Sunday I went for a hike up to another lake in the park. 
Lake Shaitankol, or "Devil's Lake". This is one of the most popular lakes in the region. There is a legend surrounding this lake. In the olden days, a beautiful girl named Sulushash fell in love with a poor shepherd boy named Altai. The girls father, Tleuberdy didn't not approve and the two decided to elope. The two sweethearts and Altai's faithful friend Kausar took shelter in the Karkaraly mountains. When they reached Lake Shaitankol, Altai and Kauser left the girl by the lakeside and went hunting. Kauser fell down a cliff when chasing a argali (big horn sheep) and died.In the meantime, Tleuberdy was in pursuit of the couple and set the forest on fire to smoke them out. Panting from the smoke, Sulushash began to run and ran smack into a tiger. To save herself from the beast, she jumped into the lake and ending up drowning.
Having heard his sweetheart's farewell cry, Altai ran to the lakeside. But all he could see was her hat floating in the icy waters. Without hesitation he plunged a dagger into his chest.
In 1905 a clergyman from Omsk, Russia, who was staying in Karkaraly, was asked to drive out the evil spirits that are rumored to live there. He consecrated the lake to God, called it Sacred, and planted a cross by the lakeside, along with a metal tablet asserting the fact and set it into the stone. However, not 6 months had passed before the cross and tablet had disappeared (the frame of the table can still be seen on one of the rocks). They are believed to be at the bottom of the lake.
In the 90's, scientists tried to see how deep the lake is. They believed it to be 200-300 meters deep, but they could not reach the bottom. Some specialists believe the lake is in the caldera of an old volcano.
Our first week at site we met a cat that followed us up a mountain. Then back down the mountain. After we came back from Lake Shaitankol, we heard a meow and saw the cat running to us. At one point he lept up on me and crawled onto my back. We named him Snegostoop. This is the funny sounding russian word for "snowshoe". He does float gracefully over the snow.
