On the 15th of March, I went to the airport to pick-up Julia and Ricarda. I took the sign from my hotel and wrote their names on it, so when they came out of the airport, they could see me standing there with the touts from dozens of other hotels. The next day I woke them up early and we got our trekking permits and did a little sight seeing. Plenty of bodies were being burned by the river and Julia and Ricarda got some good pictures.
After a very early start, we took a bus to Dumre and then another bus over the unpaved road to Besisahar. We were planning to do the Annapurna Circuit. This trek normally takes two to three weeks and the last third of which is the Jomsom Trek, which I did with Fiona in February. We walked a couple of hours in the afternoon and spend the night in Khudi. The next day, I felt sorry for my friends because I had woken them up so early for two days. I let them sleep late and they did not stir until after ten in the morning.
After a tough climb, we spent the night in Bahundanda and had our first showers of the trek. The next night we made it to Chamje and the following morning Julia and Ricarda amazed me again by sleeping very late. They acted as if they were on vacation or something. By this point I was glad I had two very good science fiction books with me. I spent the mornings reading and chatting with the other trekkers as they came by. Of course, once we started walking, every one else was always long gone and we had the trails all to ourselves.
On the 20th of March, we walked by a big landslide to the village of Karte. My two travelling companions were a little sick and it was a shame that the toilet was such a long walk away. After another good morning of reading, we made it to Tanchok. The dead rat put my friends off of the place, but I really liked it. It felt like the Rockies to me. There were plenty of pine trees and a nice river. I had a good morning reading by the river. I also played with the kids a little bit and learned some of their language. I would say things in Nepali and they would translate it into their own language for me.
The beginning of this trek was in a low, wide, fertile valley. By this point we were travelling up impossibly steep and tall canyons that saw plenty of landslide action. Every day we passed dozens of very tall waterfalls. After Tanchok the canyon widened out into a valley again. We spent one night in a small village and then made it to Lower Pisang. From Pisang I went on the first of my great solo hikes.
These late starts and short walking days had left me with a great surplus of energy. With Fiona, I had used this energy to go for a jog up the side of a mountain while we waited for lunch, but now I had even more time and energy. While Julia and Ricarda rested, I walked up a side valley. At first, the trail went by many pine trees that the locals had felled and cut up for lumber. Then I wanted to walk past the next hill, then past the next bend, then as far as the snow, then to the big rock, then up the hill, and finally, after my seventh goal/turn around point, to the very end of the valley. I ended up walking up the side of the end of the valley and overlooking a glacier spilling through a canyon. By the time I returned to the lodge, nearly four hours later, it was dark and I had had a great little walk.
From Lower Pisang, we actually got a fairly early start and decided to take the high route to Manang. We climbed from Lower Pisang (10,500 ft) up to Ghyaru (12,000 ft). The climb proved a bit difficult for Julia and Ricarda, so after carrying my pack and Ricarda's pack to the top, I ran back down to bring up Julia's pack. After lunch in Ghyaru, we continued for about twenty minutes. Julia and Ricarda had been taking turns all morning feeling sick and now it was Julia's turn to feel bad. It was two in the afternoon and we had barely walked a quarter of the way to Manang, so we decided to turn around and go back down to Lower Pisang.
The next morning I got up early and zipped up the hill to have breakfast in Ghyaru. I then took the high road to Ngawal, ate again, and then took the trail down to Ongre. I had a good lunch there and then started taking the low road back to Pisang. I soon ran into my friends coming up and we went back to Ongre for a break. We walked up the valley some more and stopped for a meal in Mungji. We ate at the Trekker's Bakery and Mount View Restaurant, the only place to eat in town. After the best meal ever, we continued up to Manang (11,600 ft).
