Annapurna Circuit/Around Annapurna Trek

11/29 (Day 1) Met a Belgian named David while eating a cinnamon roll and drinking chai waiting for the bus to Besi Sahar. Although this is one of the most popular treks in Nepal, it is now low season, so it was only David, a Chinese guy, and myself on the bus to the starting point of the Annapurna Circuit. Trekking in the low season would prove to be amazing and quite the difference compared to the heavy traffic during the high season of the Everest route I did in oct/nov. It was a 5 hr. ride to Besi Sahar in beautiful weather with gorgeous views of snowcapped peaks set behind terraces and people hard at work in the fields (as it was now harvesting time). Start the trek in Besi Sahar (760m/2493ft) and walk to Bahundanda (1310m/4297ft). Beautiful, beautiful day. The best weather day I had ex\perienced in a while. Gorgeous walk along a wide canyon with the glacial blue Marsyangdi river running through it and views of the big snowcapped mountains of Himchuli and Manasalu (8000+m) in the distance. With the harvest going on, all the villagers are quite busy. Walking through the villages is like walking through an age long ago…everything is done by hand or by buffalo. No machines and very little tools. SO MANY poinsettias everywhere. Bahundanda sits on a big ridge, so has some nice views.

11/30 Walk to Tal (1700m/5577ft). Another gorgeous weather day. Bananas and oranges growing all around. And interestingly quite a bit of wild Marijuana and of course the locals are also harvesting some MJ. Following along (as we will be for several days) the blue and rushing Marysangdi and its gorge the whole way. Walk through lots of villages and by some pretty impressive waterfalls. I pass the Chinese guy from the bus at some point (you could actually take the bus several km’s further up than besi sahar now as they are building a road and he stayed on the bus to go as far as the bus’ can go on the road) and he is delighted by me trying to speak some Chinese to him, so he buys me some tea and fresh juice. After Chyamche village, the Marsyangdi River gorge gets steep, narrow, and deep. The trail is high up on cliffs looking down at the raging river with some waterfalls falling into the river. They are just getting to this point with clearing a place for the road. Of course there is little machinery, so the workers are using picks and such. I enjoyed watching them trundle the rocks down the long and steep canyon. Made me think of the bro and all the good times we have had trundling. The village of Tal has the river running right through it and an awesome waterfall right outside of our guesthouse. Tal is the first village in the Manang district and is thus Tibetan and Buddhist as opposed to more Hindu in religion and Indian in race. Today David and I met Eva from the Czech Republic. And thus we had formed our little group for the whole circuit. David is 26 and an economist. Belgium has a thing where during your career you are allowed to take up to a year off from work at any combination of 3 mos intervals (3, 6, 9, or 12mos) and are guaranteed to get your job back upon your return as well as while you are off work you get paid 400 euros (520 bucks) per month by the govt. Wow…to be Belgian. He is taking the year off and spent 5 months doing trekking in S. America (he didn’t help at all with my desire to go there next for a big trip), went to burning man in Nevada, and is hitting SE asia and India next. Eva is 28 and a psychologist who leads workshops, so she can design her own schedule and does lots of trekking vacations.

