Today our chef seems to have gone all our for breakfast. He added french fries to our usual fare of cereal, eggs, peanut butter, and leathery bacon. This is our last day of hiking. Our trip leader modified the itinerary so that we don’t do any hiking tomorrow. I’m not sure how that will work, but it could mean that we are hiking more than the 9 miles slated for today. We begin our hike with an easy uphill walk over a small pass.
The next part of our hike is across a ridge with views in each direction. We see the China side of Chomolhari at one point, that’s how close we are to the border. The ridge hiking is easy. When we get to the downhill part, we put our cameras away. It is steep and relentless. We drop 4,500 feet in not that many miles.
I am happy that it is not raining because parts of the trail are so deeply rutted by people and animals that the ruts have turned in to canyons the width of a horse and about three feet deep. I imagine these turn into chutes of raging water during the rainy season. Most of the rest of us take our time. We take so much time that we are about an hour late for lunch. The head horsemen worries so much that he starts hiking uphill to check on us.
When I finally arrive for lunch, I am relieved the downhill has ended. After this, it us a short, flat hike to our final camping spot.
