Making it to the bottom of the river valley took us a LITTLE longer than we were planning on!! It was now 2:30pm, when we expected to be on Binog by now!!!:) On our way to the base of Binog we passed this small little village and asked for a path to get us there, they pointed us in the correct direction and within 15 minutes we were on the base of Binog!! As seen in the picture on the base was this resort with a SWIMMING POOL!! It was cool to see such a random swimming pool, a NEATO one at that!!!:) I don't know how clean the water was, but definitely wanted to jump right in!! Even though it was around 50 degrees!! We reached the base of Binog at 2:45pm and asked one of the locals around how long it'd take to reach the peak!! He said about an hour, so that was nice to hear it was doable within an hour or so!! Now there were several paths that looked like it would take us to the top, again we asked the villagers which one was the best, they pointed to one and BAM we began our ascent!! The first half of the hike up was along goat paths and basically heading upward, so no real "official" path to follow!! Again, what do you expect with us by now!! Who needs nice and easy paths!!!:) At the first "fake" peak we find a real path for once, one with ARROWS guiding us in the wrong direction!! Well they point in the correct direction if we're heading down, but needless to see them told us we're good to go!! The last 300 feet up was through thick weeds and grass with no real path once again!! At this point we're at about 7,000ft, so similar to that of Mt. Hermon!! It was only a 7,400ft peak, BUT with a 350 degree view!! It would have been 350, but there were stupid trees for 10 degrees of it!!! We made it to the top and waiting for us was a lookout tower and a temple!! The time was 3:50pm!! Only 3 hours late of our hopeful arrival time!!:) Now our biggest concern was heading to civilization with SOME daylight still!! I say civilization meaning paved roads, if we got to that point with darkness just kicking in that'd be fine!! To travel on goat paths in the dark = not classy/good!!:) We spend about 15 minutes on the top eating linner (lunch/early dinner) and then begin our decent to the valley!! What took us 1hr 15 minutes to reach the top took maybe 30 to reach the valley!! So that was a plus, AND there was still a wee bit of sun left to guide our way to our original path to the little village!! Arriving at the village with almost no sun left anymore, we ask the locals what their path is to reach Happy Valley, cause as all experienced hikers know, where there is a village there is a path!! They have to walk on something!! So one of the villagers tells Suman where the path is and wouldn't you know it, it's the FREAKIN PATH WE SAW ON GOOGLE EARTH!!! And it's paved!! It was about a 1,000ft hike up the paved road and when we reached the top we were SOOOO annoyed!! When we descended earlier that day through the jungle, if we would have kept walking on that road maybe 50 more meters we would have hit that paved path, INSTEAD of bushwacking it down!! That easily would have saved us an hour or so!!! BUT what's a hike without some bushwacking and adventure!! I mean that would have been too easy I say!!;) Well it's about 7:30pm now, we stop at the Staff Mess one more time for some drinks (soda/pop) and then head back to Mussoorie!! On our way home we ate dinner at Clock Tower Cafe and showed Leroy some good CTC food!!! Walked through the buz and got home at 9:13pm!!! A nice 13 hour hike day!!!! AWESOME!!!!:) And that is how babies are born!!! Hope you enjoyed!!!!!;)
HEY GUYS AND GIRLS!!!!! Sooooooooo it hasn't been too long since my last blog post!!! Only since November 27th, was my last post!! SO COOL IT!!!!:) For those who AREN'T teachers, here's a clue on what the last month of school is like before the end of a semester: HECTIC!!!!! You have grades, finals (for those who don't teach PE:)), comments, AND still try and teach a little before they completely tune out for winter/summer break!!!!!:) Month before summer break will be ridiculous!!! OKAY SO quick filler of the past 2 months that you've missed since I've been busy!! I found my dream job!!! That's announcing at any major sporting event!! We had Inter House Box Soccer and I got to be PA announcer for ALL the games!!! YEAH it was AMAZING!!!:) Think Harry Carey (Will Ferrell version) combined with THE Chris Farley's energy level!! A lot of DUMB comments but with lots of energy!!! MR. DANG NEEDS HIS TANG!! IF YOU FIND SOME TANG, PLEASE GIVE IT TO MR. DANG ASAP!!! Stuff like that!!:) So