Our last day didn’t come a minute too soon. As I’d feared, spending so much of the day prior wet and cold had left me sick, with a sore throat and fatigue. And my sis was suffering from some serious blisters that had been developing more each day on her feet, to the point that some were now infected. So when I say in hindsight that we should not have gone to those hot springs – this is what I mean. I should have been dry, warming up somewhere out of the rain; she should not have put her feet with open wounds into warm spring waters; and we should have rested. And NOT given the leeches a free meal. But hey, now we know.
We took our time in the morning, for once in no rush to get going. So after our last tea house breakfast – banana pancakes – we started the slow walk down to the bridge, hand-on-shoulder in tandem, at 8:10am.
By 8:30 we were at the bridge, some of us enjoying the experience more than others, and starting back up the other side when two groups of mules and ponies came down to carry supplies across the bridge. We paused to watch them go, so impressed at how well trained they were to just calmly walk across this long, swaying, narrow bridge high over the river.
We reached the end at 8:55am, 45 minutes after leaving Jhinu, and hopped in a jeep to take the terrifying, bouncy journey back to Nayapul, and then to Pokhara.
Day 7 of ABC Trek ABC (13,549ft) to Bamboo (7,710ft), 16km / 10 miles
10/27/25
Today we head all the way back to Bamboo, some 16km. We woke before dawn yet again to try to catch the sunrise and followed who we thought was Raj up to the ridge along with everyone else on the summit, but it turns out we followed TEMU RAJ – blue coat, beanie, glasses…..but most definitely not Raj. We owned up to our mistake later on, but I did think it was strange that he didn’t say good morning!
Unfortunately clouds rolled in and we were able to see the sun itself rise, so we headed back to the room to pack up and have some breakfast.
My sis was actually feeling effects from the altitude – headache, lightheaded, nausea, so we were eager to start heading back down.
My bowels are no longer holding me at gunpoint, unlike the last 2 days. From ABC to MBC, we joined the long line of people also making their way down, witnessing a helicopter take flight just as we were descending. When they’re not carrying people needing to be medically evacuated, trekkers can hire a heli to take them back to Pokhara after making it to base camp as a quick, easy, and scenic trip back to town.
As a shock to no one, it was so much easier going down than going up, and we made it to MBC in an hour and 15 minutes.
From MBC to Deurali, it was quite a bit steeper, but still not terrible, and we made it in just about 3 hours.
Here we made a choice – it was 11:20am, but we thought it best to descend the 1000+ stairs down to Himalaya and break for lunch there rather than having it now.
So on we went – it took 2 hours of slow, careful descent to reach Himalaya, past the waterfall that we somehow navigated around in the dark, watching objectively dumb trekkers rock hop across the turbulent waters rather than taking the bridge 20 feet away, and up past the Buddha cave.
Finally I started having an appetite again and enjoyed the most delicious sandwich and hot chocolate of my life.
After lunch in Himalaya, we wound our way through the wet rocky jungle on the way to Dovan. The mud, rocks, and roots remind me of home in the Adirondacks. For two hours we descended to Dovan.
Once there, we didn’t stop but kept going, trying to make it to Bamboo by 5pm. Here there were yet more stairs, and we again ran into our Aussi friends. From then on we stuck together, again sharing stories from our travels and laughing. Time went by much faster and at 5:05pm we rolled into Bamboo, set up our room, and took our first hot showers in days, cleaning a few socks while we were at it.
Deurali (10,500ft) to ABC (13,549ft), 10km / 6.2 miles
10/26/25
Day 6. A restless night’s sleep leaves me groggy but ready to start the day. Being so tightly bundled in my sleeping bag was not conducive to sleep, as it turns out. The air was absolutely freezing as we prepared, and we understood why they put us in a room with 3 others despite the empty room next door – to share in body heat.
We were late to breakfast and later to leave, finally setting off at 7:30. We watched the rising sun light up the mountains as we slowly slowly made our way. At over 10,000 ft, the air is thin and we are easily winded. We are in no rush though and take many breaks to catch our breath and enjoy the views.
At one point we stopped to rest on a rock, and between the moment we sat and a few minutes later, the dry rocks suddenly became a waterfall. A pretty clear signal to keep going, so on we went.
We were joined with many other people making the same journey, slowly winding our way up to Machhapuchhre Base Camp (MBC).
