The Hike

"Many climbers become writers because of the misconceptions about climbing."
-Jonathan Waterman

One of the views from our hike

This weekend several of my friends and I celebrated fall break by driving a total of 36 hours in order to spend 36 hours in the mountains. You see, my uncle Steve owns a lovely piece of property up the road from White Pine, Colorado (don't bother looking it up...even Google can't find White Pine). To us college students, so ready for a break, the mountains sounded like a grand idea, and hey, what's 36 hours of driving? So, we all piled into a car (or an airplane...several lucky people flew, I was not one of them), trekked across the Oklahoma Panhandle, and arrived at White Pine without too much hassle. After a night's sleep, a delicious breakfast (that took way too long to prepare), plus a 'everyone gather around the fire and share your deepest secrets and cry about it' session, we decided to go on a hike up the mountain.

It wasn't my idea.

From my experiences of spending a summer at White Pine several years ago, I suggested (with much digress) that we hike up Tomichi Pass. "It's not long," I guaranteed them, "I know it's been two years since I've been up there, and never mind the fact that I drove it last time, but I'm positive that we'll be able to do it in an afternoon!" I honestly think the apple cider from that morning's meal may have sat in the car just a bit too long...

After grabbing multiple bottles of water, making peanut butter and honey sandwiches, and peeing several times each (we were drinking lots of water...the altitude you know, it shrinks one's bladder), we were off up the pass. After about three steps, I was out of breath. After about six steps, I could feel the fat on my body start to melt away. This was going to be good! Then I looked down.

I was wearing Converse.

Have you ever tried to climb a mountain in Converse shoes? Don't. It does funny things to your legs. Besides the fact that they have no support, so even if you are a tiny bit fat you'll be dying from lack of air in several seconds. (It's easy to blame one's lack of physical ability on the shoes. Try it. That's why I still haven't bought a good pair of running shoes.) Anyway, we hiked for several hours, and try as I might, I still couldn't find the peak we were aiming towards. I kept reassuring everyone that it was just beyond that next mountain, but soon we were looking back at the snow covered peaks we had just passed, wondering how in the world we were surviving in the frozen tundra above the tree line of the Rocky Mountains.

I tried to keep up the motivation. "Hey guys! At least we still have peanut butter and honey sandwiches!" I gasped between half hour breathing breaks. "Oh! And we also packed clementines!" So, we sat down to eat. Then we decorated a Christmas tree with the clementine peels (that's our version of 'leave no trace' - 'make it look better than it did before with tropical fruit peels that would never be found on the top of a mountain'). After the lunch break, everyone decided to give up finding the original peak, and just run up to the top of one of the nearby mountains. I sat on a rock and watched.

Two hours later, I was interrupted from catching snowflakes on my tongue by the exhausted mountain climbers returning from their jaunt to the summit. I waved goodbye to my new baby bear friends and trekked back down the mountain, only to realize that Kristiana wanted to go swimming in the alpine lake up the road...

Maybe Colorado wasn't such a good idea.
-Matthias

P.S. If you ever happen to find yourself not able to fall asleep because you are more sore than you have ever been in your whole entire life, take Ibuprofen before you toss around for hours. You will thank yourself in the morning.

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The Shower

Everyone who's ever taken a shower has an idea. It's the person who gets out of the shower, dries off and does something about it who makes a difference.
-Nolan Bushnell

I left my towel at Aunt Rhonda's.

There are two reasons why I left my towel: first, I had used it that morning and didn't want to pack a wet towel in my suitcase. Second, I figured that every hotel or residence I stayed at would have towels that I could use. For the most part I was right, but being right for the most part is the same as being wrong.

