A hike for survival or Hedgehogs in the fog :)

It’s fun to march together…

There were 14 of us: Vanya Lyashenko, Zhenya and Vitalik Onishenko, Vitya and Natasha Ionov, Ira Klyus, Ruslan Guzanov, Nina Alekseyeva, Masha Kanarevskaya, Yulia Sokolenko, Misha Fedorovskiy, Misha Nikonenko, Anya Busarova and myself, Yulia Prokudina. As planned, we intended on climbing to the top of two high mountains (Chatyr-Dag and Dimerdzhi) and fall in love with the beautiful sights. But it was clear that God had different plans for us. Crimea met us with a light rain, which only got heavier in the mountains and alternated with a thick fog. This was the exciting weather for the duration of our whole trip! ;)

… and even drive in the snow!

By the second day, the fog had cleared a little but, we were even able to see the beauty which surrounded us on the mountain Chatyr-Dag (1527 м). However, the clouds were very low and almost always at our level so for the most part they were all we saw! Along the way, we were even met by snow.

Hedgehogs in the fog :)

On the third day we set off to climb the next mountain, Dimerdzhi (1285 м). It is not as high but the lower part is covered by a beautiful forest, and God gave us the chance to see it. After climbing quite a ways, we pitched our tents and set up our camp which remained the central locale for the whole trip. It was easier to look around, explore and hike in those conditions without our backpacks. This day brought us a lot of joy – the sun came out and we saw a lot of beautiful places!

Tanks fear no dirt!!!

The fourth and most interesting day has arrived and it met us with rain. Three members of our team (Ira Klyus, Ruslan Guzanov, and Masha Kanarevskaya) needed to start traveling back home. With this in mind and considering the weather conditions we decided not to climb to the peak but to take the trek to the waterfalls Jurla and Jur-Jur, which we found out later were not actually located all that close together! After many climbs and descents we found ourselves on a path with rain, hail and wind, therefore we were almost completely soaked when we arrived to look at Jurla. We prayed and the rain dried up, so feeling strengthened and a little drier from standing by the fire, we set of further because there was already little point in retuning the way we came. Speeding up the pace, our whole team pushed on farther. When I say “speeding” I’m not exaggerating because we practically had to run up-down along slippery slopes in order to finish our route: to see Jur-Jur, get into the nearest village, jump onto a bus, arrive at Angarskaya Crossing, from which we would again climb up the forested mountain slopes in order to arrive at our camp site. At the camp site we would then need to pack up the back-packs of those who were leaving and send them in the opposite direction, down a road which leads to the trolley bus, which, in the course of an hour, would take them to Simferopol to catch the train. Time kept on ticking so we decided to split into two groups: the first (Leader – Vitya Ionov) together with those who were leaving, did not plan to visit the waterfall but take a short cut to the village of Generalskiy, in order to get to the camp site sooner. Group two (Leader – Masha Fedorovskiy) hurried off to the water fall and at the same tempo headed to the village in order to catch the correct bus in time. Then, the leaders of these groups crossed the specified places and helped those who were leaving to get to the trolleybus. I was in group two. It is very difficult to describe what it was like as we ran along the slopes, carrying our bags, dressed in multi-coloured ponchos, with damp ‘hair-dos’ and legs up to our knees in dirt, and at that time it was not only a little dirt! With our wild, anxious faces we stood near the water fall, shocking many civilized, clean people, especially when ‘stirring them up’ Yulia Sololenko took out her cool high-tech camera and in the course of 10 minutes managed to capture everything in sight. When we arrived in the village the bus we needed was no longer there, we had to jump onto a local van (Marshrutka) which took us to a fork in the road and from there, one of the roads lead in the right direction through the village of Luchistoye. I already told the leaders that it was important to meet up, since only Vitya had his phone card and the connection was very weak. So it turns out later, that the first group returned to camp along a different road because of the bad viewing conditions from the fog and they also needed to run, so our group two also had difficulty finding the right road, leading to the meeting point. Luckily Masha oriented herself very well from this location. Praise God, the leaders managed to meet up along a short cut and just barely managed to stop the trolleybus which the leaving-party needed. Eventually they got to the train and sat down literally just as the departure bell signaled. Group two barely managed to get to the camp site as the fog thickened and it grew darker. Our leaders and heroes stayed overnight in Simferopol at their friend Masha Kanarevskaya’s place. She had managed to convince them along the way, not to go back to the camp site. Dinner, a hot shower and a normal bed – these were their rewards. That’s how the day came to a close!

The sun came out from behind the clouds…

For the first time after five days of hiking, the day met us with sunshine and it shone almost all day long. Only his time we didn’t set off to go anywhere, but stayed at the camp site. Without hurrying, we had breakfast, returned to the rest of our campers, sat around the camp fire, dried out our wet clothes, talked, played, scraped the dirt off our skin and packed our bags. So it was only along the road home that we saw the beauty which had surrounded us the whole time!

…And they lived happily ever after…

Although our route suffered many changes due to the weather, although we froze in the fog and got soaked in the rain, although we didn’t get to see what we had wanted to see, in spite of it all, this hiking trip was unforgettable! It was an extreme time full of tests; more of our moral strength and character, than physical! I think that God was pleased to organized things that way, in order to test our attitude with one another.

Photo Gallery – A hike for survival, or hedgehogs in the fog :)