2014. március 15.

Predeal mountains - continued

Last time was well half a disaster with depleting the batteries, so now with every battery fully charged it was time to visit the other two summits in the Predeal mountains.
First target was YO/EC-247, the closer one when going from Rosenau to Predeal. The path starts at the last serpentine before Pârâul Rece, with an unmarked forest road which goes up to the saddle between YO/EC-247 and 252 (activated last time) and continues towards 247. The forest road is closed by a barrier at the entry from the national road, but hiking past it is not a problem. Soon after passing the barrier a large pasture opens with nice view of YO/EC-011:
A view from behind of YO/EC-011
and also the YO/EC-247 ahead of us:
YO/EC-247 ahead
The pasture turns soon back into forest, however large clearings are still around the road with the spring already being manifested:
Springtime beauty
After reaching the col another great panorama opens to the south with the Bucegi plateau dominating the horizon:
Bucegi mountains
Bucșoiu (YO/MC-008) to the left


After the col the the road turns towards the summit, but before reaching the summit however the road takes another right turn, leaving the last portion of the ascent a direct through the forest one. I also made a mistake to take the straight away approach and had some very thick bush to fight through, however on the way down I found a much cleaner way along the ridge (which I also marked on the gps track below).
The summit is also thick woods, just enough room for the vertical antenna, but at least the summit stone offers a good place to sit on. After a good hour of operating packed together and went on towards the next summit. On the way back down, at the pasture it can also be glimpsed towards east:
YO/EC-241 in the distant
The hike to the YO/EC-247 was a longer one, it took almost 2 hours for the 5km hike (especially the last part in the bush and also coming back down along the ridge to avoid the bush) so it was kinda late so I decided to approach the summit from the other side, starting out from Predeal. This time fortunately on very good marked trail which goes from Predeal through the summit and going down to Pârâul Rece. It can also be hiked from the latter one, but is a longer trail, and already being late I wanted better of staying longer on summit activating than hiking.
The path is marked with blue cross, and starts right at the DN1 in Predeal first following the road which takes to Trei Brazi resort (it is well marked on the lampposts). After exiting Predeal the trail breaks off the paved road and climbs up to the ridge. The hiking trail starts near a table warning about the bears in the area:
Start of the blue cross trail
The bear threat should be taken seriously in this parts, as although they do avoid human contact, but they actually like to prey on goats, mountain goats that is. Fortunately I'm not there yet, and unfortunately the trail has too much motorcycle traffic, so no encounters for me this time. The trail is very good and easy hike:
Well marked trail to Leányka-havas
so about 40 minutes of walking I was up on the summit, which is actually a crossing road of three blue cross marked trails (the third one goes down to Trei Brazi), but the proper summit is not really marked, you just get some tables showing the directions and the hiking times:
On the summit
Although there is large clear spot at the crossroads, I wouldn't recommend rising the antenna right there, as there are too many riders passing by (with quite speed) and they would definitely bring down any antennas or guy lines spreading across the trail. So I operated a few steps into the woods not interfering with anyone (indeed while I was activating a few motorcycles passed by)
Shack on YO/EC-241
The decision to go from Predeal proved to be a wise one, getting down back to car just before sunset. This means that a three summit activation of YO/EC-252, 247 and 241 is only feasible in the summer with longer days to have enough time also for activating. (personal note: I do like to stay on activation as long as possible and work every chaser looking for me, instead of doing a 10 minute 4 contact run to accumulate many summits a day).
Finally here is the tracks I hiked:
Tracks to YO/EC-247 (red) and YO/EC-241 (blue)

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