Beautiful Noise: Austria Journal 7- Book Mountain

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One Wednesday afternoon, after cleaning the Mensa after

lunch, Alex hurried me into sporty clothes and down to the Spar where several of our spelunking friends, Katrina, Caitlin, Courtney, Mark, Evelyn, and Rachel were waiting to make the trek up Book Mountain, another one of the mini-mountains that surrounds Gaming. This particular climb actually included a path (as opposed to our spelunking/cliff climbing adventure) and led to a cell tower and a clearing of trees where Franciscan students have carved their names and signed a book for years.

Random uprooted tree. It's absence made a huge bowl in the ground

The path began at a set of metal stairs in some random Gaminginian’s backyard and zigzagged through a series of stations of the cross up to a beautiful scenic overlook where an iron cross perched on a rock jutting out over the picturesque landscape below. We spent a good half hour taking dramatic pictures here, most of which have adorned our facebooks and spurred even mere facebook acquaintances to comment in awe of the sheer natural beauty of it all combined with the powerful symbol of the Cross.

From there we continued on and up through a forest that looked like something straight out of Lord of the Rings. I felt like a hobbit making my way through Fangorn Forest, or Lothlorien, where the trees and terrain made me feel my smallness and insignificance in the face of such long-established parts of creation. We eventually reached a point of some confusion where some of our group decided to climb up the mountainside rather than search for the continuation of the path. I was among the sensible few who preferred to never experience such a climb again, so Mark, Courtney, Caitlin, Rachel, and I backtracked until we discovered a narrow, winding way that climbed steeply upward. This path was even more beautiful than the first and led us through glades of lush green, ethereal beams of sun slanting across the path at perfect angles for really interesting pictures.

The last few minutes led us up a quite steep but always climbable way and finally to the clearing where several Franciscan students were employed carving initials and symbols into the already full trees, signing the book, and searching for fellow student’s entries from years gone past. Unfortunately, the book only dated from 2011 because someone had removed the old Franciscan book (Too bad! I would have liked to find Aunt Ali!). We all signed the book and found stones to carve our names into the trees. I carved mine and Andrew’s names into the well-marked bark of one such tree while half of our group went off to find the cell tower that everyone climbs to get a really good view of Gaming.

Mine is the orangeish looking heart

When I finally finished etching my mark into the tree, it was nearing dusk. I ran to the cell tower and climbed about half-way up before being completely overcome by the sheer height of it all. I’m a big wimp. Our more brave friends (Katrina, Mark, and Caitlin) made it all the way to the top and they exclaimed for hours over the beauty of it all. It almost made me wish I had followed their example, but I have yet to overcome this fear of heights enough to embark on such a daring feat.

In our excitement, we lost track of time and soon discovered that it was nearly dark. Not nearly nervous enough, we began the trek down, following the path and praying a rosary along the way. At one point we entered a denser area of the forest and had to depend on someone’s iphone light to find our way. We joined hands and formed a human chain, still praying, until we emerged back at the bottom where the iron cross overlooked the village. Tiny lights sparkled up beneath us and we took a few moments to ‘ooh’ and ‘ahh’ over it all before continuing on our way. At this point, someone had the idea of singing (probably me or Courtney) and we all joined in our favorite Les Mis and P&W songs. It turned our fear of the dark into fun and our tentative steps into confident ones and as we neared the bottom, I thought about how God shows us the bigger lessons of life through practical experiences. For instance, when we climbed the mountain to the caves, I learned that you just have to cling to what is concrete in life and keep climbing even through the unstable parts, keeping your eyes on your goal. On this hike, trusting God to guide us through the darkness, became the theme. There were parts of the forest so dark that all we could do was feel the person in front and behind us, but praying and knowing that God was there protecting us helped us to find our way out with the aid of just one tiny light to follow.