that was back in November!! After that things really quieted down with major sporting events and we could focus primarily on grading!! YAY!!! Every teacher's first LOVE!! That was pretty much until the end of the semester!! Once semester came to an end, we had banquet after banquet!!! First was Middle School Banquet Friday night before going down (when they travel down the hill to Dehra Dun and Delhi), then Elementary Banquet Saturday morning, THEN our final Staff Banquet that Tuesday!! Oh yeah you better belive the Tuba Quartet played AND the Staff Choir sang!!!:) If you have gmail and are NOT on my e-mail list to share pictures with, PLEASE let me know your address ASAP so you can be included in that, otherwise the albums will be LOCKED for you!! After all the banquets pretty much HALF the staff left that Wednesday or Thursday to begin their travels either home (most back to the states) or other countries to visit!!! Thus, for Christmas the hillside was very bare with barely anyone around!!!:) CHRISTMAS DINNER: at Mt. Hermon, at the Weibe's, amazing FOOD!!! OH AND YOU BEST BELIEVE LEFSE WAS THERE!!! The night before at Laura/Nan's we attemped Lefse for the FIRST time!! It turned out okay that night, BUT as any true Scandanavian knows, lefse is ALWAYS served at room temp/cold!! SO when we tried the lefse that night it was still somewhat hot!!! Not true lefse form!! WELL come Christmas dinner I left those babies out in a ziplock over night and when it came to eat them they were DELICIOUS!! Team Lefse NAILED IT!!!!:) And this was lefse made from the bare cooking materials!! No fancy lefse pan, blender to really get those potatoes smooth, AND even no patter masher!! Just a fork, and roller!!! Also, I made about 10 pounds of mashed potatoes that morning (30 potatoes) (both can be seen in above picture!!)!!!! Those turned out pretty good too, but more pleased with the lefse!! Grandma would be proud I think!!!;) No meatballs though, THAT will strictly be saved for the states!! Some things are just meant to be in the US!!! 12 Day Layer Countdown, Meatballs, AND goofy 5k's!!:) I'd say marathons but that one is definitely going to be open to countries!! A marathon in 26 different countries baby!! Why 26, ummm HELLO a marathon is 26.2 miles, I can't find .2 countries!!!:) Of course I could go metric and say 40 marathons (40km)!!!:) We'll see how the knees hold out!! ANYWAYS so Christmas went awesome!!! Oh before Christmas, all that week was the Hike To Christmas Countdown (this will strictly be India)!!! It's a day Hike starting the Monday before Christmas, and every day that week a day hike before Christmas Day!! We did 3 hikes!! With our longest hike to Nag Tibba 2 days after Christmas!!!:) It would have been 4 hikes, but come on we need that day before to make food!! ESPECIALLY LEFSE!! If you haven't noticed, we were VERY VERY excited about lefse!!;) Like jumping up and down when we finished the first one that had that lefse taste, okay maybe I was the only one jumping, BUT others were DEFINITELY jumping on the inside!!!:) So after Christmas week it was PLANNING/FINISH UP TRAINING FOR CHADAR TREK!!!:) We were leaving for the Chadar Trek January 3rd (Sunday)!!! Could NOT BE MORE EXCITED FOR THAT TREK!!!! A trek I've been training/looking forward to for 2 months and it's FINALLY HERE!!! (and yes we're going to pretend that I still haven't left for the trek yet!!) PLUS THERE'S GOING TO BE SNOW AND ICE!!! More ice really, but STILL, white ground, and 2 weeks of it!!! Also, at an altitude of 11,000ft in the valley, and peaks around us that are 18-20,000ft above sea level!!!:) AWESOME!! However, before I get to that trek, we had New Years as well!! Around 5pm we had a mini New Years Eve party at the Weibe's, playing Settler's of Catan and eating popcorn!!! THEN around 11pm we left for our First Annual New Year's Eve-New Year's Day Night Hike!! This time it was to FlagHill!! AND it was a full moon!! Talk about perfect!! The hike itself was only 30 minutes, so we had plenty of time to get there!! We hiked pretty much under moonlight the entire way, only a couple times did we have to turn on our head torches!! Made it to the top of Flaghill at 11:58pm!!! THEN COUNTED DOWN TO THE NEW YEAR AND DECADE!!! Started at 43 seconds!! HEY, India's unique like that!!:) The Wiebe's kissed, Darren and Cindy kissed, I thought about kissing Suman, but he probably wouldn't have liked that, so instead I kissed a rock!! It was a lovely rock, full of minerals and moss!!!!! I think I may have developed gingivitis from it!!!! WORTH IT THOUGH!!! 