After dinner (yes, my fifth meal of the day - it is important to dedicate some days to eating, occasionally), Ricarda lay in bed, clutching her stomach and moaning a lot. The Himalayan Rescue Association has a clinic staffed with several volunteer Western doctors in Manang. I went to ask if they do house calls and Dr. Paul said 'no'. So we dragged Ricarda the 100 yards down to the clinic. They gave her a shot, some pills and a diagnosis of 'Bowel Infection'.
The next day, Ricarda rested and Julia and I strolled by the lake and up to the bottom of the glacier. In the afternoon we went to the lecture at the clinic on Altitude sickness. Afterwards, Julia got diagnosed with giardia. I think the next day was a rest day for all of us, even though Julia went back to the doctor and got medicine for her urinary infection, and on our fourth day in Manang I went for a little stroll. Mungji was only about 45 minutes away and has my favorite restaurant in all of Nepal. I went back for Veg. Cheese Mushroom Au Gratin, Hot Lemon, Chocolate Cake and a Roll. The mushrooms were not the normal canned variety, but rather, big black things that are local and very tasty. The hot lemon was not too watery. The chocolate cake was the best on a trail lined with chocolate cake and the roll was fresh and delicious. The meal cost nearly four dollars, but it was more than worth it.
I strolled back up to Manang and went on a 1000 foot climb up the side of the valley with Ricarda. After four nights of rest, we went up to Gunsang (12,800 feet). At high altitudes it is important not to sleep much more than 1000 feet higher each night. We got to Gunsang by lunch time, even though Julia was still a little weak. I walked with Julia and Ricarda up another 1000 feet to get used to the altitude for the next day. They returned to our lodge in Gunsang and I went up the valley some more. I found a herd of about fifty Blue Sheep and watched them for a while. Then I went up the side of the valley and returned to the trail via a high ridge.
After a good morning of walking, we made it to Letdar at 13,800 feet. The three of us went up another 1000 feet to acclimatize for the next day and then they went back down to the lodge. I continued up the valley, onto the side of a glacier and followed it around to the end. I found a lake on the glacier and listened to my favorite music, rocks falling onto ice. By this time I was several thousand feet above Letdar and it got very cloudy. It was also near dark and I did not have a flashlight. When you have a long way to go and very little time, there is really only one choice. I ran. I got back a little after dark and had a good dinner.
Julia needed a rest and relaxation day now that she was feeling better. Also her foot hurt her a little. At around ten in the morning, Ricarda and I hiked up the several thousand feet to the lake on the glacier and sat there and watched it for an hour and a half. At around three, Ricarda went back down to Letdar. I found a trail the previous day and debated with myself for two days. I could not decide if it was a very steep trail or a landslide. I went to the bottom of it and decided it was a trail and followed it nearly straight up the end of the valley. At the top, I came to a pass and looked down onto a whole new valley/glacier and across at many peaks and high glaciers.
I also noticed another trail going up the side of a mountain to nearly 16,000 feet. I could have kicked myself when I found this trail, because I had not left enough time to climb it. It was late afternoon and I had to decide if I would return the way I came or follow the new valley down and make my way back in this manner. The new valley appeared to end in a giant cliff, but I wanted to go down and make sure. There also appeared to be an alternative way down to the left. It was getting late, so I ran down the valley. About half way down I decided that if there was no way down, it would take me too long to come back up and over and down. I turned around and re-traced my steps to the pass and then went back to Letdar. I arrived just after dark.
For no reason that we could discern, Julia's foot swelled up and got very tender. She could not walk. The airlines had been on strike and we could not count on flying out. We were also about half way through the circuit and if we were going to walk out the way we came we would have to move soon. Ricarda really wanted to finish the circuit so she continued up and Julia rode a horse back to Manang. If Ricarda was going to finish the circuit, she had to continue on this day.
In Manang, one doctor said Julia had Gout and the other one said it was not Gout, but that she should be evacuated by helicopter to a hospital in Kathmandu. Julia balked enough at the thirty-dollar doctor visits and was not about to pay $1000 to be flown out. She decided to just rest and see what happened. We found out that the pilot strike was over and we could fly out from one day back or five days forward. We would not finish the circuit, but we would wait and see which way we continued.
