Tourist centre "Yunost" at Katun

Today I'm going to climb up to the top of the mountain to see a lot of new. It's an exciting adventure. I enjoy this wonderful sunny day, and for the sake of not letting the remembrance of it lose somewhere in the past, I decide to retain it by writing travel notes.

So, at about half past eleven in the morning I come closer to the mountains and start to search for the path that could lead me to the top. It seems to me that there must be a way to the only place suitable for viewing. Having not found any, I decide just to go up the ravine between the mountains and then to ascend the right one. I make my way through small bush, admire flowers... Interestingly, soon I find the road. It's easier to go following it and I continue my way without much hurry, just looking around. However, the road is at the left side of the ravine, but it doesn't make any difference, there is always an opportuniry to turn off the road and get over to the other side...

Up and up I go, the road gives place to the path which becomes less discernible. I come across a huge fallen trunk on my way. Corkscrewing through the bush of gigantic nettle and fern, I continue nearing the peak. At last, I can see a small bit of the Katun from behind the trees down there...

...I cross the glade between sticking up dry trees and trunks. The ferns are rustling, the sun is shining... The advance slowers down, there is no path any more, the bush of nettle around me exceeds the man's height, and the only thing that inspires me to move forward is the desire to overcome all the difficulties and to reach my final goal...

I feel that my perception is different here. Silence, peace, sunshine... solitude is combined with joyful mood...

Chance raspberries are a pleasant surprise to me... However, raspberry- bush has thorns. Another obstacle is the bush of plants wound by reddish stalks of some creeper.

And some other beautiful plant twines around dry trunks, creating incredible compositions in the form of columns and arches.

Undoubtedly, someone has been here, but when? I see his footsteps, I try to follow them, but lose them again...

Finally, the slope becomes flatter, leading me to the pass. I can't see the Katun now. I try to identify the place of the glade a little down the top I saw yesterday.

But as it was mentioned on the map, there is no forest at the other side of the pass. I see more mountains, sun-lit grassy slopes... According to the map, the lake Manjerock must be beyond the pass between the two mountains which can be seen from here... I wonder, could I see the very lake if I climb up to one of the nearest peaks, or is that pass still too high?

Meanwhile, I can have a rest... Although I'm not tired yet, but just in case. Here I have much more strength than at home. Altai is a beneficial place...

An idea crosses my mind that the chosen ascending way - across the meadows in the ravine between the mountains - is not the easiest one, for herbage is much higher here because of the sun and humidity... I guess, it's better to go up through the forest...

Now I have one task left undone - to find the place from where the Katun shows itself in all its beauty and to take the photo of it. First, I ascend a gently sloping path to the neighbouring peak at the left. There trees close the field of view. I come back and set off to the right peak, which is higher. Again I come across the bush on my way, but now I know how to go around it - by ascending from the east. At last, I find several magnificient views of the river right by the top. Now I can say that I have achieved my ultimate goal.

I enjoy this place. I decide to see the sights around. There is the so- called "taiga dweller's rule" - to come back following the same road (not to get lost). But I follow another one - "adventurer's rule", which is quite the opposite.

At the top there are big flat stones surrounded with low thorny bush... I sit for a while, then begin to descend.

I'd love to go to the hill that I can see on the left ahead in the distance. From it there may be an excelent close view on the Katun... But for that I have to go down, cross the ravine covered with trees (which apparently close the river), and go up again... Well, after the descent I'll think over whether I want to ascend again or not...

Pines on the slope, rocks made up of stone oblique-angled blocks - all these are picturesque photos... The charge in my camera has almost run out, but I take photos of everything on my way, including beautiful butterflies...

Gradually, I go down the ridge. Each mountain, each slope reveals its individuality. One is abundant with high umbelliferous plants, another - with bush, still other - with gramineous plants, wormwood, origanum, multitudes of butterflies or ant hills.

Pines majestically rising above the mountains have consumed almost all the charge of my camera. Now I go down the steep slope towards the ravine covered with trees. I can hear the stir of the river. I'm inspired by the idea to bathe this warm sunny day. Over the stone placers, soft grass, mossy debris of rocks, down and down I go until I reach the gorge where the small river runs, seethes, falls from the stones with cascades. I have a refreshing bathe in one of them (about 30 sm high) directing the sream at myself with my hand.

I go along the river and come across a small path. It turns out that there is a wonderful waterfall several metres down the river... The river contains little water and I'd rather call it a brook... Is it the mentioned in the list of excursions waterfall brook?

So, the last photos are taken, the camera switches off. I have a rest by the path. Frugal meal - I have taken with me some sweet peanuts and juice. I'm a little tired, but in general the sensations are marvellous. I have a feeling that the nature around me fills me with its strength and gives the sensation of plenitude of life...

Having reached the road, I see the sign with the name of river - Cheremshanka. Past the village with the same name I go to the bank of the Katun and move down the river towards the tourist centre.The path leads along the very bank and once it disappears under the water. The water level must be above the average now. I ascend the coastal steep, go forward a little and stop to sit under the branchy birch before coming back to the tourist centre. There is the pebble beach below. The Katun flows incessantly, some parts of the stream move faster, others slower, constantly changing the pattern of the surface...

Not far from me stones stand out from the water and the stream breaks at them creating the tracery out of white froth and making a noise... Somehow I see in it the analogy with the flow of life: when there is no obstacles on the way of our willl, everything goes vigorously and smoothly... And when hindrances prevent from going straight, the harmony is upset, will and conciousness break into streams, which can contradict and collide with each other. There is much more noise and thoughts, but the more energy is spent at producing noise, the less significant is the result... However, the process itself can be impressive... The traces of the obstacles vanish in a while down the river and the stream proceeds to flow as smoothly as before...

So, this small part of my life, filled with sunshine, fragrances of grass, sensation of the mountain vast expanses and somehing else which is forever beyond the word power, has come to the end...