It’s estimated to take 2 hours from Deurali to MBC, but it took us 4, arriving just in time for lunch. Again with no appetite, I sipped on some garlic soup and ginger honey lemon tea, all things to help keep altitude sickness away.
After lunch we continued on our slow crawl up to ABC, but somehow the thinness of the air wasn’t bothering me anymore. After a bit of leapfrogging with the same pair of Aussie trekkers from the day before, we decided to just join up with them.
Sam and his mother Natalie from Melbourne matched our paces perfectly – Sam with me, his mother with sis. The 2+ hours from lunch to base camp flew by as we shared stories and chatted our way up the mountain. At one point we crested a ridge, and there it was! Base Camp!
Basecamp in sight
I’ve learned not to be deceived by the apparent closeness of things here. These mountains are so massive that something that looks close can still be miles away. Which sort of proved true with ABC too – it just didn’t seem to be getting any closer the longer we walked. I’ve caught on to one of Raj’s phrases “We’re almost close”. Almost close. Aka – not close. How many times he said that before I caught on that we aren’t in fact close, I can’t say. But it’s now my new favorite phrase.
I’d separated from my group, as ever ruled by my bladder, and reached the ABC welcome sign at 3:15pm. I took a few pictures then climbed up a large boulder at the edge of a ridge to see what lied beyond – a boulder field. Massive. The sad last remnants of a glacier fast disappearing.
15 minutes later the rest of my group arrived and we posed for numerous embarrassing photos in front of the sign.
It was so nice to arrive so early in the day. We got situated in our room, then ventured back out to explore and warm up in the dining room.
The mountain air was thin, windy, and FREEZING. But still, when the sun started to set and lit up Fish Tail mountain in front of us, we joined the throngs of people outside to take it all in before hunkering down in our room for the night.
I slept wearing every single layer that I brought with me – something like a thermal base layer, 3 or 4 coats, leggings and hiking pants, a hat and gloves, a sleeping bag, liner, and two blankets supplied by the tea house. I’d been taking Diamox since Kathmandu to help with the altitude sickness and while it definitely worked – I never even felt a tinge of the sickness during my trek – it made me have to pee a LOT. Which meant EVERY. SINGLE. NIGHT having to get up and venture outside in the cold to the toilet. This night at ABC was no exception but I was looking forward to it being the last time – tomorrow we would descend, so I could stop taking the meds. Hurrah!
Lower Sinuwa (7,677ft) to Deurali (10,500ft), 14km / 8.7 miles
10/25/25
Day 5. I didn’t want to wake up this morning. Reluctantly I rolled out of bed around 6 and started packing up. This time we pulled out some items we won’t be needing from this point on and left them, to be picked up again on our way back through after reaching base camp.
With everything packed, we sat for breakfast at 6:30am, messaging family and friends while we still had wifi, and doing some morning stretches. We’d again done laundry the day before and hung it to dry on our clothesline outside the room….without success. It was just so cold, everything was still wet in the morning. So I looped it around my backpack to let it dry while I walked, and off we went at 7:20.
An hour and 10 minutes of climbing stairs later, we arrived at Upper Sinuwa. From there, the way was more or less flat (read: Nepali flat – aka – not flat but close enough) before two long series of stairs going down to Bamboo.
We walked through the forests, catching stunning vistas of the waterfalls coming from the glaciers beyond the mountains all around us.
After 2 hours of walking, we reached Bamboo and enjoyed a 20 minute break with some tea, pringles we shared, and the company of a mountain dog looking for some affection. Sometimes these mountain dogs will follow trekkers from town to town and I was really hoping this one would choose us.
From Bamboo, it was a mixed bag of uphill, downhill, and Nepali flat sections. We crossed many streams from waterfalls and I stopped to dip my hands in the frigid crystal clear water.
It took us an hour and 20 minutes from Bamboo to reach Dovan. We paused briefly in town then continued another 30 minutes to our lunch spot. My appetite was nonexistant at this point, but otherwise I was feeling totally fine.
After picking at lunch, we continued on our way at 2:15pm, immediately climbing on our way to the next town: Himalaya. My belly did not agree with walking uphill so soon after eating lunch and I was grateful to find a toilet – albeit a disgusting one – just before a shrine in front of a beautiful waterfall.
From there it was about another hour before Himalaya. I remember nothing beyond stairs and hoping my stomach would hold out until the next town. It did – but barely. In Himalaya we stopped just briefly before continuing on.
