{"id":541,"date":"2020-02-22T20:25:45","date_gmt":"2020-02-22T19:25:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theursaminor.eu\/?p=541"},"modified":"2020-02-22T20:25:45","modified_gmt":"2020-02-22T19:25:45","slug":"paiko-mountain-stravopotamos-trail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theursaminor.eu\/?p=541","title":{"rendered":"Paiko Mountain \u2013 Stravopotamos Trail"},"content":{"rendered":"

SHORT DESCRIPTION<\/span><\/p>\n

Paiko Mountain is located in Central Macedonia on the border of Pella and Kilkis counties. Its summit is called Gola Tsouka with 1650m altitude. A very beautiful and easy route of the mountain, is the path that follows Stravopotamos. Stravopotamos is a small river that originates from the spring of \u201cPente Vrises\u201d at the entrance of the village of Megala Livadia and is a tributary of Axios River.<\/span><\/p>\n

USEFUL INFORMATION<\/span><\/h4>\n

Distance from Thessaloniki: 93 km (up to Kastaneri)<\/span><\/p>\n

European Number of Emergency: 112<\/span><\/p>\n

Fire Brigade Dept: 199<\/span><\/p>\n

Medical Emergency: 166<\/span><\/p>\n

Goumenissa Forestry Dept: 2343042002<\/span><\/p>\n

Primatari (wooden observatory) \u2013 Stravopotamos (Forestry cabin) <\/u><\/span><\/span><\/h4>\n

Route Information<\/u><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Description<\/strong>: Hiking<\/span><\/p>\n

Route length<\/strong>: 5,9 km <\/span><\/p>\n

Water in route<\/strong>: No, only at the end of the route<\/span><\/p>\n

Duration<\/strong>: 1 hour and 30 minutes. (Ascent)<\/span><\/p>\n

1 hour (Descent)<\/span><\/p>\n

The route took place at DEC 2019<\/span><\/p>\n

Team members<\/strong>: 6 adults <\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is the third time we come to Paiko and every time we discover another face of the mountain, as we follow one of its many routes,. This time we came for the trail that starts from Primatari, a few kilometers outside the village of Kastaneri and ends at the log cabin of Stravopotamos and it is known as the \u201cStravopotamos trail\u201d. We drive from Goumenissa and Kastaneri to the village of Megala Livadia and at about 8 Km we meet, to our right hand, the wooden observatory of Primatari. We leave our cars on the small plateau of the road, we climb the wooden structure to enjoy the spectacular view of the canyon and we begin the preparations for our hike.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

To the left of the observatory, heading north, begins the downhill path, which, after about half an hour, descends us to the river bank and to the first of the 8 bridges of our route. We go across, following the path ascending to the right until it meets a forest road. We walk on it for about 400m and we enter the trail again following the signage. It is December and all the soil is covered with yellow-red leaves from the bare forest trees. A forest full of beeches, wild chestnuts and oaks that climbs up the mountain slopes, until the eye can see. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We walk loosely, having the river to our left hand and shortly we reach the second bridge, which is the meeting point of Stravopotamos with a small stream and the scenery is truly amazing, like a picture of a fairy tale. We cross again to the other river bank, continuing our hike on the well-formed path, going uphill between the spectacular beeches. The river flows to our right now and as we can see from above, we have the opportunity to admire its curves, which are the reason of its name. We will cross the river another six times, passing over the small wooden bridges, admiring on every turn, a different view of the nature. After the last bridge, the forest becomes thinner and a large clearing appears in front of us, which is the end of our journey.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

As we exit the trail, the clearing is narrow in width, but it slowly expands and becomes a beautiful mountain meadow. A fountain with cool water is waiting for us next to the very beautiful wooden benches and tables for hikers’ relaxation, as well as a small kid\u2019s playground. At the other end of the glade, there is the log cabin of the Forestry Dept and next to it, a small earth road that turns uphill and leads us to the road that joins Goumenissa with Megala Livadia.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Since our first visit to the mountain seven years ago, we have praised the work of the Forestry Dept of Goumenissa and will do so again because of the very good marking and maintenance of the trail and the very good maintenance and aesthetics of the wooden structures (cabins, benches etc).<\/span><\/p>\n

We climb the earth road next to the small cabin and here we are on the main asphalt road. We turn to the left taking the downhill to Primatari. The hike on the road is as beautiful as the hike in the forest trail. Without of course the gargling waters and the carpet of fallen leaves, since we are now away from the river, but with the dense forest following us, on both sides of the road.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We walk or rather we stroll, getting shortly to our cars without realizing it. Our day ends at Goumenissa Square. The place is famous for its tsipouro (traditional Greek alcoholic drink) and we wouldn’t leave without tasting some.<\/span><\/p>\n

The afternoon finds us eating snacks and drinking tsipouro, in the small town\u2019s central square, commenting on our morning route and planning the next one.<\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Since our first visit to the mountain seven years ago, we have praised the work of the Forestry Dept of Goumenissa and will do so again because of the very good marking and maintenance of the trail and the very good maintenance and aesthetics of the wooden structures (cabins, benches etc).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":545,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[3],"tags":[299,300,298,297],"class_list":["post-541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trekxp","tag-primatari-wooden-observatory","tag-stravopotamos","tag-298","tag-297"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/theursaminor.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/\u03b3\u03b5\u03c6\u03c5\u03c1\u03b1.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7oXKh-8J","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theursaminor.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theursaminor.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theursaminor.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theursaminor.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theursaminor.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=541"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/theursaminor.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":551,"href":"https:\/\/theursaminor.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541\/revisions\/551"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theursaminor.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theursaminor.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theursaminor.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theursaminor.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}