September 17, 2008: The Retezat, Day Two – “It rained and it rained and it rained.”

Dear Friend,

I slept horribly last night. It was around three in the morning when I first went unconscious, and then again at four or five, I would assume. I woke up in pain, primarily in my back and my jaw, for some reason. It was raining again, which made exiting the tent a little difficult. My first challenge of the day: getting dressed for the weather while in the weather.

I’ve forgotten just how much I love oatmeal. We had a supply that we took advantage of this morning. I think I’ll go back to eating oatmeal for breakfast when I get back to Northwestern. It’s a wonderful thing. It also seems to taste better after waiting fifteen to twenty minutes for your lunar module stove to boil your water.

We ended up deciding on not striking camp. The weather wasn’t working in our favor to move to another site. We were, however, going to be able to get a good long hike in. We spent some time cleaning up and preparing our lunch supplies. Each of us packed a supply of gorp (good old raisins and peanuts, which actually included much more than just those two staples.) Eventually we were on our way.

The fog played games with us most of the day. At times it would lift, then descend after a couple of minutes. Luckily, it was never too thick in our immediate area for us to get horribly lost. Once again, when we were able to see, our sites were too beautiful to describe. At one point we passed a small mountain lake, which Daniel joked was a natural hot spring we could all jump into. In order to follow “leave no trace” principals, though, we would have to rinse ourselves before going in.

We stopped at a cabană we were told was known for serving good tea. After hiking down a long, steep path to the cabană, and being greeted by a large, black, but very harmless dog, we found ourselves in dry comfort. The tea was nothing to write home about, and neither was lunch, really, but we were dry and managed to get a little warm, so we were content.

It was on our return to camp that the fog lifted for awhile, just enough to let the sun shine through. As we climbed, leaving the cabană, we managed to see the vastness of the mountains. The sun shining through the clouds of fog made for an even more dazzling image. Dave made us stop and soak it all in. I took as many pictures as I could, but really had no desire to. I knew none of the pictures I took would do justice to what I was actually seeing. There isn’t a camera big enough, nor powerful enough to capture these things.

The fog remained up while we made our way past the little lake. Shortly after that, though, the fog returned and the rain continued. During most of this day, my thoughts were on Winnie the Pooh. I was thinking of the story when the Hundred Acre Wood had that big rain storm, which flooded everywhere except (miraculously) Christopher Robin’s house. I remember when the story was done by Disney, and hearing Sebastian Cabot narrate, “It rained and it rained and it rained,” then listening to the song, “The rain, rain, rain came down, down, down…” I couldn’t help but smile, in spite of the weather around me.

The only mashed potatoes I will eat are my mother’s. That being said, making supper tonight with powdered potatoes seemed (and even tasted) rather disgusting. When at camp, though, do what campers do. It was quite a sight, though, all of us hunkered down around the stove. Florin eventually made a campfire for us, which we all congregated around after supper. There were a number of socks and shoes being dried while we all sat and talked.

I can remember that it was days like this that compelled my family to strike camp and head home. We have four more days of this, and I’m hoping the weather clears up enough for us to actually enjoy our hikes. I’ve been wearing almost all my clothes, only taking my rain layers off when getting into my sleeping bag. I’m really hoping to be able to take layers off during the day. In the meantime, I’m working on just going with the flow.

Blessings.
Kailen