On the weekend preceding the trip I was thinking about possible places to visit once I am in Czech Republic again for a few weeks. My childhood memories are linked with an area in Jeseniky mountains, about an hour drive from my home town.
My parents have been taking me and my sister there since we were in primary school to get an idea what skiing is, and eventually we learned to ski as well as snowboard right in Karlov. Once we've discovered the beauty and affordability of Italian alps, we've never came back.
We have also visited this area when we were taking school trips during the winter time with my high school to improve our skiing and snowboarding skills as well as spend time in the nature with our schoolmates.
As I was staying at my parents' house at that time, we decided to make it a little family trip. We've left for Karlova Studanka at about 8:00 AM and with no issues arrived at the trail start around 9:00 AM. Usually the parking lot is pretty full in the season, especially on weekends, but there was only one other car parked as it was a Monday morning.
We've had a little discussion which route we should take as there are two options - yellow one, following the "Bila Opava" creek closely or blue one, going above the creek and connecting with the yellow one later.
We have decided to follow the yellow path and head to "Barborka" as our first stop. This building serves as a year-long facility providing accommodation and restaurant services. I remember spending there a week in winter in two consecutive years both times during my high school studies.
The trail along the creek was a little bit rough and quite slippery, nonetheless we were able to proceed with no complications at all. After we have arrived at the facility, we checked whether they already serve lunch at 11:00 AM. The restaurant was open, but we decided to continue to the "Praded" mountain instead.
The second part of this route to Praded was more pleasant to hike as there is a regular road leading all the way to the top. It is used only by service vehicles, there is usually no traffic at all. During our ascent, we were able to see the "Dlouhe Strane" power plant with clear skies, only with clouds visible in lower horizon.
Once we have arrived to the top at about 12:00 PM, we were hungry and grabbed a lunch in the restaurant. While eating, we discussed an option of visiting another year-long facility serving the area, "Svycarna", which is pretty close to Praded mountain. As we did have some energy left and were excited for a snack over there, we decided to go.
We have arrived there in about an hour (2:00 PM) and grabbed a coffee/tea with a cake. There was a children camp taking place at that time, so the whole place has been pretty busy. I have not been there for a long time so this extra little hike was a really nice experience.
After the break, we were ready to go back. This time, shortly after passing "Barborka", we have chosen the other way back, the blue color trail route. This one is really enjoyble, as the descent is fairly consistent, so you don't experience sudden ups and downs as in yellow trail route.
Once we were down in the parking lot (6:00 PM), we could feel the autumn is here and it starts to get darker sooner. The idea of going in the working week off-season was really enjoyable in the end as we have had the trail almost only for ourselves. Also, the weather, quite unstable in this time of the year, has been wonderful.