4:00 am came too soon.
I got ready in the dark but everything had been set out so it was quick. Left my bag at the hotel; Kavee arrived in taxi shortly afterwards and off we went on a road that quickly became very curvy and filled with potholes. It was dark, the night lit up with stars.
Before 6 we arrived to the gateway village and started walking, the light of dawn just beginning to awaken the horizon and illuminate the stone buildings in soft tones of grey. We walked along a river to our left, steep hillsides rising in front. After only about 15 minutes, we stopped at the next small village and got tea. The women were just rising and going about morning activities.
After another hour or so of walking along a dirt road we stopped for breakfast; I tried a Tibetan bread with honey, it was dense and good.
A jeep came by and we hopped on in the back. The road was devastatingly curvy, the switchbacks so sharp in some places we had to make three point turns to go around them. In the back we were bounced around too much to even consider taking a photo. A man joined us on the jeep but there was no room for him inside so he climbed onto the roof which seemed like a terrifying idea. The landscape dropped away as we climbed rutted and rocky roads higher and higher, until we could see the peaks of the Annapurna range rising behind the forested mountains of the foreground. The rhododendrons and pine forests were interrupted with villages, homesteads, and large terraced fields down steep hillsides. It felt like a dream.
Finally we got dropped off near the start of our secondary trail turnoff. This was a side trail to Mohare Danda, a peak that has a tea house, and an amazing view of the Dhaulagiri and Annapurna ranges, but is less visited than the more popular Poonhill. As we started up the dirt path, we encountered men with large flat stones; they were building up the trail to be more official. Many of the more walked pathways along the route are in stone, but this one was one of the lesser used trails. As the Annapurna Circuit becomes both more visited and more developed there is work being done to develop these alternate routes to give visitors more options, spread out visitor use, and reduce impacts on the landscape.
We climb up steep forest to start, moving slowly, taking time to marvel at the flowers and the trees and mosses and lichens. Kavee teaches me about flowers and their uses, but I get to teach him some things about botany as well; there are many family and genera similarities to other places I’ve been. The rhododendrons are blooming thickly and we walk through these absolutely incredible forests of them. Some of them have a bit of toxicity and in places there is no understory because they prevent other plants from growing. One thing that does occur frequently are two to three different species of Daphne, which is a false jasmine flower. Whenever we go through areas where it is thick the air is scented with heaven.
We stop for coffee. Kavee gives me a small cube - I think you’ll like this he says. I place it in my mouth and it doesn’t have much taste. I let the saliva activate it, slowly. It’s yak cheese, but a really hard variety. Over time it softens and becomes a good trail snack because it keeps the mouth busy and gives a little bit of flavor.
As we climb we reach snow. The rhododendrons are beautiful in the snow. As we continue it gets deeper, and the clouds begin moving in. After some time we are in a total white out, just as we exit the forest to a grassy opening. We see two tall flags ahead, in place of the painted trees we’d been following. After the second flag though, the cloud we are in is so thick and the white out so blinding that there is no other indication as to which direction to go. Following our instincts, we continue uphill towards the ridge line, as to the left the mountain starts to drop off steeply.
The path is gone by now, and the trail is not sufficiently traveled that there are fresh footsteps in the snow. We are on the ridge line, walking in and out of forest and rocky outcrops. The view must be incredible, but we cannot see except that to the left is a sharp drop off. It’s getting colder and the moisture in the air increases along with the density of the clouds. We should be close but with the inability to see where we are going it feels like the journey can go on forever.
Finally we see a building, and then two, three. The snow is calf-deep and our boots and lower pants are wet. Just as we arrive to the tea-house it starts to rain heavily. We step into our refuge and get tea and order dinner; it is a delicious vegetable curry with rice; the veggies are surprisingly fresh and flavorful. The next morning I find that there are greens growing in all sorts of covered spaces around the building; even here at 12,000 feet. Eventually they light a fire in a barrel shaped wood stove that I later find is common throughout the region. These things put out intense heat; our socks dry, and we sleep through the night in simple unseated rooms in the building below.
