Mt Vogel Hike Part 2

After taking a quick break behind a small hill that was breaking the wind some we started walking again…and the clouds rolled in! And they were crazy! Moving so quickly and all around - at one point the wind was coming from both sides! And at one point it was so cloudy I couldn’t see Raymond in front of me! So we said we would walk to the saddle and then see if we wanted to hike to the top of the mountain - if you can’t see anything then there is not really a point especially since there were some small rock climbing sections (the 4th photo we climbed down - you can see some of the poles sticking it to steep on or hold onto). That plus wind plus no visibility equaled maybe not. Once we got to that first saddle where we could turn back it was still very cloudy and windy, but there was another saddle a bit higher up we could see so we hiked up to there and had a break (I thought maybe we would get a brief window where it would clear up), but then all the clouds came in and you couldn’t see anything! So we decided to head back down and the wind was crazy on that first part until we dropped down below the clouds again. We took a kind of crazy way back where we ended up having to walk up a ski hill which was pretty steep loose gravel and it was like every step I was slipping backwards a bit so it took a while, but honestly wasn’t as bad as it looked like it would be from afar.

When we got back to the upper chairlift it was still windy and cold so we bundled up and headed back to the first viewpoints and had a late lunch enjoying the mountain views. By the time we were taking the cable car back down the low clouds had started clearing up again, but Mt Vogel (and most of the peaks) was still completely covered. We did spy on the mountains and tried to figure out if er could see where we had been and realized that the little hut hike we did last week (Zajamniki) we could see! I marked it with an arrow on the one photo. Then back down the cable car and relax at the campground for a bit. We did get a short, very heavy rain just before dinner and the mountains were cloudy all afternoon, and some rain later too. But it was a really great hike. We got to see all the views which I loved, and then some spooky clouds which I also love! Really my favorite hike we have done here! So so gorgeous!Read more