Merry Christmas From Russia

Sakhalin Mud Volcano

September is a beautiful time on Sakhalin.  All of the trees begin to change colors and hues of yellows, oranges and reds dominate the forests.  One of our summer goals was to make it to the mud volcano and two weeks ago we did, on October 5th.  That happens to be the date that Red and I went on our first date EIGHT years ago!  Who could have guessed that our conversations over gelato at Tuscany's in College Station, TX would in time lead to marriage and to such a deep friendship full of global adventures.  Eight years have passed in the blink of an eye.  I wonder where we will be in eight more years and what our family will look like then.

Back to the mud volcano though, it's not the volcano we were extremely interested in, but more the path by which one gets there.  Our bus took us to the end of one of the train lines.  In the past, there was a Japanese built railroad that ran from Yuzhno Sakhalinsk (the city we live in) in the central valley, through the mountains to the west coast port of Kholmsk.  The path to the mud volcano follows the former railroad for about 6kms, through 2 tunnels, one snow protection tunnel and gorgeous forest and colors.  Take a look...

Red at our first lookout point.  In the distance, you can barely see Yuzhno.

Elvira and I ready for the first tunnel :)

The first tunnel was the shortest.

Guarding the tunnels were tiny Japanese bunkers.  Red has commandeered this one!

Here we go!

One tunnel down, another to go...

The snow protection tunnel.  The supports on the left are made from old railroad tracks.

Red captured a cool shot.

EIGHT years!!!! (And he's still carrying me around!)

We made it to the mud volcano! And no, it's not hot, the mud is actually quite cold.

Alina, Elvira and I :)

Love this man!

:)

 Red and I took some cool up close shots of a few of the CO2 vents...

And while the vents themselves are quite small, we were surprised to see how large the area was that is affected by the mud volcano.

Red by one of the little vents

Our view

Our group

Another group shot

Walking back toward the train station

The hike home

We had a great time visiting the mud volcano and we really enjoyed the hike/walk to get there. 

Until next time!

Hiking Zhdanko Ridge

A couple of months ago, I posted about a trip to Quiet Bay and from that bay and the hike up Brave Mountain, we could see Zhdanko in the distance. 

 

Here it is, just peaking out from behind the clouds...

 

Zhdanko was on our list of Sakhalin things to do this summer so Red was very excited when his coworker Sergei volunteered to lead a hike this past Saturday.  So we drove over two hours north to a quarry just north of Quiet Bay to start our hike. 

 

After a pretty steep climb up through the forest, we passed the tree line and hiked along the ridgelines for several hours with views of the Sea of Okhotsk on our left, Zhdanko peak ahead, and a valley to our right. 

Everyone in the group made it this far and they were rewarded
for their climb through the forest with this first view of the sea.

  

Ildar says, "Пошли!"(Let's go!)

 

Along the windy ridges

It was so nice to have sunshine and be outside!

The ridges

 
First we reached Vladimirovka Peak, marked with a small Japanese stone.  We then continued on, up and down along the ridges toward Zhdanko. 




Lunch break!





Our view of Zhdanko from Vladimirovka Peak


 

Elvira came on the hike!! I was so surprised and so excited!! 
And let me take this little time out to say that Russians have something in them that Americans don't have,
my Russian teacher said it's called, авось, or "in case".  Basically, Russians are tough!

 

 



Yep...it's still far away...we have a long way to go...

 

The Japanese Marker I was telling you about.

 

McGehee vs Saunders/Aggie vs Longhorn

 

We love exploring together!

A little ways from the goal peak, I was getting tired, we reached another peak, and looking back over my shoulder was a little disheartened to see that we essentially had to reclimb the mountains we had come over earlier in the day to get back to the quarry. 

*Pinch* - We live here!

Where we came from and to where we must return...

So behind us you can see what we had to climb back up...

Matt and Tanya with Lexi and Annie

About half of us decided to stay, while the others, including Red, pressed on to Zhdanko Peak.

Zhdanko peak is on the right.

Almost there...

The last bit was pretty steep

Proof that they were on the peak - another Japanese marker

Ildar and Red at the top



Red REALLY wants to be Russian, so they let him pretend :)

The real Russians...Zhenya, Sergei, Kostya and Ildar

Sergei heading down from Zhdanko



 

It worked out really well, because we were able to start back early and the faster hikers caught up with us about halfway back on the trail.  Wild cranberries covered the mountains as well as other berries that I'm not sure about.  The cranberries were delicious and were a nice snack as we climbed along the ridges.

One of my favorite pics from the day: Elvira with her cranberries :)



Beautiful Creation

The dogs ran all along the trails with us - Lexi and Annie are tough!

It was a long day, but very much worth the time to get there and the effort to hike - it was absolutely beautiful.  And I thought Quiet Bay was stunning, but now, I have to say, the hike to Zhdanko is now my favorite place on Sakhalin.  I love living near mountains!    What a wonderful Saturday!

Playing with filters on my iPhone :)

Almost back down to the bus, just as the sun was setting