Gkiona from Sikia, Fokida 20130616

Hiking route to Mt Gkiona, the highest peak of Fokida and all Central Greece, from village Sikia.

0,0km at 700m - Start from parking next to basket court. The trail begins from there with wide and signposted (yellow) route, following mountain spring (at this time of the year, spring was dry).

0,6km at 770m - Trail leaves the spring and starts section through open fields. I was unlucky to meet sheep dogs, that were not really friendly. I used my sticks to keep distance from pretty agressive dogs and managed to pass them. After about 10min they stopped following me as I was moving away from the sheeps. Very unpleasant experience! Probably the fact that I was alone was not helping - for bigger groups, dogs dont act so agressive.
After passing small dried spring, the trail continues up a bit steeper, to reach flat section where trail splits. Very nice views to Sikia village from this point

2,2km at 1115m - Small plateau. Even though I originally planned to follow gps trail downloaded from wikiloc (http://www.wikiloc.com/wikiloc/view.do?id=1882416), I have decided at this point to do it in opposite direction and follow yellow marked trail instead. This section is fairly flat and trail slowly enters forest, offering some pleasant shadow

3,5km at 1200m - entering the forest. Trail goes deeper into forest, very wild and dense, with many trees lying on the ground and blocking the trail.

4,9km at 1500m - Out of the forest and along dry spring. The markings become very bad at this point and very soon after leaving forest, I lost them. Anyway, there was not much choice but to continue up until almost vertical wall of rocks. There I decided to traverse along it, back to meet the gps trail I had on my device.

6,2km at 1800m - Found the gps trail, just at enterance to big flat plateau. Great views to Vardousia mountain range to the west. From here, following quite well vissible paths among the grass fields. Very soon from here, new red markings start all the way to the peak, so I didnt have to focus so much on the gps trail.

8,0km at 2150m - below the 'pyramid'. Last, a bit more difficult climb through rocks starts from here to the peak. Views to the south and east from here!

9,4km at 2510m - Gkiona peak :-D I met two groupd of hikers on the peak, both leaving at the time I arrived :-/ A quick snack, photos and rest.
I have decided to try to follow the gps trail down (which was ascent for the trail) so I started to the south from the peak. After about 500m of fairly flat section by the ringe, a very steep descent starts. This is the reason for marking this as 'mountaineering' trail and marking it difficult! Trail goes through some loose rocks were support with hands and sticks is a must! Probably it would be wiser not to go alone there and maybe even use some ropes for safety.

11,2km at 1880m - Trail starts to enter forest area and becomes a bit easier (but still very difficult) with less loose rocks and more ground. At this point my legs were really tired and I was affraid of any easy mistake :-/ I stated to do more regular quick breaks in tree's shadow to catch a bit breath. Also I realized I am almost out of water and temp was reaching 30C :-/

13,1km at 1150m - back to plateau. Finally I reached the trail from my ascent. The steep descent has finished and I was more than happy about it! I had to do 15min stop here as my legs started to really hurt and I was not able to walk 100% safe. Happy about the fact that the rest of descent is fairly easy, I got surprized by the sheep dogs again !! Sheeps were exactly on my return path and I didnt want to risk another 'adventure' with the dogs, so I took a detour from the path and went down to the spring through some steep slope. I was not happy to suffer again, but it seemed better sollution than meeting the dogs!

14,2km at 870 - Spring. I made it! And I found water :-D As it appeared, the same spring just few houndred meters up was full of fresh and cold water, that I took advantage of refilling my supplies. Back to the village by the spring, luckly without any more dogs on my way :-D

15,2km at 700m - Sikia, back at the car.

The trail is a difficult 'hike' on it's ascent, but a really difficult 'mountaineering' on it's descent! For less experienced hikers, I rather recommend to follow my ascent in both directions. But if You look for a nice challange - go ahead :-P
Great views to Vardousia and in all directions from the peak! Only upset are the dogs! Probably better not to do this route alone like I did :-/
No water above 1100m!

I have included Vardousia and lake Mornou waypoints with some photos (views from the trail and from the road to Sikia).