Tatra Hiking Trip

Hello everyone. I just got back from an awesome hiking trip in the Tatra Mountains. For those of you unfamiliar with the Tatras, they are the highest section of mountains in the Carpathian Mountains, and are located along the border between Poland and Slovakia. They reminded me a lot of the Canadian Rockies and the Tetons, with huge rocky peaks and steep, snow-covered cliffs. It was awesome to get to see these and it made me feel a little like I was back home.
I went with another volunteer that has been helping out with wolf tracking lately. He is a German biologist and scientific journalist. He was a great hiking partner and kept up a good pace, although he tends to be overly cautious sometimes and that is one thing I tend not to be. We made a good team and covered quite a bit of ground over the 2.5 days we were out hiking. Our first day was incredible. We had planned to hike up a steep section to one of the highest peaks in the area. Unfortunately, with it being late September, the chute that we had to climb up was covered with snow and ice and looked pretty dangerous. As night was going to be approaching, we decided not to risk it, so we ended up cutting our first day’s hike a little short. It turned out to be a very good decision though, as a day later a few hikers that had tried to ascend that route got into a bit of trouble and had to be rescued.
On the hike back to the mountain hostel that we stayed at our first night (think of a big, wooden lodge full of hikers, mostly German and Polish, getting drunk and singing like maniacs!), we saw a brown bear! It was incredibly lucky, but we just happened to look up to a meadow up on the slopes as the sun was setting and saw this bear eating some berries. I got some good pictures of it, and will include one here. Apparently there are only around 20 brown bears that inhabit the Tatras, so we were definitely fortunate. I guess things do happen for a reason—if we had ascended that dangerous route, we never would have seen that big fella. It’s funny how things work out. That same night, as I was sleeping, I heard a bear outside the hostel trying to get into the grounds, but running into the electric fence surrounding the place. It kept growling and moaning. I felt bad because obviously this bear has been habituated to humans and is likely to be killed in the future due to a conflict with people. I hope not, because if there are only 20 of them, that population can’t afford to lose many individuals.
Our second day had some incredible hiking, with some extremely dangerous sections. I won’t go into great detail (mostly to spare you, Mom, from having to read about it), but there were some extremely steep, icy sections that we had to use chains and ladders and such on. I felt like a true mountaineer. There were times when I honestly thought that maybe I had gotten in a little too deep, but just focused and thought my way through it. It was definitely the most adrenaline I have felt in a long time, and it was a lot of fun, yet pretty nerve-racking at the same time. I think you guys know what I mean. It is really cool to look back on those moments now though.
We spent the night at another mountain hostel, which I really didn’t care too much for. I woke up with a cold the third morning (which I still have), but we hiked to a really beautiful lake called Morskie Oko. We arrived very early in the morning and missed all the crowds. It was extremely nice to have the place almost to ourselves. The lake reminded me a lot of Lake Louise in Banff, if any of you have been there. From the lake, we hiked down to a town and caught a bus back, ending our amazing Tatra Mountains experience.
One thing that really surprised me was the amount of people that visit the Tatras. I think I heard that over 1 million people visit them annually, and they really aren’t that big. They are only about 30 miles long and there is a good network of hiking trails throughout the region. I was blown away by the number of people we saw while hiking. Compared to the Tetons or the Rockies, when you maybe can come across a few groups of hikers in a day on some of the more popular backcountry routes, we probably never went more than five minutes at a time during our while hiking trip without coming across another hiking group. There really isn’t a “backcountry,” so to speak, in Poland or Slovakia. There is a well-developed trail network and hikers nearly always stick to these trails. I know that it is awesome for people to get out into the wild and experience nature, but it is not so enjoyable when you have to share it with hundreds of other people and cannot even view a scenic landscape without having people “degrade” the view. There were sections of trail where we actually saw couples pushing babies in strollers! It was quite different from the U.S. national parks and hiking areas I am accustomed to. This was the end of September too, which is supposed to be the off-season. I would definitely not even bother going to the Tatras during the summer. It would be a big circus. However, the Tatra Mountains are incredible and I am very grateful that I received the chance to experience them for myself. I will always have some great memories (not to mention, some awesome pictures too) of my Tatra Mountains hiking trip. Afterall, that is what it’s all about.