12/1 (day 3) Yet another gorgeous day!! (and I would end up having gorgeous days every day of the trek. I didn’t see a cloud until the very last day in Tatopani, which eventually burned off. Of course it was December…in the Himalayas…often near or above 5000m, so it was often bitterly cold, but that doesn’t really bother me and in fact I think sometimes makes things more enjoyable and lodges more cozy. The freezing elevation at night was about 2000m (6500ft), so you can imagine as we got above that it got quite cold…but again not a problem and I liked how it added a bit of a challenge. And during the day since the air is dry and the sun intense, it actually feels quite warm even if the temp isn’t actually that warm. I actually hiked in shorts everyday while going up and didn’t switch to pants until the mostly downhill days as you don’t work as hard and they were in an estes park type wind tunnel) Hike to Kotho (2640m/8661ft. Still along the steep Marsyangdi gorge. I take a 2hr sidetrip to Odar village which is very rustic and has absolutely no tourist things at all. Just pure Tibetan village. Reminded me a bit of the models or animations you see in museums of Native Americans in the southwest working on maize and other crops…drying stuff on their roofs of adobe houses. It is what they were doing here, and would be doing in the villages as we continued and headed into drier areas due to the rainshadow of the Annapurna range. The villagers were busy drying corn, burning stuff, doing things with millet and some other wheat type crop up on the roofs of their little houses. I then hiked up high to a viewpoint with good views of Manasalu and Lamjung Himal. From the village you could also see Annapurna III. Afterwards the hike was up on the gorge through huge pine forests with some great views of Manasalu and surrounding mountains. Arrive in the tiny village of Kothe just in time for sunset turning Manasalu a fiery orange. In the morning I pass lots of children walking to school. Often walking over 1 hour to a village for school. The old adage that grandparents say of walking uphill, barefoot both ways to could could definitely be used by these kids on their grandchildren. The trail goes steep up and down as it crosses ravines, so it is uphill both ways…and many of the kids were barefoot and those that weren’t were wearing the cheapest flimsiest flipflops. Again, we were the only ones at our lodge and we had a special dinner sitting on the floor with a little charcoal oven to keep us warm.

12/2 (day 4). Nice sunrise over Annapurna II. A nice hike today along the gorge and through pine forests. Reminded me a bit of Colorado, especially the smell for some reason. We walked by this amazingly huge rock wall. Really impossible to describe the size of this mountain of rock. Hopefully my pictures can do some justice. Then onto Upper Pisang (3340m/10,955ft), a tiny and cute desolate village. Very Tibetan w/ all the stone and mud buildings and lots and lots of prayer flags and prayer wheels everywhere. Great views of the glaciated mtns here including Annapurna II. Pisang is the beginning of the rain shadow, so it is very dry here and reminds me of the landscape near bryce canyon. Off the subject, but for some reason was reminded to write it in my journal here, we are of course enjoying lots of apple pies on what has become known as the apple pie trail.

12/3 (day 5) Great day! Long day. Start at 6am and hike with David for a couple hours to Pisang Base camp (4380m/14,366ft) for outstanding views of the whole Annapurna range. Also saw lots of endangered blue sheep. Came back to uppers pisang for breakfast and then hiked to Braka (3360m/11,023ft) via the high trail trhough Ghyaru (3670m/12,037ft), Ghyaru pass (3788m/12,424ft) and Ngawal (3660m/12,004ft) with amazing views of the annapurnas and pisang peak the whole way. The villages were really cool and interesting. Built on completely arid hillsides and mostly stone with some unique wooden ladders used as stairs and of course plenty of gompas (stupas), prayer flags, and prayer wheels everywhere. I took a side trip to Julu village which was an abandoned ghost town w/ only wild sheep around. Then went to a monastery and then down into a vallwy with another teeny tiny village. I then entered into a wide valley with a river in the center surrounded by tall mtns on all sides before I finally arrived in Braka a bit before 6. Very dry scenery now. Stunted juniper type trees, dusty, mesa type erosion, and little canyons and washes.. Reminds me of the area near Red Canyon in Utah or perhaps Buena Vista, CO considering the tall mtns around.

12/4 (Day 6) Acclimitization day, so just a 30 minute walk to Manang (11,614ft). But first we did a climb up to the twin ice lakes (Kicho Tal) (4600m/15,088ft). The lakes were of course frozen and we slid around on the ice. A whole lot of funny and very curious yaks around. The best thing was the amazing views though of the Annapurna range and the valley. You could also see out towards Tilicho peak and Gangapurna, gangapurna lake, gangapurna glacier, and Manang. Awesome! I then explored the sweet old village of Braka w/ its fancy Gombpa and old stone buildings set up on a dry mesa. In Manang, which is a big ’city ’ for here, we had soe bakeries and then watched the french film Caravan (aka Himalaya, which I recommend) at the ’cinema ’ complete with yak dung fire to keep you warm