From Himalaya to Dovan – 300m / 984ft of elevation gain. Stair after stair after stair. Absolutely brutal. I started counting stairs at some point along the way and stopped counting when I reached 1000.
After the last step up, we reached a cave with a small shrine inside.
From there, down a bit to a rocky river. By then it was dark, so I fished out my headlamp, gave it to sis to use, and used my phone light to carefully pick my way down to the river. When I got there, I was shocked to be face to face with Suman! Not many porters would make it all the way to the destination, then turn around and come back to walk with the group the rest of the way, but here he was.
The way to Deurali was so incredibly long – we had met a few other straggling groups on the trail including a couple of Aussies that seemed to go at a similar pace to us, so we weren’t the absolute last ones to make it to town – but it was so important that we made it all the way because otherwise, we wouldn’t make it to base camp the next day. Tomorrow would trekking uphill 3,000ft at high altitude – it had to be shorter distance if we had any hope of making it.
See the lights of Deurali up ahead
Our motivation for this day was to get there early enough so that Raj would get a bed – when the guides and porters get there too late, sometimes they have to sleep on and under tables in the dining room because they run out of space. I’m not sure we succeeded, but we tried.
20 minutes and a lot of climbing later and we were in Deurali. The last stop before base camp. This time we shared a freezing cold room with 3 others and bonded immediately with a lovely girl from Malaysia before going to eat.
It was surprising to me how many people had to leave members of their group behind on days 1, 2, or 3 to either stay in a tea house or go all the way back to Pokhara. Altitude sickness is no joke and can quickly turn deadly up here – so if you shows any signs of it, or even if you catch a cold, you really cannot continue without risking your life.
At 10,500ft, the cold mountain air seeped into our tin-can room. We bundled up in our sleeping bags to stay warm, skipping a shower after dinner and going straight to bed.
Tadapani (8,628ft) to Lower Sinuwa (7,677ft), 12km / 7.5 miles
10/24/25
We haven’t even been here for a week but it feels like a month. Our schedule has us going to sleep around 8pm and waking up around 5am.
At least that means catching a nice sunrise in the mornings.
We arrived in the rain the night before so had no idea what the view might be like from this little village. Imagine our surprise when we walked out the door of our room to this view.
We took our time getting up, packed our bags, and set for breakfast at 6:30. By 7am, we were on our way.
Today has us going 12km to a town called Sinuwa. We will descend 800ft down from Tadapani to Siprung, cross Kimrong River, then climb right back up the other side of the gorge to Chhromrong, then allllll the way back down, over Khola river, and back up to Sinuwa.
The descent was as always tough on the knees and seemed never-ending. Sis and I developed a rhythm of descending the steep stairs with one of her hands on my shoulder, moving in tandem. Which seemed to help, but it did take us 2.5 hours to reach the bottom still.
One particular spot had us rolling in laughter when she seemingly aimed her foot straight for a fresh pile of poo right in the path.
At some point on the way down, our guide Raj left us alone for a few minutes. I don’t remember why, but I do remember the shenanigans we got up to when left alone. Observe: Instagram vs Reality.
At the bottom of the stairs, we excitedly crossed a suspension bridge over the river one by one, then started climbing right back up straight away.
Somehow I spotted a little creature jumping around faaaar below on the edge of the river – a weasel!
Climbing up was as difficult for our little troupe as climbing down, especially under the heat of the sun. So again we employed our own version of Pony Service to power up the hill.
When we reached the top, there was just a few more flights of stairs, so I took sis’s pack and ran ahead to our lunch spot atop a hill.
Lunch was a nice break from the up and down of the day, though I sparked suspicion when I referred to “pop” as “soda” – New York has slowly beaten the midwest out of me and it has made me SUSPECT.
After lunch in Ghurjung, the next 2.5 hours to Chhomrong were relatively flat with little ups and downs all the way.
With the sun beating down hard and sucking away our life force, we made dashes from shady spot to shady spot, winding our way along the ridge. From high above, we could see Jhinu Danda – our last stop on this trek – faaaaaaar below.
The motivation for the day to get us up each hill of stairs was that, who knows? There could be ICE CREAM up there! Most likely there were just more stairs, but though the chances were low they were not zero that there could be ice cream up there. Spoiler alert – it was just more stairs each time.
Writing this during dinner at 7:30pm, I can’t remember much from the day besides stairs, cows, “maybe there’s ice cream?!”, stairs, ponies, stairs, puppies.