On the second day of our second visit to Manang, I hiked up a few thousand feet to Ice Lake, saw a bunch of yaks, looked down on a new valley, climbed over a ridge, and ended up in Mungji and had my favorite meal. I got back to Manang just before dark. On the third day, I read a book. On the fourth day, I climbed up a different valley, along a ridge, saw a bunch of Blue Sheep, got to a pretty high altitude, and came back to Manang via Gunsang, where we had stayed the previous week on the way up.
This morning, Julia was feeling very good. We walked up to Yak Kharka (13,000 feet). On our acclimatization hike Julia still felt well and at the point where she would normally turn back and I would continue, she continued as well. It started to snow pretty heavily and the yaks all turned white. We got to the top of the valley and I decided to continue into the next one and down the other side. Julia returned the way we had come and I explored the new valley. The clouds eventually cleared enough to let me realize that I was near Letdar, in the valley with the glacial lake. This had been Julia's best and healthiest day of the trek.
The next day she was feeling a little weak, but we continued up. I took my big side trip up the mountain and determined that I could have come down the valley I had turned around in the previous week. Julia took a little hike and then we finished the day in Thorong Phedi at 14,600 feet. Julia was tired and went to bed early. In the middle of the night she developed the unmistakable signs (smelly and frequent farts and burps) of another round of Giardia. I felt sorry for the rest of the people in our dorm room. In the morning she was in no condition to continue, so we declared a rest day.
Luckily, on these trails, doctors are a dime a dozen. We quickly found a couple of trekking doctors to give her the appropriate anti-biotics. I finished my book by lunch, so I went for a walk. I found a nice canyon and climbed over rocks, jumped across the river several times and made my way up river. Because of the rocks and ice, it was my most challenging day hike yet and it took me at least an hour to go the first 100 yards. Then it opened up and I ended up climbing up to about 17,000 feet. I mis-judged where the return trail was, found it too early, and got back a bit before sunset.
Julia was still not 100%, but we were running out of time. She took a horse up to the top of the 17,769 foot pass and I walked. Because we had spent so much time at high altitude, I was very well acclimatized. We had spent 15 days in an area most people zip through in five. For this reason, while most people took four or five hours to get to the top of the pass, I raced up in just over three hours and barely lost to Julia's horse. We walked down the other side and got to Muktinath by three, just before the snow started.
The next day, we went down to Jomsom and bought our flight ticket on Yeti Airlines. We also spent the night at a lodge where three of my fellow Trek America guides happened to be staying. It was nice to catch up on the company gossip for an evening. Then we flew back to Pokhara and found Ricarda. The two of them shopped and I relaxed. After a bus trip to Kathmandu, they shopped and I relaxed. We did a little more sightseeing and then they left on the evening of the 12th of April.
Tomorrow I go to the Equator Expeditions river camp on the Bhote Khosi (river) for a week of kayaking before I fly back to Florida.
One interesting note on my language ability. I have picked up a bit of Nepali and Hindi and a few words from three or four local languages, not to mention some more German from Julia and Ricarda. I can now exchange pleasantries in Nepali and Hindi and in English using Indian grammar and vocabulary. Also, there is a Kenyan family at my hotel, so I have brushed up on my few Swahili sentences as well. Languages can be so much fun sometimes.
I learned the Nepali words for 'what' and 'excuse me'. Now I can alternate between the two whenever someone speaks to me in Nepali. It can take a minute or two before they realize I will never have any idea what they keep repeating and they laugh instead. Also, if I have been giving some kid a hard time and he mumbles something in Nepali, I can say 'Excuse me' really loud and everyone laughs while he is worried that I understood him when he said bad things about me.
All in all, this was one of my favorite treks. I greatly enjoyed all of my various day hikes. I would like to come back and set up a tent as a home base and spend a few more weeks exploring many of the side valleys and villages.
