Russian hiking

Bright and early Friday morning I loaded a backpack with a few things I would need for a camping trip with the young single adults. We met up at the central building (where a couple of the branches meet for church), grabbed a sleeping bag, and threw some food in our bags. It was fun to see a lot of people I knew there. Kolya had decided to come, but said he was only staying for the day and leaving in the evening.

We took the metro to the train station, where we sent one person up to buy tickets. Then it was on to the train for a 1.5 hour ride outside of the city. I played a card game with a couple of the people there called durak or fool. I took second the first time, and first every time after that (the point of the game is to not be the one left with all the cards--the last one with cards is the fool). It was pretty fun, and I can now name all of the suits in Russian :)

We left the train and took off through a small town, hiking along a road. I kept switching who I was talking with, making the rounds haha Kolya and I ended up talking for part of the way, and he said, "You know, we could take a bus out to the trail. I think they are just trying to add on time." And we joked about how we would probably just ended up hiking through cities and pitching our tents against an apartment building. At each little stop, it seemed as if no one really knew where we were going. But we followed anyway.

I walked most of the rest of the time with Ashley, a girl from BYU study abroad who is out here. After walking along a highway, we reached the trail. A bit of the way in, people finally said--two kilometers left! So then we went about that far, and everyone stopped and we were divided into groups. It was never really made clear why we were in these groups. At the beginning, the plan was to be given certain tasks, but only three tasks were given, and there were four groups, and we were told people could do whatever they wanted. But I digress. So at the point where we get split in groups, someone says we have another two kilometers to go. We go maybe .5 km and everyone stops again. "Put jeans on and a jacket!" people say. Well, at this point it's super hot. I decide to forego the jacket and jeans, only to be told, "The next kilometer is covered in stinging nettle." I somehow still decided I was not willing to change into jeans and a jacket, and braved the path in my t-shirt and capris. I actually made it through pretty well, as I decided to go near the end so much of it had been crushed by people walking over it, and I hopped over the bigger plants that were still in the way. Others weren't so lucky and came out covered in red rashes.

We finally got out of this, and after again appearing like no one knew the way, we ended up going up a muddy hill. We got to the top, and found a nice patch of mud and some logs. Ashley turned to me and said, "You up for mud wrestling? Cuz that's what this is going to turn into." We stood there for about 5 minutes, when the call came that we would be going back down the muddy hill. Okay, I thought. Why not? So we went back down the hill.

Then we went up a muddier, steeper hill. After I had gotten up, they threw a rope down to the remaining people to help them up the hill because it was so difficult. But at least at the top of this there was a great spot. Or so it seemed. Someone said they thought we should move the camp because there were some 20-ish year old guys camping nearby. So after relaxing for about 20 min, it was back down the hill.

Our hike ended up being 7 km. We finally made our camp along the river. Just as I was thinking the last place was better b/c the trees blocked the sun and this place was too hot, the clouds covered the sky and it started pouring rain. We had just barely pulled the tents out of their bags, so they weren't up yet. We scrambled to put them together, only to realize they didn't have a bottom. That's not good.

Then the rain suddenly stopped and the sun came back out. We finished setting up camp, and some took off for the river to swim. I helped peel potatoes, which then got made into a soup. Unfortunately, the soup turned out to also have fish, which normally would be fine, but these tasted like dacha fish (dacha fish n. yucky, see also dried fish, sitting out in the sun, rotten, scales in my soup, and other similar entries). blech The macaroni was good though, and I had a couple of cups of tea with some cookies. Not a bad dinner :)

After hanging out, a spiritual thought, walking along the beautiful river, and chatting with some friends, Kolya came and told me he was heading out. I decided to head home with him, and we took off in the direction that some guys camping nearby had told us the road was. This was supposed to be shorter way back, but this also meant that neither of us knew which way we needed to go.

So we set off a little after 8 pm, in the direction we had been pointed towards. After about two minutes, we hit a fork in the road. Left, strait, or right? Kolya and I laughed that we might already be lost. After surveying the tire tracks like pros, we decided to go left. When we got to the top of the road, we saw that it ran into a fence with a solidly locked gate. We tried to open it, peered over the wall (or at least Kolya did, I was too short), and deliberated on how to get out. Finally, I threw my bag under the fence, dropped to my stomach, and army crawled under it, only slightly skinning my elbows. I then took a look at where the fence ended and guided Kolya down to it. Then I started walking to the right along the road. I turned to Kolya, "I actually don't know if we go right here. It could be the other direction." We stopped some boys who tried to tell us a shortcut, though they admitted they weren't locals either. We decided to continue along the road and ask the next person we saw. He directed us where to go.

We took the right where he had told us, and ended up in a little village, again walking along the river. Kolya stopped to drink from one of the wells along the path and for a photo op, and then we continued forward. We came to a church and took a right onto a bridge. I didn't realize it was a suspended bridge, so my first step on made me think that the boards were really weak. As Kolya's weight hit the bridge, I felt it spin out from under me. Gave me quite the start! Kolya pointed out that this was normal, and we set out across it. We made a couple of cracks about Indiana Jones crossing this bridge, and he shook it a couple of times just to keep me on my toes. Definitely the best part of the hike back!

We asked another person how to get to the station, and were directed up a hill to a road. On the way up, I saw a wall with "kim" written in latin letters, so we stopped for another picture. We finally made our way up to a haunted old building (at least we thought it was), and then down the street to buy a drink. Then it was off on the bus (I conveniently had no money, as I thought I would be camping, so Kolya covered the 20 rubles--about 60 cents--with a stern, "You owe me" and a laugh) and then to the train station. We had bought return tickets when we left, so we didn't have to worry about tickets back. We laughed all the way home and congratulated ourselves on being there for the best part of the trip. "We just hit the peak, it can't get any better from here!"

We said goodbye at the metro, and I used a random person's phone to call Eli as mine was out of money. I met up with his family, got a report on the day, and picked up some things he needed to give back to the office. It was fun to see them again and see the great icons they found--the exact same one Eli and I had seen and wanted so badly in St. Petersburg! And they were really cheap. I will be making a trip to grab one once the cathedral has replenished its stock--Eli's family bought them all out lol I left their place at 12:40 am, with enough time to make the metro before it stopped running. I showed up at my apartment to a surprised Irina and Sergei and filled them in on the day's happenings. Not a bad Friday.