Fast forward four weeks into my summer travels. It was my last night in Poland and I was staying at a facility set up by some church. I decided I wanted to take a shower - it had been rather hot that day and I had spent 3 hours in a stuffy communist-era train. I gathered my deodorant, razor, shaving cream, toothbrush, toothpaste, and my comfy pajamas that smelled like they hadn't been washed for weeks (they hadn't), and prodded down the hall to the bathroom only to find that it was locked. I sighed, flashed a disgruntled smile at someone who muttered something to me in Polish, and went back to my room. I paced back and forth multiple times until I was bored enough to see if the bathroom was finally open. It was. I opened the door with no trouble and happened to notice that there was an absence of a lock. Puzzled, I inspected the door more closely. Turns out one has to pull instead of push. Who would've thought?

I walked to the back of the bathroom where the single shower room was located. I opened the door and observed the tiny room. It was completely covered with tile, as most European bathrooms are. There was a large window on the wall adjacent to me covered by a curtain. Three hooks hung on the wall presumably meant for changes of clothes. The shower was on the wall to the left, and try as I might, I couldn't find a shower curtain anywhere, which totally negated any use those three hooks may have had. There weren't any towels either, so for the third time that evening I meandered back to my room - this time in search for a towel. I couldn't find one. I looked in all the wardrobes, all the dresser drawers, and on all the beds. No towel. Sighing, I zipped open my suitcase. My goal was to find the most absorbent, yet quickest drying material that I had with me. T-shirts, jeans, and underwear flew out as I dug. Finally, I found what I needed.

My H&M scarf.

Thankful yet again that I refused to buy polyester, I made the trek back to the shower, scarf in hand. I was then presented with the problem of how to keep the scarf and my change of clothes dry as I showered. I couldn't hang them on the three useless hooks, and I certainly couldn't leave them outside the door of the shower room (although, I forget why). Finally, I decided to place them behind the window curtain and pray that I wouldn't get lead poisoning from the chipping paint gathered on the windowsill. I had visions of the curtain suddenly catching a draft and flying open leaving me exposed to all of Poland and without any dry clothes to change into. After dropping every single sock I had with me into the water gathered on the bottom of the shower, I managed to get clean, dry (thanks to my multi-purpose scarf...ha! the fashion designers didn't see that one coming!), and into my comfy pajamas.

As I made my final stroll to my room, I resolved that I will eventually design a t-shirt that boasts "I survived the shower." The words will be written in the gaudy typeface that every B horror movie uses, and you can betcha that it will double as a towel.

-Matthias

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Of Poland, Czech, and Narnia

"It's over there, just beyond the lamppost"
-Lucy Pevensie in The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

When I arrived at the hotel where I am currently staying in Poland, one of the first things pointed out to me was a lamppost. Three of the young women on my team rushed up to the lamppost exclaiming "It's like the lamppost in Narnia!" In reality, the lamppost looked nothing like the light fixture that Lucy found in Narnia, but we spent the next few minutes discussing Narnia and how we wished we could move there. Little did we know how close we actually were to the real Narnia.

Several days later we crossed paths with the lamppost again on our way to a forest that boasted beautiful waterfalls. A feeling of familiarity struck me as we walked through the trees. Somehow the topic of movies came up and one of our Polish friends interjected that we were walking through the forest where The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian was filmed. We were in Narnia!

A Narnian waterfall

Look! Narnia!

After the stumble across Narnia, the travel bug hit us and we decided to go visit another country. The camp we are at is located close to the Czech Republic border, so we decided to hike up a mountain and step foot in Czech. The hike actually turned out to be a ride in a ski lift longer than any I've ever been on. It took us over a half hour to get to the top of the mountain. By the time we reached the top, we were so exhausted that we walked in, took a picture, and got back on the ski lift to go back down.

On the ski lift. I'm the one in the background sticking my tongue out...

Finally, I suppose I should mention that the English camps that I am filming are going super well. I'm getting great footage and it is so neat to see how God is working through us to impact the people of Poland. Thank you all for praying for me! As you can tell, I am enjoying myself - which is a huge praise as I was not excited whatsoever to go on this trip. Little did I know that I was about to go to Narnia.

Pożegnanie!
-Matthias

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