Annapurna Circuit

Its hard to put a 18 day trekking adventure into a short story.

There are so many things to describe. For myself I kept daily journey

entries so here I will simply try to give you the highlights. To

give you an overview, the entire Annapurna Circuit is 210 kilometers

(about 125 miles). It begins at an elevation of 820 meters or 2400

feet and climbs toward the high pass called Thorung Pass at 5416 meters

or 17,770 feet. It is a very popular trail since there are numerous

villages with teahouses where you can sleep and eat along the way.

Because of the pass, the circuit was a little like hiking in the

Columbia River Gorge. The first half of the trip was up, up, up and

the second half of the trip was down, down, down. There was certainly

a little bit of up and down each day. We call this "Nepali Flat" for

anytime a local Nepali told you the trail was going to be flat it

usually meant that it was a little bit of up and a little bit of down.

They even had t-shirts to this effect and Tony proudly wears one now.

One guy described it perfectly when he shook his hand in all different

directions as he said "Nepali Flat" because even if you were actually

walking flat the trail still wasn't smooth. It was either uneven rocks

(which could be ankle breakers) or you were walking through running

water or thick mudd. The journey

began when Tony decided to ride on top of a local bus to the starting

point of the trek. The reason for this was because the inside of the

bus was a clasterphobia nightmare of people and chickens and

baggage. The roof wasn't much better as a lot of the baggage and more

people were on top. Now there were no seats on the top of the bus but

there was a luggage rack. Most people sat on the edge of the rack and

as Tony would learn hung on for dear life. If you can image the worst

4x4 road you have ever been on then put that road on the side of a

cliff with a river down below you, you can image how Tony must of

felt. At one point the rocks on the road were too big for the bus to

cross so the driver and money collector got out and used other rocks to

build up a ramp. Lucky for Tony he was on the steep side of the road

so as the bus would rock and sway it felt like he was hanging over the

edge of the cliff. I'm sure glad I opted to stay inside even if I did

see the lady with the baby chickens use the seat cover to protect her

lap from chicken poop before putting it back on the seat when she left. The

first few days into the trek were up, up, up and it took us awhile to

get use to constantly walking through water and "rock hopping" as I

tend to describe it. We were following a valley with a river in the

bottom and all around us was lush tropical vegetation, tons of rice

fields and waterfalls. Unfortunately for us it rained on the third

night and in this tropical landscape rain means leeches. Since blood

sucking insects seems to love me, I was the first and only person to

get bit. I was standing on the trail asking Tony what exactly a leech

looked like and he said "it looks like that thing near your foot" As I

looked down I noticed I had a big blood stain on my stock. The "cure"

rub salt on the leech. Lucky for us we were standing next to a house

with an attached restaurant. Inside the local Nepali family gave us

some salt and watched humerously as the tourists dealt with the leech.

I took off my shoes but couldn't bear to take off my sock. I was

afraid I might freak out at seeing a leech attached to my ankle. As it

turned out the leech had already gotten its fill of my blood and fallen

off. After this incident I started to pay attention and learned that

you couldn't stand still for too long. If you did, you could see them

begin to crawl onto your shoes and towards your legs. Although we all

looked a bit silly with our pants tucked into our knee high socks, we

decided this was the best way to keep away the leechs. After getting above 2160 meters or 6500 feet the landscape changes into what I would describe as eastern Oregon .

There were a ton of pine trees and it became much drier and rockier.

