Changsheel, Day 5: There and Back Again

Day 5 was the day we began our descent. This particular trek was "there and back", meaning that we'd use the same trails and campsites on the way down that we used on the way up. Part of me was a bit disappointed because I wanted to see new sites. A bigger part of me was glad that we were using the same trails, because the sense of the familiar would provide a little comfort. I found out that, while going up is difficult in a muscular way, going down is difficult (and can be painful) in a skeletal way.

Our Day 5 descent took us through the same easy terrain that we had traversed a couple days before, and we ended up making camp before lunch! I was glad of the rest, as my knees were in a bit of pain. I took a Brufin (the Indian version of our ibuprofen) and did a little muscle massage and some stretching to release my tension. I'm probably going to see a specialist about my low arches and knee pain when I get back to the States.

Peter, one of the staff leaders, brought his hackey sack on the trip, and we had played quite a bit the night before. This afternoon, since we arrived so early, we took it out again (after the students had finished their English assignments) and played with about 10 people. 15 minutes into the game, I started to hear a rushing sound coming from the mountain above us. I wasn't sure what it was at first, and then realized it was rain. A front of rain was making its way from the top of the mountain down to us, which gave our hackey sack game an added suspenseful element. As soon as we felt raindrops, everyone immediately scattered and fled to their tents. Once safely inside, we (the staff members) heard incredibly loud raindrops. Turns out it was hail! Little pea-sized ice chunks were flying through the air at us, and we had only canvas to protect us.

And, as it turned out, that canvas did little to keep the rain off of us initially. The direction of the wind made it so that, despite the meticulous staking job we did while erecting our tent, one side of the tent was dry and one side of the tent had the rain-fly sticking to it, effectively canceling out the rainproofing of the design. As I occupied that particular side of the tent, I had a vested interest in maintaining the integrity of the waterproofing. The three of us sprang into action, each with tools we had thought to bring: Larry with his Leatherman, Peter with his hemp string and his hackey sack, and me with my knitting scissors and yarn. Larry and Peter set to securing the front zipper of the fly while I worked on creating inward tension on the inner layer of mesh of the tent to separate it from the rain fly. With our headlamps on, we looked pretty "in-tents" (get it?!?).

By placing the hackey sack on the outside of the mesh,
we could secure a piece of hemp string to the mesh without sewing into it and tearing it.

Lookin' good.

MacGyver would have been proud.

Dinner was a crazy affair that night! We all ran to and fro like lunatics, filling up bowls with food and then splashing back to the warmth and (relative) dryness of our tents. After dinner, staff tent discussion revolved around issues of science fiction, aliens/UFOs, chaos theory (as exemplified by the movie The Butterfly Effect), Ray Kurtzweill's theory of singularity, and representations of dystopia, status quo and authority figures in fiction and allegory. What a cool conversation! Being stuck in a tent with these two dudes was surprisingly enjoyable.