12/5 (day 7) Bakeries in the morning and then I visited the turquoise Gangapurna lake w/ the huge Gangapurna glacier coming down near it. Manang has some nice mtn views. I explored Manang a bit before heading off to catch up with David and Eva on the way to Tilicho Base Camp (4150m/13,615ft) Gorgeous hike (I feel like I am using gorgeous a lot, but what can I do..I guess it is a writers problem in the himalaya) above a river gorge w/ excellent views and dry landscape. We had to leave Eva at a tea house halfway to the base camp because she had a headache (we feared altitude sickness and you have to be cautious) and was thus moving too slow to make it to the base camp. It was ok b/c this was just a side trip and not part of the circuit, so we would be back again and she should be better acclimated for the actual pass. From that point on we were on a sweet trail along a steep and dry scree area that could be described as a sort of moonscape or a huge version of the mesa type cliffs you see around grand jct. The trail was quite interesting going up and down and winding through the unique dirt formations, across the steep landslide areas on an often narrow and exposed and very steep trail, all w/ huge views of the glaciated mtns. The base camp is just a tiny tea house in a small valley w/ a glacier coming in and huge peaks surrounding it.

12/6 (day 8) Woke up early for the steep climb over Tilicho pass (4990m/16,367ft) and onto Tilicho Lake (4920m/16,137ft. The last hour or so was walking on a snowy trail. Tilicho Tal is supposedly the highest lake in the world. The views hiking up were amazing, but the view of the lake from the viewpoint was breathtaking. The lake was partially frozen and had a deep blue color. Behind the lake you could see distant snow capped peaks, to the right were barren/dry mountains and to the left were completely snow covered and glaciated mountains with glaciers coming into the lake. The lake is quite big (4km long by 1.8km wide). Daivd and I were the only one to go there all day. We walked down the steep slow to the lake’s bank and then walked for a while along its shores to get a closer look at the glacier. After hanging out at the lake for a while we walked back down to the base camp where we met Eva who was on a day hike there. We all then continued back onto the cool trail to stay at Sheree Kharka (4070m/13,350ft). Again, we were the only ones in the whole village. We had a nice fire and especially good tea that night and witnessed a blazing sunset over the distant mtns.

12/7 (Day 9) Nice late breakfast out in the sun, enjoying its warmth and the views. Walk to Letdar (4200m/13,778) via a shortcut route over a small pass that went in to the valley where the annapurna circuit trail was and thus avoiding going back to Manang. Walked by an interesting abandoned village on a hill near the pass. Saw lots of wild blue sheep today. In Yak Kharka (4018m/13,182ft) where we had lunch, we met two ladies from Boulder who had already been skiing…jealous! Back home. The hike up to Letdar is in a dry canyon with incredibly dry mtns that have big glaciers on them however. The scenery is looking very Tibet like.

12/8 (Day 10) Easy day in terms of time, so we waited for the bright sun before getting out of our sleeping bags for breakfast. Continue the walk up the dry canyon to Thorong Phedi (4540m/14,891ft) where we had lunch before the steep hike (with great views of the desert glaciated peaks) to Thorung La High Camp (4886m/16,026ft). I then hiked up to a viewpoint (4925m/16,158ft) (and would later come back for sunset as well) with amazing views toward Gangapurna. Watched some blue sheep grazing outside the lodge that evening.

12/9 (Day 11) Hike up to and over Thorung La Pass (5416m/17769ft). I wait until the sun comes up to start although most people started before sunrise. It was supposed to take 3-4 hours to reach the top from the high camp, but it took me just a bit over an hour even though I wasn’t even pushing it. I am just in good shape for mtn climbing right now. I even got several comments (as I was wearing shorts) on my calves as I passed people. I guess my calves must be getting back to their old form when Kaitlyn and Ali and Rick used to call me Trav Calves and my mom used to be able to pick me out on a football field or basketball court from a distance not by my jersey number but by my calves. I ended up, even with the late start, being the first on the pass, which is always nice to have it to yourself. Even in the low season, about 20 peopl would go over it (but that is quite small compared to the 200 everyday during the high season) Great weather (again) on the pass and of course with a pass comes great views…backwards towards the annapurnas and forwards toward the dry Kali Gandaki river valley and mustang region. The pass was definitely the easiest of the high passes I had done in Nepal, but an accomplishment nonetheless. I walked back down a bit to help David and Eva up if need be. Then the long, long and steep descent to Muktinath (3760m/ 12,336ft). that is in the bottom of the dry valley. Reminds me of Arizona landscape, like perhaps the Santa Catalina mtns, except here has much less vegetation, so maybe almost like death valley-ish. In Muktinath we visited a famous hindu mixed with Buddhist temple that is a major pilgrimage site. Eva, David, and I celebrate our success with a bottle of Raksi (local spirit) and lots of food (food is cheap again after a couple days of expensive food high up on the pass.

