27 AUG 99

On our last morning in Whitehorse, we looked for the time trials of the Yukon River Bathtub Race. They have a three day, 400+ mile race from Whitehorse to Dawson City in bathtubs. I guess the time trials were postponed due to rain. Instead, we went to Haines Junction and Silver City. Silver City is an abandoned mining town next to a lake. I took the opportunity to splash around in the lake. It was cold.

Luckily, on our hiking day, the weather cleared and we went for a nice walk into the mountains of Kluane National Park. We saw three grizzly bears on the other side of the valley and watched them for a while.

After the twelve hour drive back into Alaska and over to McCarthy in Wrangell-St.Elais National Park, we had a free day for hiking. I started up a mountain with a few passengers. We got to the bottom of the clouds, where the views ended and they turned around to go look at the foot of the glacier. I continued up to the Bonanza Copper Mine. The fog was pretty thick at the top of the mountain, but it did clear long enough for me to see the mine buildings for a few minutes. I read a bit of a book and then came back down the mountain.

On the way to Valdez, we had a pretty clear day and made a lot of photo stops. The next day, in Valdez, we wanted to go hiking up in the mountains, but it was too cloudy to see where the mountains were. Instead we took a small walk above the sound.

It is the middle of salmon season up here. We went down to the edge of the water and saw hundreds of dying salmon. Salmon are born in freshwater, eat the bacteria that live in their dead parents, swim to the ocean, return a few years later to lay eggs and then die. So, salmon season means hundreds of dead and dying fish lying around. The seagulls were able to pick and choose what to eat. They only ate the eyeballs.

We still had a few hours left in the day, so a few of us took a helicopter ride. We flew over the Columbia Glacier, landed next to the Shoup Glacier and saw a bear from the air. I have taken helicopter rides before, at the Grand Canyon, but there they are not allowed to go into the canyon, so it is pretty much the same as an airplane. Here, on the other hand, I got the full pleasure of cruising up mountainsides and back down the other side. Also, the Columbia Glacier is huge and incredibly impressive.

Very early the next morning, we got onto the ferry to go to Whittier. I was just getting into my book, when three very strange people sat down next to me. Ed, who was doing some doctoring in Alaska, his daughter Sally (whom I call 'That Girl', after the Sally in my favorite Gucci Crew II song by the same name), and her friend Kibbles and Bits started video taping me and being generally silly. I think they were not used to people being silly back to them and we spent most of the boat ride having a good time. Sally is a graphic artist and made a very nice drawing of me in the dirt on the side of the van.

From Whittier, I drove the van (fully loaded with passengers) onto the train. We sat in the van for the 40 minute train ride to Portage. It was cloudy and we did not see the glaciers. We spent that night in Kenai looking for Beluga whales, but did not see any.

We passed through Ninilchik and drove to the end of the road - Homer, Alaska. We camped at the end of the Homer Spit. It rained the entire next day and I read a book. After a stop at Portage Glacier, we went back to Anchorage and they did a bit of last minute shopping.

At times this trip was a bit difficult for me because my Spanish is not so good. Eventually, many of them learned which words I knew and spoke slowly enough that we were able to have conversations. I have enjoyed my last two special trips. Travelling with thirteen people from the same country is almost like visiting that country. I probably learned more about the daily life of people in Taiwan and Spain here, as a guide, than I would have as a tourist in their countries.

Between four and six in the morning, I shuttled them to the airport and the trip was over, except for taking down their tents. I spent the better part of last Sunday waiting for them to dry. Every three hours, just before they were dry, it would rain for about five minutes. On Monday, I got the tires changed on the van and ran into my friend Sue. She was having work done on her van at the same place and I hung out with her for a few hours.

The rest of this past week has been spent answering e-mail, reading books, cleaning equipment, planning my next trip and sleeping.

I meet my new group tonight. I also get my first hotel room since the third week of July.

12 AUG 99

Greetings from the Holodeck in Whitehorse (pop. 23,000), the capital of Canada's Yukon Territory and home to most of the territory's 34,000 people. The Holodeck is a computer place with a Star Trek theme. I like it.

After I said goodbye to my 13 Taiwanese friends, I headed back down to Girdwood to visit Sue and relax. We took a couple of saunas, went for a really steep hike and did not do too much else. I also got ready for my next trip.

