August in the Carpathians

Report on a hike in the Carpathians on August 15-20, 2010, route “Above the Waterfalls.”
I came to the Carpathians quite unexpectedly. I was going on a hike, that’s true, but to the Crimea. And so, when the tickets were already in hand, the issue of vacation was resolved and things were almost packed, due to the fire hazard, access to the Crimean forests was closed. What to do? Kirill recommended taking a look at the Carpathians, since the date of starting the route coincided. I have not been to the Carpathians, and after some hesitation I decided that it was worth visiting there.

And finally, after the fuss of exchanging tickets, fees, moving - Ivano-Frankivsk. Groups of people just like me, restless people with backpacks, scurry around the station in different directions, sometimes intersecting, each with its own guide (I thought: like chickens following a hen))))). I have never met so many tourists at the same time anywhere. Most of them are with backpacks, but I see that the guys carried bicycles to the storage room - they have their own program. And, of course, you can’t do without “mattress covers” - beach umbrellas, shorts, hats, a bunch of things - the whole set! Where, I wonder, are they going to sunbathe? I decided not to ask))))

I find my group at the appointed place. It turns out that our company was mostly female. Let's introduce ourselves, I put things into a backpack (I don't have my own yet, so the guys rented it). Following Sasha - this is our guide - we stomp to the minibus parking lot. We load into one of them - there is no driver yet. But then he finally appears with pies in his hands, sees a decently loaded car (backpacks on his hands and in the aisles), his eyes widen: “What is this? Is this for me? Where are we going?” We explain where we are going, he calms down and even kindly agrees to take us to the beginning of the route. Thank you! So, let's go! We get to Pasechnaya quite quickly, and our journey will begin from here!))))

Here we are at the beginning of our journey. We pack up, check everything again, change shoes if necessary - and stomp first along the dirt road, and then along the rocky river bed. You come across uprooted trees and broken branches - look how strong the current is here! But now everything is quiet and peaceful. So, without much haste, we get to our first overnight stop at the Bukhtivets waterfall. A short distance short, we make a short stop at a well to drink some water. Delicious! )))) We take some with us.

And here it is, Bukhtivets, our first waterfall. It’s getting dark, after dinner we go down to swim in the scalding cold streams of his gray beard. The noise of the jets falling from a height of 11 meters drowns out all other sounds around and is reflected from the stone walls of the gorge. In the seething stream of water, bizarre outlines of some images, unsteady and constantly changing, appear and disappear. In the approaching twilight, all this creates a feeling of the presence of some ancient forces that have been guarding these places from time immemorial.

Not far away, if you stand facing Bukhtivets, then on the right, there is another waterfall, the name of which, unfortunately, I do not know, but which I liked even more. The walls of the gorge part and surround it in a stone semicircle. If it is lower than the main waterfall, it is not by much. Thin streams gracefully fall into a small lake. If nymphs live in these places (or maybe povitruli?))), then they probably settled here. At dusk, the cascading threads of water appear blue. The quiet murmur of a brook. Water dust hanging in the calm, settling like dew on leaves, mosses and our hair and clothes. So calm and so beautiful. Two waterfalls nearby - and so different... The wild power of the seething Bukhtivets and the gentle grace of this mysterious nameless waterfall. Yin and Yang.

Our first overnight stay was relatively calm. Relatively, because at night, next to the tents, someone rustled the garbage left over from our predecessors, dug something and dropped something (judging by the sounds). We did not leave the tents, so the night guest remained unknown. In the morning, next to the wooden bench, we found crumbled remains of bread that we had forgotten to remove from the table. The mysterious visitor did not leave hungry.)))))))

The next morning we hit the road. We walked along the spurs of the Chertka ridge. The weather was pleasant, we looked around and enjoyed the views. Today a pleasant surprise awaited us: the slopes of the mountains are covered with blackberry thickets. Just in time for our hike, the berries were ripe and filled with sweet juice. Along the way we stopped several times and had a treat.

From somewhere in my childhood I remembered a long-forgotten poem:

On the path with blackberries
The hedgehog met Vika.
Why, - asked Vika, -
As prickly as a blackberry?
And then,” the hedgehog answered, “
We are similar to blackberries
To girls and wolves
Don't poke your nose into needles

There really were needles, but they weren’t too prickly, so they didn’t bother us at all)))) That day we walked around the town of Bzinkovachka and went to the Manyavsky waterfall, the largest on our route.