Link to pictures:

http://www.photoworks.com/photo-sharing/shareSignin.jsp?shareCode=A966B43C46A&cp=ems_shr_alb_pml&cb=PW

Moving Ahead

So it has been over a week now since my last blog entry. Here’s what has happened: I went to stay at a home in the territory of another less-studied wolf pack here in southern Poland. It was nice to stay somewhere new and explore some different mountain areas. Unfortunately I didn’t have any access to the internet or even to a payphone, so I had to entertain myself for the whole 9 days. Hiking occupied a lot of my time. I did a few big hikes, mostly along the Slovakian border. However, I didn’t find nearly as many scats as I was hoping for, so I wasn’t too pleased about that, since there are supposed to be 6 wolves in this pack. Oh, I did find a brown bear track though! A picture should be around here somewhere. It is a big deal since there are only 6 of them in this area. It was only about a day ahead of me on this trail.

Once cool thing that I found out is that I am the first American to stay in this village, at least for the last 20 years. A lady had to come and document my staying here, and she explained this all to me (through an interpreter, of course). That is pretty cool in my opinion. Maybe I made a name for myself. Speaking of which, the weather was really nice for a few days and I decided to do some running. During my first run I received a lot of strange looks, like maybe these people had never seen someone who actually likes to run for fun. It was a little weird. Well, the second run I went on couldn’t have helped. The weather was so nice and the sun was out, so I decided to go for a run shirtless! Needless to say (and I am not bragging here), the number of strange stares I received multiplied drastically. I couldn’t help but to laugh. The funniest look I received was from a construction worker who saw me hike by at 8 in the morning wearing all my hiking gear and my backpack. He then saw me 10 hours later, running by in just some shorts and a hat! I wonder what he thought. Running is definitely a nice form of therapy for me. After endless miles of slogging up and down mountains with a heavy pack on, it feels awesome to just get out and get the legs moving again and get the adrenaline pumping.

Now it is my turn to play the part of, in the words of the wise Derek Zoolander, the “philosophizer.” Today’s subject is about hope. Isn’t it ironic how hope can keep a person alive and make it much easier to go on when life is down and times are hard, yet it can also prevent a person from moving on with his or her life by holding on rather than letting go? What a fine line that is!

Okay, I think that is enough for today. My brain hurts from all this philosophizing and such! A hiking trip to the Tatra Mts. awaits, so I will post another entry after returning. Take care everyone!

New Road Ahead

Let me first say that I really appreciate all the love and support everyone has shown me. During the hard times, you find out who your true friends really are. I am extremely lucky because I happen to have a lot of them. Thank you.
Okay, now to get this out of the way. I am feeling better about things now, and each day brings a little more hope and solace with it. In fact, (Dan, you’re going to like this), I’ve had what I like to call “an epiphanous experience of pure religiosity (it sounds better if you say it out loudJ.” In other words, while cooking dinner the other night (okay, “cooking” is a little bit of a stretch), I had a switch flip on in my head that made me realize that this is not who I am. I am a person who enjoys a lot of the small things, who always thinks that tomorrow is going to be better than today, and who finds humor, fun, and beauty in random things. I can thankfully say that I am back to my old self. I will no longer mention Ania, no more talk about Ania, and no more thoughts about Ania (okay, maybe an occasional thought here or there). I feel a lot better and am beginning to enjoy Poland again, despite being alone. Life doesn’t have to suck. We have the power to make it what we wish. I believe all the strength everyone has given me is finally manifesting itself.
Rain is still in no short supply here. I would much rather have snow, although I am not too keen on putting on the snowshoes for 8-10 hours a day again. I am still hoping for a few weeks of sun before winter starts showing itself. The sun actually peeked through the clouds the other day. It only lasted for about 10 minutes, but those minutes were what I had been waiting for and absolutely needed. Hopefully there is plenty more where that came from.
In other news, I found a fresh wolf scat today and a fresh wolf track next to it. That made me feel better (but not really that much). I am planning to go on a hiking trip to the Tatra Mountains (highest part of the Carpathian Mountains, on the Polish-Slovakian border) next week, so I am really praying for good weather then. I should hopefully have some good pictures to show everyone too, so keep your fingers crossed. Time to get back to my Italian lessons. I know, studying Italian while living in Poland doesn’t make much sense, but nothing seems to these days. Arrivederci.

