Bieszczady – The Last Wilderness: Hiking the Carpathians Day 3

Day 3 – 12 Maja => Ustrzyki Górne => Wołosate => Rozsypaniec => Halicz => Tarnica => Ustrzyki Górne

I woke up rested! There is nothing better than a proper sleep after tiring day. At 5:30AM I was already up and getting myself ready. Thick fog outside was worrying me a bit but at least it was not raining. I was staying in the same place for another night so I only needed light, one day pack – what a pleasant change! Just before 7AM I managed to get a local bus to Wołosate – I was lucky it was going walking all 1,5h on the asphalt wasn’t how I wanted to start another day. After 5 minutes drive the morning fog disappeared completely and I was presented with deep blue sky and full sun – boy was I happy!

Powered by a good night sleep and wonderful weather I started my hike towards Halicz summit. Before entering the Bieszczady National Park I had to pay an entry fee – it was the only spot where I had to do. I guess before season not all the toll points are open.

My initial drive burned down a little by the initial 2h of the hike. The trail was nothing more but old asphalt road in a very bad condition. True that nature already started taking it back however walking that part of the trail was far from nice. After around 2h I reached Przełęcz Bukowska (Bukowska Pass) where I took a short rest next to rain shelter. Perfect sunny moment. In the meantime mounted Border Patrol went past – they greeted me and slowly followed towards Ukraine.

After that pleasant power up I continued towards Halicz summit. I was slowly gaining elevation surrounded by amazing views. As predicted I went into photo frenzy and reaching the summit took me 30 min more than planned. But in the end it’s not about “flying” over the trail as fast as possible but enjoying the mountains as much as we can. And that’s exactly was I was doing – admiring the all surrounding beauty. The ascension looked worse than it actually was. Sure it was steap at times and demanding but it was nothing compared to what I did during previous days (especially with a light backpack). Of course on top I met my 3 guys – they started this part of trail from the other end. They made me realise in Wołosate I missed the GSB trailhead mark. I was little sad but in the end it’s just a red dot. After short brake we all went our way. I still had a lot to hike to get back to Ustrzyki.

The next hours were really nice despite the very strong wind. Easy traverse led me to another rain shelter at Przełęcz Goprowska (Goprowska Pass). There I made a longer brake with some proper snacks. The strangely high amount of military I saw inflowing from the Bukowe Berdo direction was, as I learned later, a fitness camp they had that day. I didn’t envy them carrying all their heavy army equipement. After re-charging my batteries I continued towards Tarnica summit. After reaching Krygowski Pass I saw big numbers of school kids on the blue trail heading towards the summit. That plus the soldiers and me being tired resulted in a final decision to drop the idea of reaching the Tarnica summit. Maybe another time..

I went on hiking through Szeroki Wierch back to Ustrzyki Górne. The views were absolutely amazing and I was really happy that the weather was so good. Already there I started to feel my knee a little bit but it didn’t seem anything big. Unfortunately half way down it started to hurt really really bad. From that point on the descent can be described in one word – hell. If I only could I would crawl not to over burden my knee. Fortunately for me the trail down was in a really good condition – bright, dry and many times with wooden footbridges. I had to take rest very often otherwise I wouldn’t make it. I think only strong will got me all the way down to the base. It took eternity but there was no other way but to struggle forward. I must admit never before my body failed me so much. I wish no one this kind of experience.

Already in the base I saw the my knee was swollen which meant it really got overused. This injury and pain forced me to prematurely finish my hike. Reconciling with the sad truth I planned early come back.

And that was the end of my first adventure in Bieszczady – painful and premature. However it didn’t kill the satisfaction from hiking long kilometers in multiple conditions and feeding my eyes with the beauty of those mountains. I left with tons of pictures, memories and couple of important lessons for the future (!!) Will I be coming back? For sure!

Check out detailed info on that trip below!