On the 2nd of August, at 11:56 p.m., I picked up my new passengers, 13 people from Spain. I took them back to the campground and they fell asleep in the tents that I had spent all afternoon putting up. This group was the reason I got the Alaska trips. They booked through a Spanish agency and I am the Spanish speaking guide that was provided. I think they understand most of what I say, at least I do.

They are older than a normal Trek group, in their 30's, 40's and 50's. I prefer groups of this age. They don't get as bored when they have free time and show some initiative when it comes to helping out around camp.

When we all go up in the morning, I gave the Spanish version of my first day speech and then we headed downtown. We looked around Anchorage for a while and even saw the top of Mt. McKinley in the distance. That night we went back to camp. My friend Fiona arrived in Anchorage that night, but neither of us had phone numbers to contact each other. I knew she was getting a hotel room near the airport, so I did what anyone would do when they wanted to find a friend in a state's biggest city. I went from hotel to hotel asking for her and found her in a little over half an hour. It was nice to see her again, even for such a short time and I look forward to travelling with her in South America this winter. Fiona is doing a different Trek trip and, unfortunately, I won't see her again up here.

The next morning my new group and I headed north, to Denali National Park. We saw the dog sled demonstration. On our free day we took flights over the park and some went rafting. The next day we took the shuttle bus into the park to look for animals and hike. We saw a grizzly bear next to a river and the bus stopped so we could look. The bus refused to start and we spent well over two hours watching the bear until a new bus arrived. We continued on, saw some sheep, caribou and a few more bears. In the afternoon, I took 12 of my passengers on a hike up a hill and fun was had by all.

In Denali National Park, when you are done hiking, you have to stop a shuttle bus and ask for a ride. After our hike we stopped the next bus and it only had 12 seats available. My whole group got on and I found myself alone in the middle of one of America's largest National Parks. I started walking the 40 miles back, but after only about one mile another bus came and I got a ride. We had a good pizza dinner and called it a day.

From Denali, we headed up to Fairbanks and had a good salmon bake. We also looked around the city, the museum and the Large Animal Research Station, where they keep some muskox. We spent a night in Tok before taking the Top of the World Highway over to Dawson City. We went to the Downtown Saloon for Sourtoe Cocktails, but no one wanted one. Captain Bill has a preserved human toe that he puts in your drink. You are only supposed to touch it with your lips, but it does occasionally get swallowed.

The next day, we went to the gold mining dredge and a viewpoint before having a free afternoon to explore the goldrush town. I, of course, took advantage of some free time in a city with cheap Internet and updated my page a bit. After that we stopped at a few sights along the road and ended up here, in Whitehorse. This is a free day for them again and I am at the Holodeck, home of the four Canadian dollars per hour Internet place.

This brings us up to today. More some other day.

10 AUG 99

Hello from Dawson City, Yukon Territory, Canada. This has been a very busy summer. I have not had the time to update my page in quite some time. As always, sorry if it gets too long, it is just that I am having so much fun.

After my last update, I went into New York City and picked up three passengers. We went to look at the Statue of Liberty and then headed down to Washington D.C.

After the first night of this trip I over-slept. The light usually wakes me up at sunrise or around 6 a.m. But, this was my first night sleeping in the van in eight months. The van is what I consider my home. It is where I have spent about half of my nights since June, 1996. It is always nice to sleep in your own bed after a long absence. After this I did start waking up at sunrise again.

After a day of checking out camping stoves at R.E.I., I picked up two more passengers and we all went to eat in Georgetown. The six of us took a nice drive through Virginia and went rafting on the Ocoee River in Tennessee. Another long day of driving brought us almost to New Orleans. We did a little tour of the swamps in Mr. Denny's canoes and then headed down to the French Quarter. We toured an old plantation house and I had my drink for the year on Bourbon Street.
Another big day of driving brought us to San Antonio. Dirk, a passenger from Germany, had to leave us. He is in the German army and had to go get some extra training before being sent to Kosovo. I felt sorry for his girlfriend also, she had to stay with us, after being with him for only two weeks, after being apart for a year.

Karla came out from Houston and with Dion, one of my four remaining passengers, we went up to New Braunfels and spent a few hours floating in the river on inner tubes. There were even a few rapids to shake us up a bit.

Then we went over to Del Rio, had dinner in Mexico and then went up to Carlsbad Caverns. The bats were out in full force and gave us a good show. We had another night on the town in Santa Fe and then took a beautiful drive through the Navajo Indian Reservation to Canyon de Chelly before spending the night at Slim and Kody's Cowboy Camp in Mexican Hat, Utah. They have a new trampoline, so between ropin' and ridin' I bounced.