Tough Times

So these last few days have been very hard for me. Ania and I officially said goodbye to each other. I wish it was a simple situation, but it obviously hasn’t been what I had hoped. Anyway, I have seen and talked to her for the last time and now am trying to forget about the past as much as possible and move on with my life. The next week or so will be a battle to get through as memories will haunt me, but thanks to a lot of your support and advice, I now feel that this is the best thing and that something better is out there for me. I have to believe that to keep my spirits up.

The stupid rain here hasn’t helped much with my spirits. Since I arrived a week and a half ago, there has only been one day without rain. In Krakow, the Wisla River has flooded all the walking paths along the river and all of the restaurant boats that are located on the river. It was actually pretty cool to see. I did get to go for a nice hike yesterday in a new area. I got to walk along the Polish-Slovakian border for the whole hike, and actually hiked into Slovakia a ways (illegally, of course) to check a few important areas for wolves. Unfortunately, after a thorough sweep of the area, my colleagues and I found no evidence of wolf presence. This is a little discouraging because we tracked two wolves near here in the winter. Sadly, there is a decent probability that they were shot illegally by Slovakian hunters. Hopefully, they are still out there and just occupying an area deeper into Slovakia than we dared to venture. We’ll see in a few months.

That is mostly it for the past few days-- a lot of Ania, and not much of anything else. Thanks again to everybody who has helped me out through these difficult times. I really owe you guys. Time to let the healing process begin.

Getting settled in Poland

Well, this last week was just easing back into hiking each day. My brand new boots got a nice break-in period, with a cool 18 miles of hiking on Monday, followed by 20 on Tuesday (9 hours in the rain)! I guess I didn’t waste any time getting back into the groove. Now that I don’t have to worry about getting back to my place each night in time to check and send some emails (no internet or phone where I have been staying), I figured I might as well cover as much distance as possible each day in the outdoors. It was great being out in the mountains here again and I forgot how beautiful they are. Walking through the forest alone and then stopping to look and listen to everything, it all seems surreal. There are moments of dead silence, when I could hear a leaf hit the forest floor about 20 meters away. I am the only one disturbing the perfect silence. What would this forest look like without humans around? It’s just a thought.
It is awesome hiking alone, thinking about all possible things while hiking hours through colorful forests. One definitely gets to know one’s self much better doing this day after day. However, too much alone time is also bad and some thoughts are better left alone. I guess this is a balance, just like everything else. I do wish I had someone to talk to though. I went almost a week without saying a word to anyone (except “Dzien dobry” (hello) to passing hikers). I have had to rely on Dave Matthews Band, Charles Dickens, and a few others for company.
Everything else seems to be going smoothly, and I even found a really fresh wolf scat my first hike. I am talking hours old! The weather has been a little crazy. My colleague here said that it hadn’t rained for some time. I must bring rain, because my second day here it started raining very hard in the morning and didn’t let up until 96 hours later. Rain is nice and brings a peaceful, refreshing feeling with it, but honestly, I could use some sun right now.
This next week I will be staying in a different mountain shelter within the same wolf pack territory, so I can hike into some new areas. I hope that shelter is similar to this one I have been staying in, because this one is sweet. Living out of my backpack isn’t much fun. It really feels like I am traveling, rather than actually living here. I guess I shouldn’t complain though. I do get to see a lot of cool areas that most people don’t. Now all I need is to see one of these wolves I am trying to help protect!
Signing out for another week.

Finally in Poland

All right. I am in Poland and ready to start working. Another hectic time at an airport, some more baggage confusion, and other "normal" things for me were not enough to keep me away. I arrived, albeit a day later than planned, but I am here and safe. The weather is a little cooler than I expected, which I will never complain about. It is great to be back up in the mountains and tomorrow I start the search for the elusive wolves in the Halny pack.
I saw Ania briefly today at work, just enough time to grab my stuff that I had left with her over the summer. Our meeting was definitely a little awkward, as I expected, but I guess it went okay. I don't think I will see her very often now, which will be quite different from last time. In fact, I think I will try to stay away from Krakow because there are too many memories here for me. I will stick to the mountains and then seeing other parts of Poland and Europe. Time to go grocery shopping for the week. I will be staying up at a mountain shelter for the next week and won't have internet access. I guess that means this is ciao for a week. Adios from Twardorzeczka.