I kept trying to photograph him, but he couldn’t fit completely into the frame, so I made a panorama. That's what he is like. We took a photo near him.

It’s not at all easy to talk close up - the sound of falling water drowns out all sounds - you have to shout. The wind blowing through the gorge picks up water dust and throws it at us. Here and there along the slippery stone walls there are small, slightly oozing streams.

A little further up the mountain river there are several more small waterfalls. It's nice to refresh yourself after a hard journey in a secluded creek. Here we swam with pleasure.)))) At night, when there are no lights, the impressions in the gorge are absolutely fantastic. The roar of the waterfall permeates the entire surrounding space and you don’t even hear it, but perceive it with your whole body. In the thick moving darkness there are constantly moving whitish contours of a cascading seething stream. With a little imagination you can see anything. And feel it. For real. It's getting a little creepy. Somewhere far above is a small piece of the night sky with a bright scattering of stars. On the way back, the light of a flashlight snatches from the darkness a wreath and a cross on a rock ledge - no name. Someone's journey ended here...

We return to the tents, to the fire, to the light. To our world, familiar and familiar. The firewood crackles merrily and tells its stories. And we are ours. Flares of fire dance on the coals. Overwhelmed with impressions, we settle in for the night. Tomorrow is a new day.

In the morning - a delicious breakfast, and off we go to the Chertka ridge. It’s cloudy, gray shaggy clouds are descending very low towards us. These places remind me of the taiga - elegant russula on soft, bright green moss pillows, and there are lingonberries, although here they are not yet ripe.

The slopes are covered with dense forest, we are surrounded on all sides by slender trunks of pine and spruce trees, otherwise it’s dark. They stand so close to each other that the light does not reach the ground, and the lower branches dry out without sunlight. Sometimes in the gaps we get a magnificent view of the mountains. In the afternoon we go to Ripna. Here, from the time of the war, fortifications made of huge stones have been preserved. We rested a bit on the sun-warmed boulders. Some are so big that you can stretch out on them and watch the clouds roll by. The quiet rustling of the wind and the singing of birds. It’s hard to even imagine that there could be any military action in such beauty. Simple blasphemy.

The stones are alive, they sway under our feet, and in some places they are covered with moss, so we walk carefully. We descend from the mountain into the valley of the Khrepeli River, along the way we again feasted on berries (blackberries, blueberries) and picked up excellent porcini mushrooms! Already in the parking lot, in the evening, they cleaned them.

In the evening we met shepherds who treated us to milk and cream, Vitaly and Vasily. Thanks a lot to them! Fresh milk is just super! In addition, it turns out that porcini mushrooms with cream in a camp pot are an incredibly tasty thing! Not only “finger-licking”, but just a bite!)))) Maybe because they collected everything, maybe because everyone cooked - some cooked, some carried (they didn’t finish it in one evening), some cleaned, and some stewed - everyone got something. Or maybe it’s all about the indescribable charm of the Carpathians, the warmth of the evening fire and soulful company. But I recommend it to everyone! ))))

The next morning, a difficult climb to Stanimir awaited us, but here we were simply incredibly lucky - we were driven almost to the very top by local transport (I don’t know what this huge car is called) by local residents who met us very opportunely. We were very grateful to Roman and his friends, especially when we saw what a difficult part of the path we had overcome so easily with their help. (Galya, thanks for the photo of this wonderful machine!) As a matter of fact, it wasn’t even a path at all, but some kind of continuous obstacle))))))

In the afternoon we stopped for a snack on Mount Katerina at a spring (the water in it is very tasty). The horses grazing nearby looked at us with unobtrusive curiosity. Everyone liked the mischievous foal with a funny little tail, frolicking next to his caring mother. It seems she was trying not to let him get too close to us.)))) Along the way we saw local residents picking blueberries. Using their hands took too long, so they used small homemade boxes with fine-toothed combs, as if they were scooping berries with them. Blueberries are a very tasty berry, but picking them by hand one at a time is a long and incredibly tedious task. I had to do this, and for those who haven’t assembled it, take my word for it, a comb is much faster and more convenient)))).

