Thursday, October 15: Hitting the Trail

This was our first day of treking. It was supposed to be the "easy" day, but it was anything but easy. The day started off well. We woke up and watched the sunrise from the roof of our hotel. It was clear, and the view was amazing.

At 7:00, we met our guide and left for our trek. We had a two hour drive to the start of the trail. The first hour of the trek was fairly easy. We decided against hiring a porter to carry our packs. It was not very long before we questioned that decision. They say a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, but I think in Nepal every one of them is uphill. Now imagine going up and down stairs for about four hours with a full backpack on. After the first hour dad started to struggle. I was doing ok until the last hour. By that time, we were in the sun and it was pretty warm. We made it to our stop for the day at Tikedungha a little after 1:00. The net elevation change for the day was +525 meters (1,700 ft.). For reference, the Sears Tower is 1,450 ft. tall. Needless to say, it was an exhausting day, and the next day would be even longer.

Nepal is an absolutely beautiful country. We spent most of the day treking alongside a river in a valley. It's water was an amazing shade of blue that I'm sure pictures will not do it justice. We also saw several waterfalls.

The rest of the day was spent relaxing. We did some reading, and I went for a short walk. I took the picture below of some goats on the hillside with pack donkeys passing by on the path right below them. Two things that were a common sight on the trail were pack donkeys and people carrying large packs. The donkeys all had large bells and always knew where they were going. People would carry large packs on their backs and would also have a large strap that would go up over the top of their head to help support the weight. Our guide said some of the porters would carry over 100 lbs. this way.

Our accomodations were pretty simple. All the little towns that you came to had guesthouses. Our room had three beds with hard matresses and pretty much nothing else. The toilets were squat toilets that were shared with other trekers. There also wasn't much in the way of entertainment in Tikedungha. This was fine with us. All we wanted to do was take a shower and relax. We also didn't feel bad about being asleep by 8:00.