The Baileys in the Tien Shan Mts. 7/1/97 Dear Mom, Let's see... Where to begin? How about with a thanks for calling on Sunday! It was great to hear your voice again, and just get to talk a little. So far none of your letters have come through, but I expect them to come in a bundle any day now. Don+t give up on writing, though. I know they+re on their way. Our big adventure of late was, as I mentioned only briefly on the phone, the camping trip up in the Tien Shan. We left on Friday, for Almaty around 4 PM, planning to arrive at a spot where a chair lift would take us up most of the way to the top. Then we would simply hike back down for three hours to the base camp site. A separate group planned on doing the -Tiger Hike+, a six hour hike into the camp site over some fairly rough terrain, arriving around 12 AM. Our group was meant to be there at camp around 10 PM to set up tents, etc. Well, what happened was that the guards on the road to the chair lift would not let our vans pass-not even with the proffered bribe. Apparently some mucky-muck was up there and we presented a security risk. Fine. So we drove to the beginning point of the -Tiger Hike,+ loaded up ourselves with tents and packs, and headed up the mountain. One woman, Bethany, turned back and an embassy car came for her. Briefly I considered and even offered to go back with her, but another volunteer beat me to the draw. And tempted by the wicked beauty of the mountains I carried on. The scenery was incredible, green meadows, incredible wildflowers, beautiful blue sky turning to fire with the sunset. However, by 11 PM when we were close to 9,000 feet and it was dark and cold, the trail narrow, steep, and treacherous, and I was dizzy and nauseous from exhaustion, slight dehydration, and the altitude, I wanted very much to be in the embassy car headed for home in Kapchigai. We carried on over the ridge to a campsite that Sergei, our guide and a Peace Corps staff member in Almaty, knew of. By this time it was pitch black, except for the vast array of stars overhead. I crawled into the tent with Ben, Tracie, Bryan and Rich, and fell asleep on what felt like a pile of rocks. Imagine my surprise when I woke in the morning to see that we were camped on a small ledge, with the rest of our non-tiger group camped below us on a small ledge with a spring. The mountain under me fell away far into the valley below to a river that I could not yet see, and rose sharply again to a series of high, high snowy peaks. We were above the tree line, so it was only green and flowers around. us. Our food was safe though, because nothing but a few bugs came up that high. We set out to finish the final two and a half hours down to the camp site shortly thereafter. That has got to be one of the most beautiful and fertile sights I have ever seen - flowers everywhere with birds, bees, and other bugs doing their thing and not caring if I was passing. The colors were nearly blinding - orange, blue, yellow, purple almost black, green, the white of a stray snow field, the deep green of the conifers. It is perhaps the best Saturday morning I have ever spent. Ben fell ill on the trail, so Rich and I hung back with him for moral support and to get him there safely. The campsite was near a rushing white river so cold that when I dunked my head I got an ice cream headache. I+ve never seen a body of water move so fast. It flew past and over huge boulders that themselves seemed invincible and unaware of the waters cold force. Back to camp...our tents were all nested near and around huge conifers, and volunteers were sprawled everywhere. A few peaks were clearly visible from where we sat, and the rest was green, rock, and sky. The big excitement was later that evening after dinner when a Russian couple came to warn us of a bear they and their children had spotted feeding in the river. Rich and a few others headed out immediately with cameras for a look, but no luck. I, of course, became extremely paranoid. Later that night I woke to rain and a soft grunting sound which I was convinced was a bear. Of course, it was Tracie next to me, snoring. However, we all heard a rock slide somewhere nearby quite clearly. Sure enough the next morning it was apparent as I looked up to the peaks, that our rain in the valley had been snow there. So with a slight feeling of dread we packed up, taped heels for blisters, and headed out. The first bit was beautiful, a meadow running next to and sometimes above the river that came down from the peaks. Then we took a sharp right and went straight up for about two hours. The ground was muddy and slippery due to the snow and rain, plus it hailed and rained on us periodically as we made our way. When I did get a chance to look out, it was outstanding. Finally, we reached the top of the first ridge then headed relatively horizontally across to a second ridge and the snow-line which marked the pass we would cross to go back down. We crossed rock fields, a river and climbed a slope half covered with snow. The peaks I had seen that morning from below were now next to me. When we climbed the final ridge, we were on the snow-line and then surrounded by a cloud which obscured the view with gray and pelted us with sleet and wind. To my amazement underfoot in the snow were beautiful violets, one of which, hopefully, will make it to you. At this point, we were at 11,200 feet. Then we came down, and here I am. Two days ago, I had no desire to go back, but now I+d like to. It was a powerful experience, a humbling one, that I will never forget. I really felt my insignificance there in the realm of things - and the raw power of nature - ideas and things I had known about, but never really felt before. Anyway, training is the same. We start four weeks of practice teaching on Monday, so I have some preparing to do. I will fill you in on that next time. Know I miss your very much, and can+t wait to hear from you! Give my love to everyone. I+ll write them soon. Love always, Joan