12/10 (Day 11) Big day! David was feeling exhausted from yesterday, so he was taking a direct route to Marpha along a new road. Eva was feeling a bit stronger, so she was doing one side trip. I was feeling fine, so I was going to do more. We started a bit late b/c we had an extended breakfast convo on evolution/creationism. My firest excursion was a side trip to the other side of the valley to visit 3 tiny villages: Jhong, Putak, and one other. Uaint little medieval type villages made of mud and stone. Great sweeping views of the big mtns and glaciers from the villages. Jhong was particularly nice with a ruined fortress up on a hill overlooking Muktinath valley. They have now built a fancy gompa on the hill. Then took an out of the way path through barren land and no settlements of the lower part of the forbidden upper mustang region in order to get to Kagbeni. A nice view of Kagbeni and the Kali Gandaki river as I approached it.. It was getting a bit late, but there was a viewpoint I really wanted to do. I was sort of undecided as to whether I should go for it. In the end, it wasn’t the promise of great views, of seeing upper mustang, the headwaters of the the Kali Gandaki, or into Tibet that convinced me, it was that I had 2 remaining victory Snickers left. One was reserved for the hot springs in Tatopani, but what would I used the last one for if I didn’t climb this peak. In a fashion similar to my dad (except that he has snack chocolate, lunch chocolate, snack chocolate again, final destination chocolate, and then snack chocolate once more during hikes, whereas me the poor backpacker can only afford to bring destination chocolate), I brought along what I called victory snickers to reward myself when I reached a cool destination or the top of a peak and a pass. The sign for the peak said not to go unless you go early in the morning because of terrible winds (it was 2pm)…but hey I come from Estes Park the windiest town in the world we swear, have skied Parsenn bowl when they close the lift, and the copper poma when the stinging snow causes exposed sking to bleed, so I wasn’t worried. The sign said that the hike to the top would take 2.5 hours. Since I didn’t have time for that, I hustled up the steep screefilled switchback trail as quick as I could and made it up there in a touch under an hour. The view was most definitely worth it! The view included Thorung La Pass which we had just come over, Nilgiri, Dhauligiri (8000+m), Kagbeni way down below, the Kali Gandaki river valley to the south and upper mustang (off limits w/out $500 permit…though in my out of the way trail I had gone a bit into it), Tibet, and the headwaters of the Kali Gandaki to the north. Ran down the trail (under 30mins) to Kagbeni where I had a quick (and delicious!!!) apple pie before heading on to Jomsom. Going to Jomson, you follow the wide Kali Gandaki river valley, that except for the river, is like a desert. Jomson is a big town, and like a city to me at this point with its shops, multiple streets, etc. The road passable by busses as even made it up this far and there is a tiny airport. (most trekkers now take a bus or plane from here back to Pokhara as I guess they are weak sauce and don’t want to finish the circuit bc of the road…but this is sad bc it is easy to avoid the road the whole way to Tatopani by taking trails on the other side of the river, and the scenery, trails, and culture are still just as amazing here). I was cruising at this point bc I knew it would be dark soon. If I had been by myself I would have stayed in Kagbeni or Jomson, but we had all agreed to meet in Marpha and I didn’t want them to worry about me. The last 1.5 hours to Marpha were in the dark, but I took the road for this part so it was easy. The alpenglow on the peaks after the sunset and the amazing stars made the walk quite nice anyways. During this trek, unlike the others I did, there had been no moon or a small moon, which meant that being up in that high altitude with no humidity and clean air and no light pollution, the stars were absolutely amazing every night. It was worth going out into the freezing cold to see them! And in the middle of the night when you had to get out of the toasty sleeping bag to pee, it was always one of the joys. As I arrived in Marpha (2670m/8760ft), I caught up to Eva who had also hiked the last bit in the dark. We had to search Marpha for a while before we found the guesthouse David was at. At the guesthouse was also a group of 4 from Flagstaff that we had run into several times before. Marpha is famous for its apples and orchards, so we of course had apple brandy, hard apple cider, fresh apple juice, and apple pies.