A nice tour of Monument Valley with an Indian was followed by a couple of days in the Grand Canyon. I did my favorite hike there and found a new spot I like even better. I walked down into the canyon for four miles, turned left, and walked another two miles. There is a small creek there. I followed the creek down a few small cliffs and found a place where the water had carved a shelf big enough for me to relax on and read my book for a few hours. Then, of course, two miles more, another left turn and up a different path to the top.

It was time to jump off the cliffs into Lake Powell and party at the Pariah Canyon Guest Ranch. I also climbed on a climbing wall for the first time there. Easton, the owner, wanted me to look good so he nearly pulled me up the wall with my safety rope. I got up pretty quickly. The next morning we rode quad-runners for a few hours before stopping at the Coral Pink Sand Dunes on the way to Zion National Park. There we took one of my favorite river hikes. We walked in the river into the canyon for a few hours and I spent a lot of time splashing in the river. I was having so much fun that I was running ahead of everyone and had to wait a lot. This also happened in Nepal, but I learned a trick there to slow me down. When my hiking partners are slower than me, I pick up a big rock and carry it. At times it was difficult to swim in the river with the rock, but I managed and did not get too far ahead of the rest of my group. That night, as on every night, Venus, Mercury and Mars were visible.

The following morning, my passengers impressed me by agreeing to wake up well before sun-rise and hike up Angel's Landing. This hike has some highly exposed sections and I am not sure everyone would have made it up if they could see how far the drop was on both sides of the trail. We got to the top well before sun-rise and could see Jupiter and Saturn in the sky.

From Zion we went over to the Lake Mead Recreational Area, swam in the lake, swam in a spring and went on into Las Vegas. We had our mandatory buffet at the Rio followed by a cruise down the strip in a Limo. On my free day in Vegas I went for a drive and explored the city.
A visit with Micky Mouse in Disneyland, and this trip was finished. It was a shame I only had four passengers, but it worked out pretty well. Each one had his or her own bench in the van. They could keep their things there and lie down for naps. They were very good at napping and, when I looked in my rear view mirror I usually did not see anyone and felt like I was driving alone.

I had only one day in the office and then met my new group that night. I went down to the lobby of the hotel to meet them at 7:30 and all twelve of them were there (one man and eleven women). This set the tone for the whole trip. They were always, with one exception, on time for all of our activities. Often I would tell them that I wanted to leave at 8:00 the next morning and they would say "No, we want to leave at 7:30" and then be ready by 7:15. We had plenty of time for extra activities and sights. I enjoyed it. Some people come on these trips and think they are on vacation and can sleep late. This group realized that they only had two weeks to see as much as they could and could sleep when they got home.

On our first day we headed north from Los Angeles, stopped to pee in the waterfall at the Madonna Inn and spent the first night camped under the giant redwood trees of the middle Californian coast. We even had time to go down to the beach to look for the sunset.

The next day we did a little tour of San Francisco and then took a sunset cruise in the bay, around Alcatraz and under the Golden Gate Bridge. I finished my city tour the next morning and had a chance to eat some great Chinese food while they went to Alcatraz. We had a couple of nights out on the town and then went to Yosemite National Park.

Our first stop in the park was the Toulumne grove of giant sequoia trees. We took the walk down the hill, crawled through the hollow fallen tree and headed back up to the van. Near the end of the trail we saw two bears in the woods, they were busy making a baby bear and did not seem to mind us. The next day, a few of us enjoyed an eight mile hike in the Yosemite Valley before pizza and ice-cream.

On the way out of the park we stopped for a snowball fight at the high altitudes. Our next stop was at a lake. There was a pile of snow next to the lake, but once I got into the water it really was not that bad. We continued on to Mono Lake. Mono Lake is very salty and you can not sink in it. I pushed through the clouds of flies and joined the brine shrimp for a dip. That night in Bishop, we drove out to the end of town and sat in the free hot-springs. As far as swimming goes, this was an excellent day for me; ice water, mineral water and hot water.

The drive to Las Vegas took us through some beautiful desert. Our first stop was the bungee jumping place. They strapped on the cord and then I dove. I got half of myself into the pool below the crane before the bungee pulled me back up. This was the first time I have ever been dipped while bungee jumping, it was fun.

