Around the Next Corner With Wendy: Trek Day 9b - 10: We'll Be Coming Down the Mountain When We Come!

The Prek Chu River in the mist

So now you think you've seen it all...it's just more of the same heading back, right? In some ways, you'd be correct - that pattern of clear blue mornings and misty afternoons, pine forests, hardwood forests and jungle is indeed repeated for the last few days of our trek. However, I was there, and I don't feel like I got to see it all - so I hardly think I could have shown it all to you through the very limited lens of the blog.

On the other hand, it will move much more quickly now. Our hike certainly did! After days of creeping ever upward, slowly acclimating to the elevation and the trek, now we were speeding back down as if we were on a mission.

And for me, it was a mission. After my disappointment at not reaching Goecha La, I was pretty much done with the whole thing (emotionally at least). I just wanted a hot shower, a soft bed and a chair to enjoy my dinner on. While I've certainly felt this way before on longer backpacking trips, I've never actually found myself counting the nights until I was done with it with quite so much relish. I was still enjoying the experience, but I was ready to stop enjoying it and get back to enjoying something else!

We were glad to be headed down the canyon and this group of 40 or so was heading up. They were an Eco-Tourism class from the University of Puget Sound in WA, and it was nice to talk to some Americans. Note to self: find courses to teach which involve taking students to places like this!

A willow tree getting ready to bloom

Enjoying the hike, for sure! - Photo by Sarah

Back at Kokchurong

At this point, the mists were still rolling in and out, giving us brief glimpses of Pandim.

Sarah journals while we wait for our tents to be

erected

Karma was the only pony in our group that was actually trained for riders, so Raj decided to hop on and give it a spin. without the proper bridle and saddle, though, it didn't last long or go far! - photo by Sarah

The Prek Chu

Mists down the canyon

Pandim peeking (or is it peaking) through

By mid-afternoon, the fog was so thick you could barely see 10 feet in front of you. We all retired to long games of Farkle and Rocks.

That evening it rained quite hard, and we were pretty tent bound. After dinner, Raj stopped into the dining tent (for the most part, we couldn't pay the guys to join us in the tent) to talk to us a little about the end of the hike and to encourage us to keep in touch. And he kept talking. And he kept talking. A couple of times, Tashi came in and asked him questions in Nepali, but he always just sort of waved it away. Turns out Tashi and the others were wanting to kick us all out of the dining tent as it turned into their sleeping tent at night. Eventually, we got Raj out and we all turned into our own sleeping tent.

The next morning, we didn't see Raj first thing. He admitted to us a little down the trail that there'd been tumba (a local beer - will post more later) involved in the long conversation the night before. We all had a good laugh at that, as none of us had been brave enough to speak the theory aloud, but all of us had suspected it.

Day's hike (for me without Goecha La): 10km and 400 meters lost (about 6.2mi, 1200feet)

As predicted, the morning was sparkling clear!

Looking down the valley where we'd be hiking in the morning. The night before, Raj had scared us a little with his talk of 'stupid' tourists who don't listen to their guides and fall to their deaths on this portion of the hike. As it turned out, it was nothing at all to be afraid of!

On the trail through the dense forest. This section of trail is too narrow for the dzo and ponies, so they are lead back up the very steep hill we'd descended a few days before. Thank goodness I'm not quite as wide as a dzo!

This 'cave' under a massive boulder is named for a guide who died here from altitude sickness. We're still well above 10,000' here, within the zone where you can encounter life threatening problems at any moment.

Sarah demonstrates how hollow some of the trees are...

It's just after 8am, and already the mists are settling in. Something tells me it's going to be a very long day hiking in these conditions...(you can just see Sarah up ahead of me on the trail)

If the trek from Dzongri to Tanasing was my favorite bit of hiking, than this day (from Kokchurong to Tshoka) was the hardest. The trail itself was relatively easy - gentle up and down for several miles as it contoured in and out of the tributary drainages of the Prek Chu. However, the mists settled in thick and cold very early, and there were many sections of this narrower, more forested track that were still covered in slick ice. What wasn't icy was slick and muddy. Anke, who's knee wasn't the best on downhills, really struggled with the slick descents and Sarah, too, kept an unusually slow pace in order to protect herself from knee pain. With few views, and only occasional points of interest (usually little waterfalls) to keep us entertained it turned into a very long hike which all kind of runs together in my memory.

Sarah begins a climb up one of the icy sections.

Anke crossing some packed snow - as we lost elevation, however, it did get warmer.

A small tributary

Wild violets

One of the many ridges we crossed

Back into the land of the rhododendron.

We stopped for lunch at Phedong, but once again that spot was complete fogged in. The rhododendron forests were creepy in the thick mist, but it added a whole new kind of beauty to the trek. At that point, however, we were back on the pack trail, and the combination of rain and heavy traffic had made the trail a complete morass. We took the steep descent slowly to avoid ending up face down in the muck.

Raj was really dragging all day, and I began to suspect that it was more than just the excess of tumba the previous night...

Sarah in the blooms

Petals falling on the path

Misty mountain majsety

The sacred lake at Tshoka

Ponies grazing at Tshoka

Day's hike: 17km and 1000 meters lost (about10.5 mi, 3200feet)

Our team set up camp in the same spot at Tshoka, though this time it seemed that there were more groups already in the small town. Alok, Gael and Anne-Gael's group was staying in one of the hiker's huts and when we saw the tables and chairs in their room, we elected them to host the rest of the card and dice games.

Placement of the rocks became of vital importance in this game... re positioning them became a game in itself.

It was our last night on trek and our cook went to great lengths to make us a fantastic dinner. The highlight of the meal was a whole head of cauliflower (which by this point had become one of my favorite trail foods), steamed and topped with a spicy Chinese sauce and cheese. YUM! As we were finishing our meal, Chung-Wan came in to speak to us for a while and help us with our 'thank you's' for the crew and tipping. Though it was made clear from the beginning that tipping was expected, we weren't ever able to get a straight answer about how much from Baichung or Raj, and no one else we spoke to seemed to be sure. It was very nice of Chung-Wan to help us out, and after a bit he brought in the whole crew - who came bearing two small cakes the cook had baked just for us with the words 'Happy Trek' written on them in decorative icing. It was such a wonderful treat.

We thanked each of the helpers on the trek, for they had been enormously helpful, generous and cheery the entire trip. Unfortunately, Raj wasn't feeling well and didn't make the final gathering. We ate as much of the cake as we could after such a big meal and retired for our last night on the thin, hard foam pads.