Day 16: Missing in Action

Let's see. We last left off with climbing Mt. Rysy, the highest mountain in Poland, only to leave me with shattered knees and pride alike.

The next morning we woke up and I knew from the get-go that I would not be hiking that day. We ate breakfast together and I watched as the rest of the team laced up their boots and got their packs together. I noticed another member of our trekking group, Damien, still had his sneakers on – he quietly opted to stay behind. He was battling blisters and busted knees too. I sent Jeremy off with the nice camera and looked forward to a day of laying low.

I took a shower and washed my hair. I sat out in the sun under clear skies, ate my packed lunch and read Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential. I became restless as I watched hikers come and go – so I decided to lace up my boots, grab the trekking poles I had borrowed and made my way up the trail from the cabin to a paved path that would lead me to the largest lake in Poland – Morski Oko. As I was taking the short walk a man with his family asked me a question in Polish. I didn't assume he was speaking to me until he kind of rolled his eyes, as if I was being rude by not answer. I felt proud of myself when I responded in Polish "I don't understand. Do you speak English?" He responded with an apologetic laugh, said no, and went along his way. At the end of the trail it would be an easy (and flat) 1.5 hour walk to the lake. I watched crowds and crowds of people making the light trek. It seemed as if every family in Poland was on a pilgrimage to that lake. My anxiety and knees told me to turn around. And so I did.

I returned to the cabin and found Damien sitting out at one of the picnic tables – checking his phone and eating his lunch. Around noon we decided it was an appropriate time to order some beers. We drank our Tyskies (kind of like Budweiser, I suppose – nothing fancy) and chatted about life. We were expecting the rest of our group to come rolling back in around 4:30PM and we became a bit like puppies waiting for our masters to come home. We kept our eyes on the trail as the clouds started rolling in. Around 5:30 it started pouring rain. It wasn't until 7:00PM we saw the first of our group start to make it back in.

Damien and I quickly ordered a bottle of vodka and had shots lined up for everyone in our group who had been trekking in the cold, pouring rain for over an hour. I was so happy to see Jeremy's face. He was pretty miserable - lacking any proper rain gear. He showered, dried off and changed. We all met up for dinner (fried cheese on top of cheesy macaroni) and shared beers, more vodka and conversation.

Jeremy showed me his adventure on the camera:








He saw waterfalls and the Valley of the Five Polish Tams. He made a steep ascent up Kozi Wierch, the highest peak lying entirely in Poland. He captured some amazing views of the Tatras and on the way back they stopped at Morskie Oko – the largest lake in Poland. He said on the way back they got caught in the storm and found themselves in a miserable, soaked hike home. It proved to be a challenging day – maybe even more so than the hike up Rysy. He was glad to be greeted at the cabin with a shot of vodka.



It's easy to see now that all the cheese, bread, and vodka wasn't helping us up any mountains and certainly wasn't helping me heal my wounds. But damn... it was a really nice way to end the day.

Next up: one last day of trekking, then to Krakow.