© Jürgen Sauer

The hiking team sets out, ascending the Chrebet Kasna ("Beautiful Ridge") deep in the Ukrainian Carpathians.

"Are we climbing a Boyko path, once used by village emissaries to fetch milk and cheese from shepherds camped high up on the polonyny? Following the springtime Feast of Mishania—the festive and magical sendoff of the flocks and their tenders up the slopes—they would have brought village news to the eager exiles, and returned with the dairy carried in wooden vessels on horseback or shoulders."

— page 206, Into the Carpathians, Part 1
© Alan E. Sparks