All around, wherever you look, there is simply a magnificent view of the majestic mountains. From a distance they appear blue. Even in the photographs this color is visible, I hope it will remain after processing. It’s a great pleasure after a difficult trek (we had previously climbed up the rocky slopes) to have a snack at a spring, looking at the world from a bird’s eye view! In addition, such delicious sandwiches made from canned food and cardboard-shaped bread can only be obtained on a good hike!)))) You will lick your fingers!

We spent the night in the Vivchyna meadow. The Gorgans spread out before us in all their majesty. What’s surprising: in the mountains, when you look where you need to go, it seems that it’s very close – just a stone’s throw away. And then you walk and walk, and there is no end in sight to this path. So it is very difficult to determine the distance “by eye”. It’s the same here - here they are, the Gorgans, very close, but when I imagine how much you need to walk to see everything - no vacation is enough!))))

At this parking lot it was far from the spring. They showed us to the neighboring slope - you’ll walk there through the water, it’s closer there. How to look – it seems like it’s not far, but how to walk – it seems like half an hour in one direction. Well, or so it seemed to me)))))

Here the weather changed a little: the rain kept trying to fall, but somehow it didn’t work out. The mountain standing in front of us seemed to be parting the dense thunderclouds above us to the sides, leaving a piece of clear sky above us. There was a bit of a chilly drizzle, but under the trees it was dry, although windy. Maybe we were lucky on this trip - the weather was good, and the local population treated us very kindly. The girls from the neighboring farm again treated us to fresh milk in the evening.))))) In the distance, the mowers were returning home, and a drawn-out Ukrainian song sounded beautifully over the meadow. It’s a pity, it’s so far away, I couldn’t make out the words.

At dawn, we were woken up by an inquisitive horse - it was wandering around the camp and trying to look into the tent. As a result, it’s hard to understand who was more frightened of whom: the girls, in surprise, opened the tent and saw a curious horse’s face right in front of them, and squealed; for the same reason, the horse ran away quickly and far. We met)))).

Having had a hearty breakfast, we moved on to Mount Gavor and further to Korotkan. Here another wonderful adventure awaited us - Goydalka. Someone had installed a swing between two tall trunks. On long cables, 10 meters long, and maybe more, a narrow plank was attached between two tall trunks. Here's a swing for everyone! Breathtaking! And how far away you can see! You just need to hold on tighter.

Having ridden and laughed, we now walked down to the valley of the Salatrugel River. It seems that this is where we discovered thickets of mountain raspberries. The berries are not large, but very sweet and fragrant. The climatic zones in the mountains are very pronounced: In Katerina, the blueberries were just ripe, and the blackberries were completely green. And here the blueberries had already disappeared, but there were plenty of blackberries again. It's delicious here.))) We spent the night near the Salatruk waterfall. In the evening we went to the nearest store (by local standards it’s not far, but by ours it’s very far away)))))), they brought some tasty food - the last night.

And at night it rained. It seems that the Carpathians suddenly realized: how can they let us go dry?! And we decided to improve the situation a little. True, this idea was not very successful: there was a hot fire, dumplings, watermelon (it seems the most delicious one in my entire life!), and a slightly belated birthday. The next morning – Bystritsa and transfer to the ancient and beautiful city of Ivano-Frankivsk.

And then - who goes where: some go home, some continue their journey. Here is our group: Tanya, Inna, Tanya, Denis, Yulia, Anya, Galya, Sasha (our brave guide-instructor), Dasha, Anya, a little higher - the Pope. And I’m with a camera, so you can’t see me.))))

Of course, I didn’t write here about all the sensations and impressions that accompanied us along the entire journey. The girls already talked about something on LiveJournal, I didn’t want to repeat myself, all the photos simply wouldn’t fit. I posted some more on my page in Contact, maybe I’ll add more. There were many interesting and funny episodes. There were games and intimate conversations around the night fire, unexpected discoveries and new acquaintances.

I don’t know if we will meet again, and if we do, where and when? Who knows... Thank you for all the time spent so well together, for the cheerful and friendly company! See you!))))

Victoria Pogodina. Donetsk, August 15-20, 2010