A few hours ago I returned from Goteniški Snežnik. Yes, I admit I'm still completely under the impression of the tracks.
First I went home to search the internet for what a bear track in the snow looks like. And I found out that it is exactly what I thought all along on the path. Especially now that I've found this forum. If I'd read it before, I definitely wouldn't have come here, but somewhere else.
Otherwise, by nature I'm not fearful, but I'm afraid of animals. When I saw the first tracks, I told myself, nah, that's not it, and continued. But the further you go, the more snow there is, the more tracks you see, and you tell yourself it can't be anything else. Of course I started weighing whether to turn back or continue, because I had an original plan to make a loop up from Gotenica, down toward Kočevska Reka. I would definitely have turned back, but I didn't like that steep section under the rocky wall. I also have a fear of heights, so the path down the forest road was preferable to me. Yes, of course I started whistling and yodeling and talking to myself and more. Meanwhile, I kept thinking how foolish I was not to have inquired beforehand. I tried to recall everything I'd ever heard about how to react in a bear encounter. Of course I didn't take any breaks, I just hurried on. I thought it would get better soon when I reached the forest road, but no, there seemed to be even more tracks. It felt to me like an anthill of bears was strolling around, not just one. I saw tracks at every step. They disappeared only when I descended very low on the forest road toward the main road over Gotenica. The whole thing was quite adrenaline-filled. So those of you who are heroes, go up there (preferably in company), I'm not going up again, at least not anytime soon.