12/11 (Day 12) And then there were two… David was feeling sick, so he took a bus to Tatopani where he would meet us if he was feeling better. We (and the Flagstaffers) had a delicious breakfast of apple pancakes, apple sauce, aple pie, and apple porridge before leaving Marpha. We were laughing at how our bodies must be handling all the sudden influx of apples. Michael from Flagstaff gave me his contact info to enquire about a cool sounding job where you lead (mainly rich east coast) high school students in National Parks. I explored a bit of Marpha wi/ its apple orchards, monasteries, and white stone buildings and narrow cobble streets. Very cool town. Reminded me of how I imagined old European villages to be. B/c there is now a road on the normal trail side, I went to the opposite side of the river and took local paths, visiting several villages like Chhairo and Chimang along the way. They of course had the old and rustic feeling and came complete with impressive views of the mountains, including Dhauligiri. The trail went up and down, so you would get nice views of the mtns and river valley below. First the walking was through apple trees and scrub fores. Then the trail left the villages and I walked through dense pine forest going up and down the side of a steep mountain with impressive views. Reminded me a lot of hiking in the fall back home on account of the cold, pine scent, and blustery wind (this valley gets nasty winds). I then came back down and crossed the river where I met Eva for lunch and we walked together to Kochethanti (2545m/8347ft). It is a tiny little village along the river at the foot of Dhauligiri. Eva and I were definitely the only western people here and probably had been for a while since the high season ended.

12/12 (day 13). It is beginning to look a lot like Christmas!? Eva and I got up early and walked up to Titi Tal lake (2700m/8856ft) which had sweet views of Dhaulagiri, the Dhauligiri ice fall, and Nilgiri, but was itself just a small pond. Went through 3 quaint and scenic villages set against a backdrop of glaciated peaks: Titigon and 2 others that I cannot remember the name of right now. Then the long descent to Tatopani (1190m/3903ft). As we got lower, towards the village of Dana, we entered areas of banana trees and orange trees loaded with ripe fruit. I picked my own oranges off a tree: 10 for 25 rupees (72 rupees equals one dollar, so about 1/3 ofa buck for ten delicious oranges. Also tons of poinsettias which was cool b/c I had made myself a makeshift advent calendar (my mom usually sends me one, but it was not possible this year), and today the window I had opened was a poinsettia (or at least what was supposed to be one, but I think with my drawing skills, it was unknown as to what type of flower it was). We were still following the blue kali gandaki, and we still had nice mountain views. There were many more villages now and a busy system of suspension bridges across the river, one of which was definitely the highest and most nervewracking suspension bridge of the trip. We also went by 2 huge waterfalls and apparently the spot that is the deepest gorge in the world, reasoned by the same method that China claims to have the deepest gorge: a river between two 8000m peaks, though I still reason that for a gorge to be the deepest, it must be actually carved by a river, not be a river between two tall mountains. We caught back up to David in Tatopani. He was feeling a bit better, but still sick. Eva and I were thankful we had walked as it had taken david 4 hours to go 32 squashed and bumpy kilometers (about 20 miles)! After dinner, I went and soaked in the AMAZING hot springs. Great on the muscles after the long descent. And even at the lower elevation, it was still cold in Tatopani, so that made the hot springs extra nice. It was crazy to think that in the morning Eva and I had been walking across frozen creeks and that by the late afternoon, we were picking oranges and bananas. That will tell you how much of a descent it was!

12/13 (Day 14) Soaked for a while in the hotsprings in the morning. First day of the whole trip that had some clouds. We were so happy about our weather! Then it was the short walk to the bus station for a miserably cramped, bumpy, and dusty 7 hour journey to Pokhara. David and I had to say a sad goodbye to Eva as she was continuing on to Ghorepani. Back in Pokhara, I enjoyed some tasty and cheap food!