Refuge Panachaikou from Pournarokastro, Patra 20140705

Trail run to Refuge of Panachaiko starting from village of Pournarokastro. I have originally planned to go all the way up to the peak of Panachaiko with hiking path only (out and back), but limited time, lack of company and very windy conditions in higher sections made me to postpone that idea and instead run less demanding loop with come back from dirt roads. It still was very nice run though :-D

0,0k at 650m - Pournarokastro. Start from center of the village where I could easily park the car. There are some markings for mtb routes at the start (which I followed for first 2km). First section is on dirt roads with very few small rocks and steady easy climb. Very nice view all the way up the mountains.

1,9k at 760m - Shortcuts with hiking paths. Instead of staying on the road (which I could do), I decided to give a try and cut some distance with more demanding and much steaper climbs with hiking paths (damm good practice). This meant some wondering around in search of correct path and of course power hiking.

2,4k at 885m - Behind the house onto hiking path (marked). For a moment I returned to the dirt road (concrete actually at this point) and at the house I found markings of hiking path again to leave the road. This section onwards (all the way up to refuge) is a decent hiking path, quite often used and well marked. After demenading steap climb, later it has a fairly flat section (possible to keep running cadence there) and later again steap climb to the refuge. I lost some time with sheeps, having to walk them around, not to make the dogs angry :-/ Later similar situation I had just before refuge. Overall I think I could do the ascent in about 50min instead of actual 1h.

5,2k at 1385m - Refuge Panachaiko. At this point I realized I will not be able to do the peak this day. It was way too windy for a fast climb and I already lost about 15min from my time. Having time limit for this day, I didnt want to risk rushing the downhill later and decided to quit for today and simply return down to Pournarokastro by dirt roads, making twice the distance of the ascent.
First part of descent is with pretty rocky roads, not much used and still in very windy conditions. Only from about 1200m altitude, route has "hidden" behind the hills and from that point onwards was protected from gusty winds. Also road became more like "dirt" road with very few rocks left. Very soon after I entered more forest area and I even could find some shadow :-D

13,4k at 820m - Small church. All the way down I had pretty cool panoramic views to Patras and the gulf! The small church also offered one :-D

16,2k at 680m - Finish at small hill next to cementary in Pournarokastro. For the finish I decided to climb tiny hill in Pournarokastro and take yet another panoramic shot overlooking Patras.

I give it a moderate level, but to be perfectly honest it should be more like difficult for climb and easy for downhill - so I just took an avarage. Great technical climb! and relaxing descent. Great views (see photos for Yourself)!