This time I decided to try the MGM Grand Hotel buffet and was not disappointed. They had shrimp already peeled. The buffet was followed by the night tour of the Strip with stops at all of the free shows along the way. The new Bellagio Hotel has a show of music, lights and giant fountains of water. It is now my favorite show on the strip.

I had the next day all to myself and went for a drive. I went for a walk in the 100+ heat of The Valley of Fire State Park and then took a dip in a natural spring on the way back to Vegas. This nights buffet was eaten at the Stratosphere, before heading up the tower to ride the roller coaster and the thing that shoots you up the tower with bungee cords, high above the city.

On the way to the Grand Canyon, we stopped in Seligman, Arizona for some ice-cream along the historic Route 66. We got up for sunrise and left at 4:50. We were supposed to leave five minutes earlier, but no group is perfect. I was not up to a hike for my free day at the Grand Canyon. I decided to drive off into the Kaibab National Forest and read a book. However, as normally happens when I head off with no particular destination, I was unable to stop. I ended up spending six hours bouncing down dirt roads and jeep trails before coming out the other end of the forest and going back up to the canyon to catch sun-set.

From the Grand Canyon, we headed south and stopped at White Castle National Monument. We looked at the old Indian dwellings and then went on down to Betty and Rusty's cowboy camp. As always, they made me feel like part of the family. We took a horse ride off into the hills and had a good dinner before the roping, bucking-barrel rides and line dancing.

At 9:30 the next morning (it is impossible to get an early start from a cowboy camp) we headed off to San Diego. We got five miles down the road, to the McDonald's and the van nearly died. I made a few calls and we headed back to the cowboy camp. We almost got back there before the van really did die. The transmission broke. We went and woke Betty and Rusty up from their naps and they cooked us an early dinner of enchiladas. We hung out for the day and played in the sprinklers.

At seven in the evening, Trevor arrived with our rescue van from Los Angeles. By 8:00 we were loaded and on the way. We had 440 miles to go, our longest drive of the trip, and we were starting at sunset. After several years of driving a lot, I have learned the secret to staying awake all night. For me, it works best to feel sick. So, with my Mountain Dew, Oreos and Jolly Rancher's candy, I stuffed myself, felt sick and never got tired on the drive to San Diego. Our gasoline stops were very short because most people did not wake up, and the rest did not feel like moving. We got to camp by 3 a.m. and were asleep by 4.

At nine the next morning we were off to see the sights. A few of us went down to Tijuana and tried to get stamps for the passports. The border guard was not in the mood to give out stamps that day so we just went for some lunch and shopping instead. For our last night's dinner we went downtown. Nobody felt like staying out late, so we went back to camp.

The last day we cleaned the equipment and went to Disneyland. After dinner at the Thai restaurant, the trip was over. It was a quick two weeks.

AmeriCan Adventures (AA), one of Trek America's competitors, went broke and was purchased by Trek's parent company. AA had some special group trips in Alaska that needed leaders and Trek decided to send me. Trek did not send me up here as one of their regular tour leaders, and several other people declined the trips I was offered, but never-the-less, here I am.

I spent the morning in the Trek office and the early afternoon in the AAA office. Then I started north. Two days later I got to Seattle and spent the afternoon getting some more equipment and organizing my next trip. On the 4th of July I met Dion, from my first trip this year, in Vancouver. Then I drove for a few more days through Canada and got to Anchorage, Alaska on the 9th of July. I had a good seven day / 3700 mile drive. I saw a bunch of bears and a few moose. This drive was the same as most of the 24 day trip I did last year from Seattle to Alaska.
I got to Alaska one day early and went down to Girdwood. My friend Sue is helping to run the hostel there. She fired up the sauna and by the time I left there I was nice and relaxed and ready to meet my new group.

My first group up here in the Northland was a group of 13 people from Taiwan. One of them, Jamie, is a travel agent and organized the group and was their translator. She has been on 15 AA trips before and most of her group had been on at least one. They new exactly what to expect and that made my job much easier. They had already divided themselves into groups. The older women cooked, the younger women cleaned and the men washed the van. They brought a lot of their own food, vegetable peelers, rags and brushes to clean the van, metal thermoses to keep their rice warm until lunch, chopsticks, wooden rice serving paddle and who knows what else.

