A Mountain Marathon
By Dan Kearney
On May 23 hiking clubs from Kriva Palanka, Stip, and Probistip came together for the annual Marathon Hike from the monastery in Lesnovo to the monastery in Kriva Palanka. Climbing
up and over the Osogovski Mountain range and covering 44
kilometers, the hike was indeed a marathon. Along with Jillian
and Kacey and Conor Malloy, I rose at the ungodly hour of
3:30am to catch a cab to the start of the hike. Our action picks
up there…
Mile 0: The hike set off from the Lesnovo Monastery. I think
most of us were vaguely carsick after the winding roads up
the hill. It didn’t help that the taxi drivers treated the trip like
a Formula 1 race, passing each other on corners and generally
treating my stomach like a soccer ball. Our taxi driver listened
to some American tunes from the 80s, most memorably Rod
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