The Trek and more... (told by Corrine)

Hello everyone! Corrine here, live from the Hyatt in good ol’ stinky Kathmandu! This place is BA-NA-NA-S! An oasis in an otherwise crazy and filthy city. Our trip is just about over, we’ll hang out here for the rest of the day and catch our airbus home tomorrow. As I sit here next to the pool with aching legs and bruised toes I figured I’d take some time to fill you all in on the in and outs of our journey.

As you know we started our trek by hitting a horse and climbing stairs. I like to refer to the stairs as Satan’s hallway. It was insane. They were endless. It was hot. I’m out of shape. Enough said. It took about an hour to climb them, then we progressed to a pleasant walk and a nice lunch before getting lost in a Nepali village. We walked and walked and walked. Mike picked up a leech. We walked some more. I started to panic in true Corrine fashion when I found myself in a rice field staring at a bull in the middle of nowhere. The sun was going down and we were lost. We took a road the villagers said “no white people travel” which lead us to a small porter carrying chicken feed. Mike “ I could be a porter” Larrivee asked to pick up his load. This is what he looked like. (to the right) The day ended well in a nice tea house with Wifi, Nepali moonshine, and a Colorado couple with a nasty cough.

Day 2 found us going down a rocky path. This is when we learned that going up and down go hand and hand in Nepal. This day was extremely hot and we trekked for about 7 hours, so I refer to it as Satan’s porch. I fell twice, spraining my right middle finger and leading to a Dan Keel like fear of going down stairs. This was not the biggest injury of the day as Mike “ I could be a porter” Larrivee decided to jump off a 3 foot wall carrying a 50 pound pack ( surprised?) and popped his knee out. My poles came in handy

( he had already broken one earlier in the day, don‘t worry mom the piece is easily replaceable) and he was able to carry on. The day ended with a steep climb and a tea house with a hot shower which was a nice surprise =)

Day 3 was the hardest for all of us, our legs were aching and it seemed like we were all really, really exhausted. It started with the steepest climb of the trek, followed by the steepest decent of the trek, followed by the second steepest ascent of the trek. Cow poop was everywhere, flies were swarming on us, and it was wicked hot. We also had a lot of ground to cover. We ran into some goats and got to walk thru some Bamboo forests but we all wanted to die by the time we got to the tea house. Hot showers were now a thing of the past, we were quite used to squat toilets and using a flashlight to go anywhere or do anything. We were eating dinner at 630 and sleeping by 730 every night.
Day 4 found me wrestling with a plague. I picked up a very nasty cold and had limited cold medicine. Our injury report was climbing. Ryan’s knee was messed up, Tony’s knee was really bad, Mike had a self inflicted wound and I was feverish and coughing. Katie remained unscathed at the time ( though she now thinks she has a stress fracture on her foot). We trekked up again and took it slow ( so to speak) because we could only go so far due to avalanches. At the tea house we met a group we refer to as the Belgian Waffles. They were a group of 5 women, aged 50 to 67, hiking up the mountain. They were a riot. The stars that night were amazing, we could even see the Milky Way dust. It was getting very cold and we were almost to our goal!
Day 5 found us hiking up to MBC ( the fishtail Mountain) and on to ABC! I was still really sick but managed to make it with the groups “ no man left behind” motto. It was freezing in the morning and we had to wear heavy fleeces all day. The view from the base camp was amazing. I wish I had words to describe it but there really aren’t any. It was worth the climb, the injury, the sickness, the filth, the bugs, the squatting, everything. Our tea house that night was AWFUL. No power. No people. Nothing. However, we were on our way back the next morning with the Hyatt in view!

Three days down the mountain, two falls, and one night in Pokhara later and we’re almost home. This trip or adventure as we like to refer to it as was by no means easy. Even though it was hard it was really the experience of a lifetime. The views we saw got better day by day, reminding us of why we were doing this seemingly insane thing. The air was clean and it seemed as if we were getting to see the world the way it was meant to be created. I can’t explain how happy I am to have been able to have this experience.

We just gorged ourselves on a buffet and are looking forward to dinner. I may take two or three showers for fun and to make up for lost time. Hopefully we’ll see you soon!