They were mostly in their 50's and 60's with one 74 year old and a few in their 30's. They were about the nicest bunch of people ever and always made sure I had enough to eat. And the food, oh my. I had more than two weeks of authentic homemade Chinese food. I really hated to see them go, even though I gained a few pounds. Also, this was an all hostel and hotel tour. It was nice for a change to sleep in beds for a while and watch tv.

We headed straight down do the Kenai Peninsuala. Our first stop was at the supermarket to buy a wok and all the food in the Asian foods section. They also bought a bunch of vegetables and a little bit of meat. We went to Homer, at the end of the road and looked at the view. From there we checked out the Russian Orthodox Church in Ninilchik on the way to look at the most visited tourist site in the state, Portage Glacier.

They all took a 30 minute train ride and then a very long ferry ride to Valdez. There was no room for the van on the ferry, so I had to drive around. I picked up Sue in Girdwood and we drove from about 2 p.m. until 9 p.m. We got to Valdez about five minutes after the ferry.
The next day we took a walk up a valley and looked around the town. We went over the beautiful Thompson Pass on our way to McCarthy in the heart of the Wrangell-St.Elias National Park and Preserve (a park the size of West Virginia). We took nearly three hours to drive the 60 miles of really bad road to McCarthy.

From McCarthy, we went flightseeing and looked at the very large glaciers. Then we went up to Tok for the night before heading over the Top of the World Highway. We stopped in Chicken, Alaska and in a down town with only three buildings they displayed their incredible talent of turning every little stop into a really long shopping spree.

We continued on to Dawson City and spent the night. For the next two days we drove the un-paved Dempster Highway through Eagle Plains, Fort McPherson and up to Inuvik, Northwest Territories, Canada. We then flew to Tuktoyuktuk. From Tuk we went up to the Arctic Ocean (the Beaufort Sea here) and I went in upto my knees. It was a bit chilly. We toured the very small hamlet of Tuk and went down into the community ice house. They dug a 35 foot deep hole into the permafrost and carved out a bunch of store rooms. The walls, ceiling and floor were all ice and it was here that my wet and sandaled feet finally got cold. I had to go back upto the tour bus and put my socks on for ten minutes.

After a little more time in Inuvik, we took the two days to head back below the Arctic Circle to Dawson City. We toured the gold dredge and gambled at Diamond Tooth Gertie's for two days before heading back over the Top of the World Highway to Fairbanks, Alaska. They were having a parade in the rain and we watched that. We also went to a salmon bake and pigged out.
Next, it was south to Denali National Park. We took the shuttle bus off into the wilderness, saw a few grizzlies and went for a hike.

After this, it was time to head back to Anchorage. I dropped most of them off at the airport at two in the morning and the rest at eight in the morning. It was an excellent trip.

This brings us to the 27th of July, but I am out of time right now. More when I get a chance.

26 APR 99

On the 15th of April, I went to the Equator Expeditions river camp on the Bhote Kosi for six days of kayaking. I greatly enjoyed it and may have found a new hobby. The first day we took it easy and practiced a few basic skills. On the second day we did some slightly bigger rapids and I got to practice my roll occasionally.

On the third day we did some even bigger rapids and I got to swim quite a bit. On the fourth day we went on the biggest rapids on this section. In the biggest rapid I flipped over. I tried to roll back up and hurt my arm on a rock, so I took the afternoon off.

By the fifth day I could lift my arm again and I learned how to surf the waves and play in the rapids a bit more. On the sixth day we did all the big rapids again and I only had to swim twice. In the rest of the rapids, I either stayed upright the whole time or was able to roll back up.

Some of the sections we paddled nearly everyday and it was a great way to measure my progress. I really felt like I was learning how to kayak. The small rapid that knocked me over every time on the first day became a small playground for me by the end. I was able to go back up into the rapid and surf the waves and do rolls in the rapid. Also, the big class three rapids that ate me up the first few days were easily survivable by the end.

By the last day, my arm and knee were sore, both shins were badly bruised for their entire length, my chest and biceps were sore from exhaustion, and a few knuckles were a bit painful. Also, my head would have been broken had I not been wearing a helmet. On many occasions, I could feel the helmet absorbing the blows from the rocks while I was upside down in my kayak in a rapid, waiting for the waves to die down so I could roll back up.

This kayak trip was one the highlights of my trip and I really hope to do a lot more of it in the future.

On the 20th, I went back to Kathmandu and had dinner with Jenni and her husband, Chris. I met Jenni in Africa, in 1995, and visited her and Chris in New Zealand in 1997. It was nice to catch up with a couple of old friends.