This was probably the easiest section of trail since there was less

rock hopping and more wide, smooth trails. It was in this landscape

that Tony and I saw a group of monkeys playing in the trees. Monkeys

were the most wild animal we saw on the trek but we saw other animals

on a daily basis including donkeys, horses, yaks, water buffalo,

chickens, goats, sheep and sometimes ox or cows. We probably saw more

of these animals than we did other trekkers. The donkeys were usually

in caravans carrying supplies to the villages. Since there are no

roads which serve these villages all the supplies have to be carried in

either by donkeys or humans. We learned quickly to stay out of the way

of the donkeys (on the uphill side of the trail) since they have no

concept of how wide the load they are carrying is and they can knock

you right off your feet if your not careful. We also stayed out of the

way of the porters who carry up to 50 kilograms on their head. Its

quite incredible. The yaks, water buffalo and cows or oxes just roam

around. We did get to see a yak in the middle of the slaughtering

process. What better place to cut up the organs and the meat than the

middle of the trail? We also got to try our hand at sheep/goat herding

as there was a traffic jam on the trail while the herders were taking

the sheep and goats from one side of the river to the other across a

suspension bridge. As it ended up we were going the same direction as

the hundreds and hundreds sheep/goats and got caught up in the pack. I

even saw one actual herder carrying a newborn lamb who was still wet

and couldn't walk. Most of the other small babies were portered in

baskets from the herders heads. Now as I mentioned the sheep/goats

were going across a suspension bridge. I wish I would have counted for

there were a ton (at least 20) suspension bridges on the trail. These

bridges were used for crossing the river at the bottom of the steep

canyon. They were well built and luckily had mesh wire at the side.

Regardless they swayed and bounced as you walked across and the more

people the greater the movement . . . now imagine the donkey caravan on

the bridge! As

we got closer to Thorung Pass, the landscape changed yet again. The

trees disappeared and it became very dry, desert like with lots of

rocks and small sagebrush bushes. However, for us this was the least

dry portion of the trip. On September 24 it started to rain and it

didn't stop raining until September 30. Unfortunately this was during

the most difficult and scenic part of the journey. Not only did it

rain, it snowed . . . on my birthday as a matter of fact. A good 6,000

feet below the pass. We had been trekking almost 10 days and no one

wanted to turn back but if were getting snow at 11,500 feet, we weren't

sure whether the pass (at 17,770 feet) was even feasible. We still had

three days of hiking so we decided to push on in hopes that the

rain/snow stopped. No luck. Before going over the pass, we slept at

the village called High Camp. It snowed so much that night that when

we awoke at 4am to start our climb over the pass you couldn't see the

trail. We had come too far to turn back now and instead set off for

the long journey. The snow was about 2 feet deep and luckily we had a

mountain climber in our midst. His name was Juan and he was from Spain .

We had become good friends with him over the course of the journey

already. He forged our trail with the help of his guide and one by one

we followed behind. It looked like a team of expeditioners.

Everything was solid white except our bright rain gear and backpacks

dotting the landscape. When you looked back you could barely make out

the trail you had just come from and above us all we had to go on was

some marker posts stuck into the snow for this very purpose. We all

managed to cross the pass that day and we got postcards to show us what

the view should have looked like :) It was the highest Tony and I have

ever been and only I had a few AMS symptoms. Tony was a champ!

However, what goes up must come down. It took us 4 hours to climb to

the peak and 6 hours to climb down to the next village. It was the

longest day on the trip and we were exhausted. Unfortunately in this

area no sun means no hot water because all the hot water is solar

powered. This was September 28 and that means we hadn't showered in 5

days. Thankfully the next village had a bathtub and we were able to

get a bucket of boiled water to make a bath. The

landscape on the other side of the pass was similar and changed as we

decreased in elevation. This side of the pass was less remote, however

because there was an airport you could fly into and out of. There were

also jeeps and motorcycles but only because they had been flown in by

helicoptor. There wasn't a through road yet although they were working

on one both on this side of the pass and the other. I can't imagine

how much a road will change this place. However, a road here is

something they will continually fight. Even the trail is difficult to

maintain. Because of all of the rocks and rain, landslides continually

happen. Its quite an erie feeling to hear what sounds like thunder and

then have to look around quickly to see if there are any rocks falling

nearby. This happened a lot. To create the road and also to clear

landslides they use dynamite and simply blow up the side of the rock

cliff. The loose rock is then packed below to create the road/trail

and extra rocks are thrown over the edge. There were two very bad

sections of trail. One was famous because trekkers had been killed

here in years past. I didn't think it was that bad. The trail was

wide, it was simply that the terrain was constantly unstable. We did

see a rock slide by between a couple of our friends. To me the worst

part of the trail was the day before our last day when an entire

section of the hill had been caught in a landslide. The section was

quite long and the trail was barely wide enough to put one foot in

front of the other. In addition it was so steep that when you stepped

the rocks slide underneath your feet. The last 5 feet or so were still

sliding and you simply had to time your steps and move with the flow.

