+ Blue Trail

Ok, here it is, my first entry in my virtual diary. I would've never guessed I would start with a story like this. Yesterday I got back from a trip that I'll never forget. We thought we were going for a pretty hike...on the train ride home I put it down into my notebook. This story is about foolishness, helplessness, hope and God helping us out a big time!

21.8.07

• 8:01 setting off with my friend Jirka to West Tatras, Slovakia
• 11:45 our connecting train is full, sold out. I've never seen that happen before, couldn't believe it! Guess there's a first time for everything. Anyway, that makes us wait for two hours which cuts off from our time to get to a cottage to spend the night
• 14:30 on the train we meet a very nice old man who doesn't hesitate to get into a coversation. He gives us a warning about bears having bred excessively in the area and being very "friendly" to tourists . We all have a laugh and he goes off monologing on how everything was better when he was young. I take it as a nice story to put me asleep
• 15:00 I wake up and our new friend makes a comment on my nap being pretty long and that it might come usefull at the end of the day. If he only knew how right he was!
• 15:45 showing us the bus we need to take for our last stretch, he says his good-bye
• 16:20 we're finally at our starting point. About three hours later than planned but we still decide to go. It's pretty warm but it's been sprinkling continuously for past few hours
• 16:30 we take off and walk the first stretch by 30mins faster than it says in the map. Our plan is to get to the cottage by sundown (I mean by dark, we haven't seen the sun since the morning)
• 19:00 the cottage is over a saddleback so we start hiking up a steep mountain side. Though our thighs are burning and it hasn't stopped raining, the mood on the team is good, we even utter a joke every now and then
• 19:30 it's getting dark and we still can not see the saddle, yet we believe we will make it. The fog from the valley is slowly creeping behind us, soon we will only see a few meters ahead
• 20:15 we got to the saddle and the sign tells us it's two and half hours more. It's almost completely dark and no jokes come to my mind at this point. We can't go on, it could be even worse than on this side. There is also no way of sleeping here; the temperature has dropped radically. Our shoes are soaking, shorts the same and the rainjackets don't seem like they will resist the rain much longer
• 20:20 I stop in our desperate struggle to come up with a plan and tell Jirka I want to pray. "OK, I think I'll join in this time", he says. "Please God, forgive us our foolishness and show us a way. Give us protection. Amen!" We decide to go back even though it's gonna take much longer than the way up.
• 20:45 shortly after beginning to descend, we both see a dim light far below us. That gives us new hope for meeting humans. We're making our way down on slippery rocks in complete darkness. I thank God I remembered to pack my little Mag-Lite.
• 21:55 the light turns out to be somebody's flashlight, it's still far away though. We try to whistle loudly but get no answer. My friend is lighting his way with a cell phone and also uses it to keep track of time. The dim light has gone away, we're alone again. We follow the blue trail and try to make conversation - it's getting harder and harder.
• 22:20 the trail goes along a creek but we realize we don't see the blue marks anymore. Every step is a new chance to slip and break bones.
• 22:30 it hurts to not know where you're going when your whole body is way passed what it was willing to take. The water's going downhill, we need to go downhill, follow the water - our only clue. We speak only when necessary. There are thick bushes on both banks so we keep wading through the creek. Our drenched shoes are our smallest concern, I've never worried about my life so bad. I'm praying for protection almost continuously. Jirka slips and drowns his phone, we loose track of time.
• I'm praying for God to lead us back to the trail cause we can't do this for too much longer. I yell at Jirka: "Let's go look for some way around this". We're breaking our way through the trees and after a few seconds I see a little pathway which gives me a little cheer-up. But the faster my joy drops back down when it leads us back to the creek.
  
• my fellow-hiker slips and falls more often and every time I burst in incontrollable laugh. It certainly doesn't help the mood on "the team", but I can't help it! Am I loosing my mind, I'm wondering.
• we see a little hole in the ground and Jirka is decided to spend the night here. I grab him and shake him asking if he's still alive. That sparks a slight smile and I manage to convince him that we would probably freeze. We're down the creek again.
• the map says the blue trail should be to the right of us but we don't want to loose sight of the hated water - what a paradox.
• we can't do this no more! This is going nowhere, helplessness is taking over me. After a while of freaking out we pick up whatever is left and decide to climb the right bank. I hop over to a rock and try to grab a branch from one of those countless pine-trees. Before I can feel it, my backpack weighs me over and I sit down to the water - just what I needed.
• using the branches I pull myself up and start crawling up the bank. Jirka finds something and it looks like someone's walked this path before.
• little bit of walking and we see a sign of a blue trail. My level of adrenalin shoots up and I turn and hug my buddy without any advance notice. You can't imagine how much energy a little hope gives us.
• through some more difficulties like my flashlight bulb going out or struggling through fallen trees we make it to the village we started from about 10 hours ago.
• it's 3a.m. and we found a shelter in a bus stop booth. It's got two benches, four walls and a roof! It's just perfect. All the little windows in the door have been smashed but I close the door anyway, it just feels right!

I can't imagine going through this with anyone else but Jirka. He didn't panic, didn't complain, we were in it together. So thanks to him. And thanks to God for keeping us safe, helping us out of trouble that we got into thanks to our own foolishness and for giving us hope when were running out of it.