The next day I flew to Singapore, spent one night, flew to Japan, spent two hours, and then flew to Los Angeles, Atlanta, Miami and on to Fort Lauderdale. I went to bed at five in the morning, woke at 9 am and have been pretty much on the East Coast time schedule ever since.

As of now, I expect to start back with Trek America on the 18th of May and do a three week trip from New York, along the south, to Los Angeles. I hope to be sent to Alaska after that.

My next trip is already in the planning stages - southern South America in October.

24 MAY 99

I spent the end of April and the beginning of May visiting my mama, brother, grandparents, Aunt Frances, many cousins and one of my new baby cousins, Taylor. Then I left Florida and flew up to Boston. I visited dad, Elizabeth and Emily. We did some good eating.

I flew to Houston to visit my friend Karla and her boyfriend, Daniel. Karla and I went mountain biking. Houston lacks big mountains, but more than made up for it with mud. We got very muddy and had a good time. We also did a bit of canoeing, kayaking, and walking in the woods. There was no white water to play in with the kayak, but it made me eager to go back to Nepal and get thrown around by a river again.

Daniel and Karla have the second best science fiction book collection I have ever seen. They were nice enough to lend me a pile of books. I have plenty to read this summer. Daniel is also interested in science fact and it was nice to be able to discuss space travel with someone else who thinks that people should be doing more of it.

We saw a number of movies and ate in some really good restaurants. After the weekend I flew back to Boston and spent a few more days at my father's. Last Wednesday I came down to New Jersey and visited my relatives in Edison. Josh and I played lots of video games. Nancy graduated college and went on a road trip to see Micky Mouse. Josh, Uncle Jim and I played Pitch and Putt golf. If you don't worry about how many times you hit the ball, golf can be kind of fun.

Today was my first day back at work. Everything went pretty smoothly. I am the only tour leader in the office at the moment and all was quiet. I should have no trouble finishing my start-up tomorrow. My first trip this year starts on Wednesday and is almost the same as my last trip last year.

I am glad to be back at work and am looking forward to an enjoyable summer. After a great eight month vacation, I am well rested and anxious for a full summer of work.

14 APR 99

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.

15 MAR 99

After our relaxing day in Pokhara, Fiona and I headed back to the hills. With Dhan, our porter, we took a taxi to Phedi and started up the big hill. We spent the night in Pothana. The next morning was a pleasant stroll up through the rhododendron forest to a pass and then down several thousand feet to the Modi Khola, a river.

The second night was spent at Jhinu Danda. We arrived in the middle of the afternoon and I took the opportunity to head down to the hot springs. I still had some energy left, so I ran down the trail for about ten minutes and arrived at the riverside hot springs. The pools of hot water were not that impressive by themselves, but once you factor in the surroundings, they were excellent. I was the only one down there. The hot pools were on the edge of a good sized river and there were big, water smoothed boulders everywhere. The valley was steep and covered with trees. Without the clouds there would even have been some mountain views. On the walk back up the hill I was so relaxed that I was forced to walk very slowly and the climb up took about thirty minutes.

We had lunch just past the big tourist village of Chomrong. From this point on, all the villages were really just a collection of four or five lodges and not places where people actually lived. We were now in the Annapurna Sanctuary. This meant that it was for tourists only, no permanent settlements. After a night at Bamboo, we started one of the most difficult sections of the trail.

The entire morning was spent gaining elevation by climbing stairs. I prefer uphill and did not really notice the difficulty, but Fiona had a bit of a rough time of it. We stopped for lunch in Himalaya and decided to call it a day. We were not really in any great rush and it was supposed to be a fun vacation anyway, so while Fiona napped away the afternoon, I read a book.

We continued up the valley. By this point the valley was very narrow and very tall. The sides were nearly vertical and are frequently swept by avalanches. The trail took many detours around washed out sections. Looking north, we were gazing upon the southern facing slopes. They were brown. As we progressed up the valley, we were able to look south and look at the northern facing slopes of the valley. They were covered with snow and, therefore, white. It was quite interesting to walk up into a brown valley and look back upon a white valley. We spent that evening at Machhupuchhre Base Camp (MBC). This was just a collection of four identical lodges and some flat ground for tents. I climbed up the hill behind the hotel and realized that the hill was a giant wall of rock leftover from a glacier.

