Our Friendly Neighborhood Turret

Last week we didn't have school, so we thought a manly adventure of epic proportions was in order - camping on the Great Wall.

So Tim, Joseph, and George (our awesome Chinese brother) hopped in George's little car and scooted to a little village in the mountains and started hiking up this insanely steep mountain. We started at 3:30 and didn't reach the Wall till 7:30. We had way too much stuff - a dozen fresh eggs, an airmattress, a charcoal grill, charcoal, onions, potatoes, garlic, a yellow pepper, a hunk of marinating beef, and an espresso maker (ok, maybe not the last one, but the point is we were overloaded with crap). Hiking on this viciously steep trail with all our junk would be like swimming 400 meters in a three piece suit with a briefcase in your left hand and a caramel macchiato in your right.

When we finally reached that ancient stone snake we found a vacant turret and set up camp and slept there for two nights. The sunrise in the morning was breathtaking.

We were awoken each morning to the cackle of Chinese hikers waiting for the sunrise from the turret next door.

Joe and I slept under the stars. I invested in a really nice goose down sleeping bag before we left, but poor Joe just had a blanket. He may or may not have chipped a tooth due to shivering. I offered sharing my bag, but he hesitated, then politely declined.

The following day we were out of water and brew so we hiked down the other side of the mountain and made it to a quaint village in less than an hour. Now we know where to park next time...

When we packed up camp and hiked to the touristy part of the Wall we got some stares with all our stuff (I was holding our grill like Captain America's shield) and our stank. We took the ski lift down the mountain.

If you would like to see a few more pictures from our trip click on the orange link to the right that reads: Micah's Online Albums.

Diggity.
米佳