Being scared of heights I pretty much paniced. If I had been able to

see the extent of this section of trail before making my way out onto

it I probably would have turned back or found a separate

way. Thankfully we made it across safely. It

was in the airport town called Jomsom that the rain finally stopped and

it was nice the rest of the trip. I managed to catch a bad cold going

over the pass which stuck with me the whole way down. So although we

hiked out instead of flying we took a short-cut at the end and skipped

the last hard climb and descent. Although my cold was bad, it was Tony

who contracted the bacterial bug before going over the pass. Its bad

enough being sick at home but to be sick in a foreign country in a

small village in a lodge with only squat toilets in a separate shed

down the stairs behind the big building is awful. First of all the

smell is so bad you almost can't stand it and there is no light in the

toilet shed except your headlamp. Certainly not a place where you lay

on the floor and wait for the next go around. Instead you walk back

and forth to the room nine times during the night and then you push on

like a trooper the next day even if the movement of the suspension

bridge causes you to puke on the trail. Lucky for Tony we had

medication for this bacterial bug and he learned to stay away from the

local liquor brew! What

else can I say about the Annapurna Circuit? Well while we on the trek

there were certainly times that I wanted to give up and just be

comfortable. I wanted my blistered feet to stop hurting and my muscles

to quit protesting. I wanted my backpack to be lighter and my bed to

be softer. I wanted it to stop raining or needed food which tasted

like something from home. Towards the last town through we ran into

another couple from Utah

who made a very eye opening statement. They said the trek was such a

great feeling because all you had to do each day was get out of bed and

walk (granted they flew out of the town with the airport :). I thought

about that for a second and realized they were right. At home, I

remember having so many things I had to do each day (house chores,

work, errands, bills, etc.). It seems as though the list never ended.

Here, I had one task . . . walk. Don't me wrong at times the walking

was challenging and it took all the determination we had to make it

through the whole day, but it was all I had to do. Whether we stopped

walking at Noon or 5pm we were done for the day and could do anything

we wanted. It made me realize once again there is no place I'd rather

be. Also when I longed for the comfort of home I thought about the local people here in Nepal . A ton of people asked us where we were from on our trip and each time we said USA they were very excited. Because of the political

instability their tourism has decreased. A couple of years ago it was very rare to find Americans in Nepal .

Now they are so thankful to see us once again. To give you a

perspective, the average Nepali person earn $165 per year. On this

trek a room costs approx 150 rupees and its 65 rupees to $1 so that's

about $2.50. Most of the people in these villages raise crops and

animals to eat and anything extra they sell (even though its not

much). They live very simply in huts with either dirt or stone

floors. They wash clothes, dishes, themselves and anything else in

either the river flowing through town or a facuet on the street (think

black plastic pipe) feed by the river. Some have power but most do

not. Even for those with power, its very unpredictable or only works

at certain times of the day. Even in the big cities of Pokara and Kathmandu

there are regular power outages. The kids have no toys but are always

happy with whatever they might have. We saw everything from crickets

on a string to a deflated ball to sandles being used as trucks in the

sand. They especially love to see themselves on your digital camera although they don't yet understand smile when posing for a picture. Overall

it was a great experience full of ups and downs (punn intended) and

one I won't soon forget. It tested our strength and our determination

and although we didn't get to see the perfect mountain views we did see

some amazing scenery, we met some amazing people and we experienced a

different way of life. That's what this trip is all about!