So any stairs, in case you haven’t realized. When eventually we reached Chhomrong, we looked across a stunning valley, distant waterfalls, and learned that the village almost directly across from where we were standing was the objective……..after going allllllll the way down, crossing a suspension bridge, and then going allllllll the way right back up.
According to Raj, this should just take an hour and a half total. But for us, it took that long just to descend to the suspension bridge.
And the same amount of time to come back up, dodging men on ponies driving them at an absolutely mad pace up the mountain relentlessly. Hand-in-hand we climbed each step one at a time and finally reached our tea house at 6pm, 11 hours after starting.
Looking at the crescent moon over Chhomrong
This was the toughest day yet. Following a long day 3, we were exhausted and feeling it in our muscles. I was getting some shooting pains down my leg from a tight hip, so after we did a bit of laundry and had dinner, I rolled out my tight calves and hips with my nalgene, and passed out for the night.
Ghorepani (9,429ft) to Poon Hill (10,531ft) to Tadapani (8,628ft), 11.2km / 7 miles
10/23/25
4:00am – alarms ring and we reluctantly swing our stiff legs out of bed. “Are you ready to climb Poon Hill?”, one voice asks, “No, not all all” the other responds. Yet we pulled on our layers of warm clothes, pulled our light packs over our shoulders and opened the door into the cold starry night. The darkness is dotted only by the stars and shimmering lights from hikers’ headlamps.
The plan is to climb up Poon Hill to watch the sun rise over the mountains, then come back down to our tea house in Ghorepani for breakfast, and then to continue on our way to Tadapani. Which meant we could leave with just the bare minimum essentials in our bags.
Almost immediately we start climbing at 4:30am, step after step. With sunrise at 6:15am and only 1.2km to the top, we’ve given ourselves plenty of time to climb the innumerable steps to the top.
We step aside to allow porters and ponies to pass. Without a proper warmup, I’m pretty winded for the first 5 or 10 minutes. An hour and 15 minutes of climbing later, we reached the summit of Poon Hill – which seems a lot less like a hill and more like a mountain to me, but what do I know? – just as the first light of day began lighting up the sky.
We each lined up on a section of the edge where we found a gap in the crowd to wait for the sunrise. Sis set up her tripod to capture a timelapse while I zipped from one side to the other trying to capture the light on the mountains all around.
I climbed the tower for a full panorama view along with 300 other people, wandered down to one side for a view of the Dhaalagir range, then zipped back over to the other side to watch the pinks and oranges appear beyond the layers of distant mountains. Then repeat.
And making friends each place I went. Including some dogs playing on the hilltop – so while everyone else was taking photos and videos of the one-in-a-lifetime view, I was of course watching the dogs.
We stayed up there until almost 7am. I could have stayed for days. (Post-edit – I can confidently say now that the trek is over, this is the most beautiful incredible view we had throughout the entire trek).
We made our way back down to the tea house in about 30 minutes, packed our bags, scarfed some breakfast, then started on our way to Tadapani.
Leaving Ghorepani, we started once again climbing stair after stair up in the opposite direction from Poon Hill. We were accompanied by masses of people heading in this same direction, a common path shared by several treks.
We climbed until we could once again see Poon Hill tower across from us, then climbed some more until we were back at the same elevation.
A bit more climbing into a forest and we were on a ridge with stunning vistas in all directions.
I found many interesting things on the path along with way, which naturally I carefully shoved in my pockets, but apparently my habit is contagious as soon my sister and Raj were also picking up small sticks and interesting things for me. Yay!
Clownfish leaf
The ridge was surrounded by Rhododendron trees stretching far as the eye could see – and they were MASSIVE compared to any I’ve seen in the state. It turns out that they thrive above 2,000m / 6,500 ft, which is why they were so huge and lush up here in the foothills of the Himalayas. I can’t imagine the beauty of walking this path in the spring, with the flowers in bloom – and it makes sense suddenly why the Rhododendron is the national flower of Nepal.
The ridge walk was delightful and more remote than any path we’d yet taken. It was 3 hours after leaving Ghorepani before we reached the next settlement and sat for lunch.
Did I mention that for the last 3 hours, I’d been walking with a clothesline wrapped around my pack, socks and shirts swaying with each step? And yet everything was STILL wet from wash the night before, so we spread everything out in the sun while we waited for our food.
The laundry in question
An hour later we were packing up our now dry clothes and starting on a looooooong descent down to Banthanti, following a stream as it cascaded down cliffs through verdant rainforest.