The next morning we walked for about two hours up to Annapurna Base Camp (ABC). ABC is situated on the glacial moraine. I spent the whole afternoon sitting on the edge of the moraine, looking down onto the massive glacier and listening to the ice cracking and the rocks falling into the small glacial ponds as the sun heated up the glacier. As far as I can tell, this is one of the best ways in the whole world to spend a day.

Up until this point, the weather was clear every morning and clouds moved up the valley in the afternoon. Also, there was still a few days before the Spring trekking season officially started. This meant that we were usually the only ones at the lodge and we saw very few people on the trails.

On our full free day at ABC, I decided to take advantage of the perfect morning weather to climb a few thousand feet above the lodge. The hill was covered with snow, but Dhan and I were able to follow a ridge of rocks up the slope. At this altitude (above 13,500 feet), I tired quickly and took many rest breaks. These stops were often longer than necessary because we amused ourselves by rolling rocks down the hill and seeing how far they would go.

Eventually, we got as high as possible without trying to walk on the very deep snow. From this high point, I was able to get a good impression of the Annapurna area. We had walked up the narrow valley into a gigantic bowl. The bowl was formed by about a dozen very tall mountains. The interior of the bowl was carved out by several large glaciers. In every direction I was surrounded by towering, snow covered peaks. I sat for about an hour admiring the view.

On the way back down to ABC, I felt like playing a little bit. I left the safety of the rocks and ventured out into the snow. With every step I sunk down to my crotch and it often took a good deal of effort to lift my back leg and swing it over the snow for the next step. I soon found that it was easier to roll down the slope than walk. That afternoon the clouds did not come and we were treated to another beautiful sunset.

Some Kiwis woke us up early to watch the sunrise, so we got a pretty early start on our way down. We went from ABC all the way back down to Bamboo. We passed the section that had given Fiona trouble on the way up, but she found it easy to go back down. I, on the other hand, am not as fond of downhill and found the stretch a little difficult. My legs were sore that evening for the first time on the trek.

After a few hours heading down the valley and a thousand or so feet heading up the next valley on a seemingly endless series of stairs, we arrived back in Chomrong. Fiona found us a penthouse room with a great view at the lodge that served the best pizzas in town.

Chomrong is the far limit of where short treks go for mountain views. Above Chomrong the trail is more difficult. For this reason Chomrong, and especially our next night stop of Ghandruk, are fully equipped to cater to more comfort minded trekkers and tourists. In Ghandruk we stayed in a room with an attached bathroom, plenty of hot water, a western sit-down style toilet, and electricity. The tables in the dining hall had two table clothes each. At nearly four dollars per night, the room was by far the most expensive one we had stayed at on the trek, but it was the last night on the trail and time to splash out.

The final day was spent going very far down the valley to Biranthanti, the town we had started our previous trek to Muktinath from. We took a taxi back to Pokhara and spent the next day and a half eating in the nice restaurants and boating on the lake. Two days ago we took the long bus ride back here to Kathmandu and yesterday Fiona flew home.

I was very impressed with the organization of the Annapurna Conservation and Protection Area (ACAP). ACAP teaches the lodges how to use solar power for hot water and encourages the use of kerosene instead of firewood. They also assist in small hydro-electric schemes, community education and numerous other aid activities. Additionally, they support local lodge associations. These groups regulate prices for beds and food and also formulate a standardized menu for the village. This prevents tourists from bargaining down the prices too far. Especially compared to the Everest area, they have done a wonderful job of educating and supporting the local populations while at the same time protecting the environment from the demands placed upon it my thousands of trekkers.

Most of the lodges had solar powered hot water heaters. They also used kerosene for cooking and heating and discouraged the sale of water in plastic bottles. Instead they offered boiled and filtered water for trekkers. Perhaps my favorite thing about the lodges was the organic gardens. Whenever I ordered a dish with vegetables, someone would come out of the kitchen and head down to the garden to pick the veggies fresh.

Fiona has a fairly good paying job in Australia and was therefore not too concerned about the cost of goods and services. I adapted to her style of travel for the month and found it a much easier way to travel. We often paid four or five dollars for a room instead of the usual two or three. We also drank as much hot chocolate as we wanted. I spent, perhaps, an extra fifty or sixty dollars over the month, but it was worth it. Now that she is gone, I have returned to my old cheap restaurants and hotels.

This evening, Julia and Rikarda arrive from Germany. They will stay for one month and we will probably do a little trekking and some white-water rafting.