This hike is around 10 km with 350 m ascent and was our first walk in the Sharr Mountain range during our stay in Popova Shapka near Tetovo. So it was an easy start and some more training for the planned climbing of Titov peak, the second highest mountain of Macedonia.
Popova Shapka (1800 m) is a ski resort and the good thing about starting a hike at high altitude is that the views are good from the start. We rented a house here for a week in July 2021.
A big dog from the sharplaninca brand joined us already from the start of the hike. There are quite a lot of stray dogs in Popova Shapka, apparently they are fed by the villagers. Most of them appeared harmless, just like this big guy. Two of his friends also joined us before we left the village, but they did not walk with us all the way.
The hike offers nice views on easy terrain all the way up to the viewpoint called Jelak. There’s a little picnic area as well just before the viewpoint.
Picnic area 
Take the forest trail
After the viewpoint Jelak, make sure you do not follow the obvious dirt road, but take the trail through the trees between the dirt-roads that lead to the viewpoint.
On our way back we encountered a flock of sheep, protected by 6 big shepherd dogs. We announced ourselves to the shepherd, but unfortunately the shepherd dogs already started to attack “our” dog that had been walking with us the entire way from Popova Shapka. Six against one, the poor dog was barking and crying loudly. Luckily, the shepherd came -rather slowly- to the rescue and called off his dogs. It seemed that the thick layer of fur of our sharplaninca friend had protected him well and he seemed unharmed although timid and frightened.
Jelak hike 
Jelak hike
Besides the aggressive sheperd dogs this was a beautiful and not too tiring hike with good views that gets 4 stars!
You can view and download the GPS track of this hike here: https://www.wikiloc.com/hiking-trails/popova-sapka-viewpoint-jelak-81782726
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