The trek is a bit misleading when you look at it on a map – it doesn’t necessarily show the hills you have to go up and down and up and down again as you trek from village to village.
It took us nearly 2 hours of careful descent down slick rock to reach Banthanti. From there, an estimated hour and a half of descent followed by 40 minutes of ascent.
By now, we were toast. Jello legs, sore aching feet and knees. I offered my shoulder to sis to help her descent more quickly and safely, and 30 minutes later we were at a beautiful trekkers lodge situated on a cliff. We couldn’t see much beyond the cloud we were in but it was beautiful nonetheless.
While Raj chatted with some of the folks there, we decided to cover more ground and make our way down. Not 10 minutes in, a loud crack of thunder spurred us to don our rain gear and quicken our steps.
However no rain came, just a few drops. 50 minutes later, we reached the bottom of the descent where a power station was situated, and began the climb right back up.
With Raj and I on either side, one of my sisters hands in each of ours, we practically dragged ourselves up the hill in a manner we have now dubbed Pony Service! Note that pony service is a real thing offered in some villages to get trekkers to the next village, but we like our version better. The motivation for the day was simply: Bed. Bed is waiting.
Along the way, Sumon rejoined us after having gone ahead to the tea house, a leech fell from the trees in the rain, and a few langur monkeys darted around the trees around the path. Yes, you read that right. A leech fell from the trees. More on that later.
And then, at 5pm, we were there! 12.5 hours after we started our day, we were climbing the last few steps up to our room.
The view from the room
I’m pretty sure we would have rather gone straight to sleep, but still we each took a quick shower before sitting for dinner. We looked…pretty much exactly how we felt. I’d been wondering before this trek which day would be the hardest for me. So far I was going strong, with some expected aches and pains, but after today I was sure day 4 would be the hardest.
Ulleri (6,726ft) to Ghorepani (9,429ft), 9km / 5.6 miles
10/22/25
I practically fell asleep writing in my journal last night. I felt great walking but we took so long that the time on my feet with both backpacks on my shoulders (mine and my sisters, to give her a hand on the long uphill) began to weigh me down. We were dead tired and slept GREAT.
Some anxiety-fueled nightmares left me feeling relieved when my alarm went off before 6am and we both woke feeling relatively pain-free and refreshed. We quickly got ready, packed our bags, and headed down to breakfast as the rising sun lit up the hills behind us.
A quick breakfast of oat porridge with fruit and we were off by 7:10am.
More stairs! Joy.
Today’s trek is shorter than yesterday at least. After 20 minutes or so, we passed a sign for Ulleri school and a man at a booth collecting donations. We donated what we had and he gave us each a marigold which we tucked behind our ears for the rest of the day.
We climbed stairs for another 1.5 hours to reach the upper outskirts of Ulleri, taking a pit stop for a bathroom break and water refill before continuing on.
We started our day a full hour before everyone else; the only people we saw for the first hour or more were porters, carrying their trekkers’ belongings up the trail.
Fortunately the trail this time had stairs interspersed with flat sections and gentle uphills. 2 hours after starting we got our first view of Machapuchhre, fish tail mountain. On day 6 going up to Annapurna Base Camp, we will pass through Machapuchhre Base Camp along the way.
After walking on the road for a few minutes, we turned onto the trail again and this time had cover of the jungle around us, following along a narrow river full of waterfalls.
Little ups and downs – this was a lovely walk. Around this time I felt disappointed that a massive group had caught up with us. Today we kept a slow and steady pace, reaching Nangethati after 4 hours, including a stop for tea and a snack after crossing a bridge over the stream.
Lunch – veg fried rice (again). 2.3km / 1.5 miles to go to Ghorepani.
Petting a mountain dog during lunch
Full bellies and heavy legs. It was at this lunch spot that we had our first casualty – I’d foolishly gone to use the toilet and didn’t remove my sunglasses from my head, and they FELL IN. I gingerly pulled them out by the tip of an arm, careful not to touch anything, but there was no amount of cleaning that could convince me to put them back on my face, so in the trash they went. Luckily my sister had an extra pair of nearly identical ones that I used from then on, so you probably won’t even notice they’re gone!
If you come to the mountains, you’d better get used to toilets like this
bye bye sunnies
Leaving the lunch spot I felt refreshed but ready to rest and relax, not walk for another 2 hours. At least we were all feeling the same.
