What motivates you not to skip gym sessions? For me, it's hiking in the mountains.
Always be prepared to throw on your backpack and set off to see places that cannot be reached by car.
Fortunately, my children have also fallen in love with active tracking and are happy to accompany me. My family also gave me a tent for my last birthday, so I am sure there will be more opportunities to connect with nature in my life now.
A summer trip to the Carpathians during the children's vacation is becoming a tradition for me.
Last year, we took our 8-year-old daughter Sofia on a children's trip called "Child of the Mountains" organized by Kuluar — climbing, trekking, hiking.
This year, the three of us went together with Ilya (who will soon be 15), so we chose the "adult" program "Lakes of Svidovets" in the Dragobrat area.
I had almost all the equipment I needed for the hike, as it wasn't my first time. My dad lent me some trekking poles, I bought a few more hiking essentials, and off we went to gain new experiences!
We met up with the group at the train station in Frankivsk, where a minibus was waiting to take us to Yasinya. Later, we transferred to another bus, which took us to Dragobrat and dropped us off at the very top of the mountain, so we didn't have to make a long climb with heavy backpacks.
On the first day, it rained heavily during our entire transfer. I had already mentally prepared myself to walk in the pouring rain, but then the rain stopped, leaving behind mountains shrouded in fog. The next two days were sunny and beautiful.
Thank you, #kuluar — the route was wonderful! We saw two mountain lakes, Garishaska and Vorozheska, flocks of sheep, incredible views of Dragobrat in summer, and... we found snow! It was snow that hadn't melted yet. The children were overjoyed.
First, they spent half an hour scraping wet snow (an iron camping cup came in handy), then they built a snowman. And we also had time to go sledding on snow slides 😉
Our team leader Sasha was attentive and kept everything under control. At the beginning of the track, he asked me about my hiking experience and whether the children had hiked before. Then he gave me (a mother with a huge backpack and two children) a second walkie-talkie just in case. But we were walking so briskly, and Sofia was running ahead of everyone, that we had to take the walkie-talkie back and give it to the last participant 🙂
Honestly, I was warned that going on a hike alone with two children could be difficult. Carrying my own things and most of the two children's things seems like a daunting task, but systematic training over the past two years has paid off. I won't say it was easy, but it was manageable.
We had a great rest, walked thousands of steps, saw the beauty of the mountains, and took a break from people and air alarms.
And when we got home, we took out our map of the Carpathians from Kuluar and marked new peaks and interesting places.
See you in the mountains!
