Rain drops falling on my head

First backcountry adventure today. (With a beacon and with out a class) Two solid days of rain melted the snow that we were planning on skiing and drenched us as we hiked. Practiced with beacons and dodged rocks and dirt on the way down with grins on our faces.

Wraping Up Peanut Butter and Honey and Eating Plants

Since I haven't blogged in a while I will throw in some pictures. Lately I have been working on the final papers so I can get back for the ski season starting on the 30th. These pictures show my everyday life in China. The first series is how I get my peanut butter and honey fix and the last two are me eating plants with my Roommate Chengxi 程曦. It was the stem of something that looked like sugar cane on the outside but wasn't on the inside. It tastes like syrup, and is pretty good the last picture is what is left after you get the juice out... not much. It makes me feel like a beaver!

Pictures for Huangshan Day 3 and 4

Guanxi

Saturday the rain kept coming down and although many of my friends were sad that we were walking in a cloud all day and couldn't see very far, it was beautiful, and a perfect contrast from the day before. We were walking in a cloud...you don't get to do that everyday. We got up early to make it to the door of the Grand Canyon which they apparently close early if you are walking in a cloud.

We hiked down into the canyon along walkways that were sticking strait out of the wall and the cloud cleared periodically sometimes cloaking us in mystery and silence, sometimes breaking to show the shear walls along which we were walking. At one point we saw a cloud running like a river up a valley cut in the shear rock across us. Fall leaves of read and yellow poked brilliant colors out of the mist.

At noon we went back to the hotel picked up our stuff and they left for home while I waited for Susanah and Javier to meet me. We were planning on hiking around then camping under the stars in a secret grove of trees that we were sure we could find, but it was still raining and they showed up just as wet and tired as I was. So plan B, find somewhere else to sleep... The only dry place on top of the mountain was inside one of the hotels so we hiked up to the second floor hallway of a hotel and decided to dry off rest and figure out how to stay in the hotel. Rooms on top of the mountain cost around a thousand Chinese dollars which is way more than you should pay for anything that isn't imported... so ethically that was out of the question.

After a little while of sitting on nice soft chairs in the hallway we decided that the best place to stay would be right there, in the hallway. Yep that is right, we wanted to sleep in the hallway of a 5 star hotel on top of a mountain. But how to do it. The answer is Guanxi. A couple hours later we were best friends with the Guard who checked us in and told his coworkers that we would be sleeping there for the night. We slept soundly and left early the next morning.

It made me realize one that even the most outrageous idea can work out if you are respectful and give go forward with it. It also made me realize the importance of treating people well and not becoming a free loader.

The next morning we hiked down the mountain as the clouds blew away and the sun came out revealing gorgeous vistas, freshly touched with rain.

We got to the bottom of the mountain hungry, cold and incredibly happy.

At the bottom we found Javier's company car parked where it had been left and drove into the small town of 汤口 where we found steamy soup filled dumplings, hundun, and youtiao which we ate in an open walled shop while we looked out at the still misty morning, happy and content.

Three hours later I made it back in time for the last 30 minutes of church, and felt incredibly grateful for the opportunity to go to a church lead by the Savior through his priesthood.

Pictures for Yellow Mountain Chinese Baptism

The Yellow Mountain-Chinese Baptism

Friday morning I awoke to the quiet footsteps of workers carrying bamboo poles with huge bags of heaviness swinging pack and forth on either end as they trek up the mountain past my hiding/camping spot, I quietly role up my sleeping bag and eat some breakfast as I hear the first tour groups approaching the gate that I walked around last night. As I walk out of the woods onto the trail leading towards..., well I really don't know, but it goes up... I run into a group of four people also going up the trail. One waves at me and another hits them on the shoulder, telling them that I just came out of the woods cause I was going to the bathroom... this actually was true, but not the only reason. As they politely ignored me I followed them up the trail trying to figure out what language they were speaking. Turns out the Shanghai dialect sounds quite like Japanese.