Sumon – our porter – leading the way
We stayed on the road for a while slowly but steadily climbing up and up and up. After an hour or so, we reached the junction with the trail to Ghorepani – a signed noted it would be a quick 20 minute walk to town, but it was one long staircase the whole way and took us 40 minutes to reach lower Ghorepani. The motivation for today? Yak cheese pizza. Hey, whatever works.
Another 10 minutes up steps – pausing and moving aside to let a group of ponies and their minder pass – and we reached our tea house in upper Ghorepani with spectacular views somewhat obscured by clouds.
One last flight of stairs later and we were cracking open the door to our small but cozy room. We strung up a laundry line and opened the windows wide, then used an empty trash bin to clean the days’ clothes and hang them up. With plenty of time to enjoy a relaxing evening by the heater in the dining room.
Just as the sun was setting, the clouds cleared enough to see more of the mountains around us and we rushed out into the cold to take some photos before resuming our spot by the fire.
I was feeling very well overall but my stomach was having a hard time digesting the heavy meals we were eating at lunch and dinner. I picked at a bit of dinner before heading up to bed and calling it a night.
Nayapul (3,510ft) to Ulleri (6,726ft) 10km / 6.2 miles
10/21/25
After 25+ hours of travel to Kathmandu, 2 days in the city to sightsee, a short flight to Pokhara and one night there, we finally arrived at the start of our trek. We woke up before the sun and had breakfast at 7, then back up to the room to pack the porter bag.
At 8 we loaded into the car with our guide Raj our porter Sumon and began the 1.5 hour journey from Pokhara to Naya Pul over narrow, rocky roads marred by landslides, passing motorbikes and more-cautious cars along the way. Today I am thankful for Dramamine! Nearing our destination, we looked up the cliff to our right to see a turned-over truck that had veered off the cliff, taking out a water line on the way. A symbol of caution to drivers. At last we crossed a narrow bridge and emerged into a crowd of hikers waiting to begin their trek. At 9:40, we began!
With the sun beating down so hot, it wasn’t long before we de-layered. We wound our way up a gravel road with the occasional car, bike, and even bus squeezing past us. For nearly 3 hours we trod up a very gentle ascent with small hills interspersed with flat sections.
Rice paddies and the smell of homemade wine are everywhere. I note the plentiful banana, guava, and zucchini plants growing on the hillside.
We pause frequently in the shade to cool off, drink water, and once to try a guava that Sumon had bought from a woman outside a teahouse.
At around noon we decide it’s a good idea to stop for lunch at one of the many tea houses interspersed along the road – a feast of vegetable fried rice and a cool sprite to give us energy for the second half of the trek.
Lunch took about an hour. It felt so nice to have my shirt and pants dry from the sweat. Then we grabbed our bags and carried on.
We continued for maybe 30 minutes more on the road before we turned off the road and onto an actual hiking trail – that’s when the stairs began (oh how naive we were on day 1, we had no idea the STAIRS in store for us). It was gentle though at first – up a few steps, then flat walking past some tea houses, then a few more steps.
Another 30-45 minutes later, we crossed a suspension bridge and we could see Ulleri on the opposing hillside. I didn’t think it looked too far but the look on Raj’s face said otherwise.
There’s Ulleri, on the top of that hill. You can see the pink tea house we’d be staying in.
One more suspension bridge over the gorge and we were officially on the other side, starting the climb to Ulleri. The steps were relentless – just never-ending.
We got a brief respite when, from up ahead around a curve, I could hear the clanging of a bell. When I turned the corner, I saw a big momma cow right on the trail and a bunch of goats clearing the weeds from the hillside next to it. I shouted down to my sis to give her some motivation to get up there and when I turned back around, 3 youngsters had also emerged to follow mom. We sat at the edge of the trail to watch them go and give them space, but one little one took great interest in my shoes and even licked my leg!
At some point we got our first glimpse of the massive peaks looming behind the hills.
We spent hours climbing these stairs with nothing much to note. It was mostly a test of mental endurance. At some point I took my sisters backpack to help relieve her a bit – at least I’m used to climbing up and up for hours, but she doesn’t have any mountains around where she lives so this was a new experience. Her motivation for the day of getting to Ulleri was simply a shower. So I encouraged her by telling her all about the shower waiting for her at the top. I have no idea if it helped.
We reached Ulleri and our tea house exactly 8 hours after starting, at 5:45pm just before sunset. We were quick to get changed, have a shower, eat dinner, and pass right out in bed immediately after.
ADK Trail Tales 