Hiking adventures - A short escape to Măguri-Răcătău, Romania

After the 30 days challenge ended I felt that a nice walk in the mountains would be very welcomed in order to relax. I decided on a short, one day trip to the mountains near Cluj-Nap to enjoy some awesome landscapes that have been inhabited for millennia.

I intend to write this hiking series as a practical guide for anyone who feels inspired to explore and enjoy the sceneries I will try to portray in it. So I'm going to start each post with a little geography to get you orientated.

Let's jump into it:

The starting location was the bustling city of Cluj-Napoca located near the Apuseni Mountains and a perfect spot from which to set out and explore this cultural rich area of the Carpathian mountain range.

I decided I would take the bus to the village of Măguri-Răcătău located deep in the Someșul Rece valley which meets up with other rivers in the area and flows through down town Cluj-Napoca.

The one way trip usually takes around 1h and 20 minutes and costs 12 RON ( or a bit less than 3 euros ).

Once I arrived in the village I realised I made a very noob mistake by forgetting the map. Although I had a general idea of where I wanted to go, it's still better to check the route on the map from time to time. Also in the village there are a lot of streets that are dead ends or lead onto small trails which are not on the map.

So after downloading a rather dubious map on my phone and asking around, I thought I knew where to go, and started walking on a very icy road down in the valley.

I had a few slips but no falling on my ass fortunately :D

The plan was to find the road that goes all the way up to ridge and enjoy the view from there.

Highlighted in blue is the route I wanted to take

The thing is - the map was wrong and also the people that gave me directions didn't understand where I wanted to go. So after a lot of time wasted walking back and forth on the icy road and not finding the proper road that went uphill, I decided that taking a shortcut through the woods should get the job done or at least get me moving in the right direction.

After battling the thick vegetation and the slippery leaves and mud on some pretty steep slopes, I finally got on the right road and could begin the hike to the top of the ridge.

When I left the forest I was surprised to see this old house nestled on switchback in the road.

No homestead is complete without a shed

The view was worth all the irritation of not finding the right road and I settled in on a nice and relaxing walk towards Mărișel village, located higher up the mountain - but I didn't get to visit it due to time constraints.

It was getting late and the last bus heading back to Cluj-Napoca was leaving from Măguri-Răcătău at 3:00 PM, so I had to cut the trip short and head back much sooner than I wanted.

That was it for my short hiking adventure, a lot more are about to come :)

Take care.

My name is Adrian a.k.a "The nearsighted traveler". I'm a running enthusiast who loves to spend time enjoying nature. I write mostly about running, the places I explore and the interesting stuff I learn here on steemit.
If you are new to this platform you might want to check out these posts:

5 Easy Rules for Navigating The Steem Ecosystem
The 6th Easy Rule for Navigating the Steem Ecosystem

And if you want a good laugh you can visit my other account @cmmemes where I fail at being funny but persevere anyway :)