018 medal in the sunrise
1. The foam of days
2. Panaghia's cliff
A long descent was waiting for us, joint with a very long way back to Bucharest. We decided to follow the same path as in the day before in order to be in Izvorul Muntelui as fast as possible. After all, we reached our purpose for the trip, and it was amazing. I really hope to explore some more trails in Ceahlău in the future.
Toaca Peak--Dochia Hut (red strip, 30 min)
1. Ocolașul Mare peak and the Dochia hut
2. The ladder
Let's go!
In front of the hut
Dochia Hut--Izvorul Muntelui Hut (blue strip, 1h 40 min)
When we arrived at the hut, we refilled the bottles with water and left. We made a deal with Dragos that if he wants us to descend on the same trail, then he must use a human decent speed. It was funny to see him struggling to keep his feet from running :))). However, we moved very well since the estimated time on the road sign was 2h 30 min-3h.
The Ceahlau Mountain is full of legends and I would like to give you a small homework: to read the stories about The stone with water, Thundered Stones, the Toaca peak, the Panaghia cliff, Eagles' bathingplace, the legend of Dochia. These are only the special places that we saw on our trip, but there are many more to discover. You can find these stories here. We used this map.
...
Maybe I was not very talkative in this journal, but I think it was better to let the photos speak for me. It was an extravagant decision to go on this trip after the half-marathon (with only one rest day in between), but it was worth it. A photo can catch only a small part of what you can actually see from up there. I would love to be able to bring back home the whole mountain, but it is impossible, the only possibility is to return there whenever I need it. I want to thank Matei and Dragos because they were crazy enough to join me. Let it be that our craziness never dries out :)!
We arrived in good condition at the Izvorul Muntelui hut, where we met the others and then left towards Bucharest through Bicaz Canyon. As a final conclusion, I will leave here some photos made from the car. Why? Well, because we saw a lot of beautiful places right from the back seat, where I/we stayed nearly 18 hours in total.
On the way (photo: Matei)
Random (photo: Matei)
Ceahlău Massif together with Toaca and Ocolașul Mare peaks and the Bicaz lake
Bicaz Canyon (photo: Matei)