A couple minutes later I started talking to them and began a conversation which would end up lasting for the whole day and into the next!

I wasn't going to meet my friends until noon the next day so the invited me to join them.

Hiking with Chinese people is different that hiking with anyone I have hiked with before. The first thing that you do is eat 黄瓜 or cucumbers, then we hiked more.

My new found friends had never hiked a mountain before in their lives, they road the train and elavators to work in Shanghai and then decided to go hike a mountain!

The rest of the day was gorgeous, clear blue skies, clouds floating somewhere below us like an ocean with mountaintops poking through like breaching whales.

We hiked all day sharing raisens, chinese dried meat and soysauce eggs. Lots of people took my picture and I did a photo shot with a pack of giggling college girls from Chengdu, my new friends were great starting to answer questions for me. Yes he speaks Chinese and is wearing a big backpack. It was really nice to be protected from having to answer the same questions over and over again. They even started to try to collect money for me from people who wanted to take pictures of me. Along the way we ran into a bunch of people that they met on their bus ride the day before.

That night it started to rain and my tent was in America so they insisted that I stay in their hotel room with them. They had arranged a room with 5 beds and only had for people but when we got there it turned out that one of the beds was built for three...there were two couples and me...I camped on the floor in my sleeping bag. It was really fun to joke around with them and the first time that i have ever camped on the floor of a mountain top hotel room.
I will attach some pictures above.

The Yellow Mountain-Solo Start

My only Friday without a class was swiftly approaching. Weeks ago that I would take off on Thursday night and spend my long weekend exploring China. Little did I know that I would end up sleeping on the floor of a mountain top hotel room with four Chinese friends I had meet only hours before. After spending the last couple of days riding my little Chinese bike across the city looking for hiking shoes and other camping supplies that fit my American Body, finding a sleeping bag, pad and shoes for reasonable prices I crammed them together with peanut butter, Chinese breads, raisens, banna chips some sausages and headed off Thursday morning's writing class. In one pocket I had a one way ticket to Huangshan which was either taking me to a city or a mountain the ticket agent wasn't really sure. In my other pocket I had a treasure map drawn by the Leopord, a friend from the climbing gym that lived on Huangshan for a couple of months. My goal was to find my way to a little city called soups mouth 汤口 then following the map walk out the main gate and up an unmarked trail in the dark avoiding the ticketed trails that had been closed for the night and accessing the Chinese "backcountry". After arriving in Soup's mouth in the dark I ate some soup and started asking around for the Paifang that should lead me to a stream and a trail eventually taking me off the beaten track. A really nice man and his wife were out for a walk and walked me up to the road that I could take to a place where there was a trail going up the mountain but encouraged me to walk along the mainroad and go up the main path like everyone else. I started off on the little path praying and thinking about what the best decision would be, as I walked through the dark and my flashlight flickered and I realized that I had long ago decided to be careful about solo trips and decided that I should be in a place where I could get help if I needed it so when the trail came to the main road I walked along the main road planning on finding the trail and exploring it the next day in the sun or maybe the following day when Sussanah and Javier showed up. As I walked I looked for the secret trail and enjoyed the quiet of the night.
Eventually I arrived at Ciguangge 慈光阁，I still hadn't seen the trail and all I had was a little treasure map without many details so I decided to explore a little and look for a place to sleep, the main gate was locked but I found a side trail that led up through the woods overlooking a complex of old houses turned tourist attractions. In the dark I could here the noises of people getting ready for bed as I walked through what could be their back yard. Finding a small flat section of wood with piles of rocks and a couple of sedan chairs I squezzed my shoulders into my small sleeping bag and staired up at the stars through the bamboo greatful for the clear skies both for the view and because my tent was still in America.

The Yellow Mountain- Chinese Baptism and The Yellow Mountain- Its Cold Outside will follow shortly.