Snow Way!

Although my Peace Corps assignment is with Pelister National Park, until this weekend I'd only been there once. Luckily my neighbor/fellow volunteer Heather introduced me to Pepo, a local who runs a mountain hut in the park and he invited me to hike up to the hut which is located next to a lake called Golemo Ezero (Big Lake). We began our hike at 6:30 AM on Saturday, a 4 hour uphill climb through mostly snowy terrain. Pepo and I had started out with two 18 year old boys but I only kept up with them for the first third of the hike. Despite growing up in Colorado, I'd never really hiked through snow and particularly not with a 20 pound backpack so for me it was tough. That said, it was well worth the effort. I posted pictures on Picasa and yeah, it was pretty spectacular. The lake is visible literally on the last step and completely frozen over now, but what really blew me away were the mountain tops we viewed when we hiked a little way past the lake. During World War I, there was a great deal of fighting throughout this area and apparently you can see the trench remnants during the summer months.

In the evening, we were joined by Pepo's best friend who hiked up another way which took 13 hours and left him feeling like he'd been beaten up. Although the hut has several rooms, I was happy to sleep in the room with the wood stove and it was very comfortable. Probably the main downside to being there in the winter was the lack of a functional outhouse and I minded Pepo's advice to pay attention to the wind direction.

On Sunday, several day hikers came up and we sat around drinking a Macedonian specialty called Mountain Tea. They make it with dried herbs and it's really delicious. I followed the conversations as best I could, chatting a bit in my still rough Macedonian. We left around noon for the hike down, which took half as long as going up. You would think that means the way down was easier and I think overall it was, but I do have sore calves today from plunging down a snow covered mountainside where my footsteps sometimes sank down until the snow was up to my knees. Let's just say it was a good thing that Pepo loaned me a snow ax or I might have just slid back down.

The fun and outdoors over for now, I have a full week juggling several projects including trying to organize something for Earth Day, prepping for a SPA (small project assistance) committee meeting, revising an agenda for a proposed environmental leadership camp, talking to a potential grant partner for the park, reviewing suggestions for the park's new visitors center, and getting ready for a meeting about the summer young men's leadership camp. I'm busy but it's a varied, good busy.