The first time I ever went on a real longer hike was three years ago in Rodnei Mountains, with a group of around 45 people. Basically, I saw a post of a friend on facebook that someone is organizing a trip for 3 days in the Nothern side of Carpathian Mountains and I got really excited about it since I always wanted to do this kind of activities but I never thought too much about it and didn't have the "antourage". That's how me and my friend,Emily, went with so many people we didn't know before, to the "First Expedition".Cool stuff.
As far as I can remember, on the first day we went on a short walk (of 30 minutes -one way ) to the "Horses's waterfall" aka "Cascada Cailor",after taking the cable car to the top. As we went up, in the chairlift , Emily dropped her sippy-cup (a plastic bottle that had sentimental value,as she bought it from the US,the first time we went there, the year before) right close to the first part of the trail,around the 8th pillar of the chairlift.
Anyways we enjoyed the moment despite this temporary loss, because when we returned,we hiked back on foot to rescue the precious sippy cup:)), great idea as the ground was pretty sloppy, the angle of the hill quite inclined and there was no path. As regarding the waterfall, we didn' see much of it because it was pretty dried up at the time but no one cared as the overall landscape was out of fairytales .
DAY 2
We walked about 20 km in one day which was a great experience. The purpose was to reach the peak but not even the experienced guys could do it so finnally we were happy to rest at the Meteo-Chalet for a really fast meal as it was soooo cold that if you didnt move for a minute then you would freeze for real. At least that's how it felt on me. What I remember the best about this day is that we overfilled our backpack with 2 liters of water and heavy stuff like peaches,clothing and totally unnecessary stuff that no one ever needs on this kind of trip:)). Anyways, "A man learns from experience". As we started the trail,we split in smaller groups and realised that we were the last ones so we kindof speed up and tried to reach the guys who where leading the group, just for fear not the to be the last ones and get lost on the mountain :)). The thing is that if you talk to yourself and think you can more ,even if your body is changing parameters and hurts here and there, it is totally achievable and satisfying to keep up with more trained people. What is important here is the mindsetof not stopping too often or for too long because the more you think of how hard it is, the more tired you are.
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| On this steep side of the mountain I was praying for your lives:)) it was much more terrifying than it looks like,there was no treaded path and we could ve fallen in the valley at any time. Luckily we survived, and I could relax for a while but by the time we had returned, it was heavily snowing and that made everything more frightening. In my imagination I could see myself blocked on the mountain(this is another story though ). |
Day 3
Last day we took the famous "Mocanita train" which is a must do thing in Maramures as these railways were built for cargo and passenger services ,some in the era of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, before 1920 - but fell into disrepair over the years. Some are now being rehabilitated for the purposes of tourism, which means for us to have fun in 21st century. The word mocăniță is a term of endearment, derived from the Romanian word mocan, meaning shepherd or one who lives in the mountains, and suffixed as feminine and diminutive in keeping with the tradition of naming conveyances and indicating small size. Maybe I'll be a shepherd one day.. who knows.
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