Informist

Home Page of Mayur Goyal

Travelogue - Hiking Machu Picchu (2002)

Page 4: Second Day Trek

July 2, Second Day Trek

I slept like a log that night. I was woken up by the porters who served all of us bed (cocoa) tea at around 5:00 a.m. I stuck with the hot water part only. After a quick wash and pack up, I reported to the ‘café’ tent where porridge, pan, eggs and apples etc. were served as breakfast. Washington introduced the porters to us and after a few photo shoots, all of us proceeded on the second day of trekking.

We owe our hike to their cooking and porting

(L to R)Johan, Aaron, Kevin, Bharat, Mark, Gernault, Sree, Hakon, Mayur, Hari (sitting)

Second day was the high point of the trek - literally. We were to pass the "Dead Woman’s Pass" that day which was about 4,100 meters high - the highest altitude we would climb during the trek. We could see this pass from various points along the trek. Washington had told us that this would be probably the toughest part - this acted as warning as well as encouragement - as in, get done with it as soon as possible.

The initial part of the morning was a bit humid. The trail passed through dense woods and also, covered with clouds. We camped at around 3,000 meters the night before and we could see the clouds below us. The air was moist at times due to cloud formation at this level. We met a number of hikers that morning. The first day we did not come across so many groups as each group started hiking at different time. But second day, almost every group was out on the trail between 6:00 and 7:00 a.m. Gernault had tried to tell some of us that slow and steady wins the race - in other words, his recommendation was not to over-exert ourselves with fast walking in the beginning of the trek itself. Being a long distance running enthusiast, I found it relatively easy to stick to this mantra. Still, there was no way I could beat him, the Swedes and Mark - these people had very good stamina, and in case of Mark and Gernault, they were very experienced too.

I think we must have had walked about 5 miles till the Pass. Once closer to the pass, I could see a lush green valley below with a number of horses and llamas grazing. It was very nice sight and to some extent, stark too as along the trail at that height, the vegetation became almost non-existent. I found the last 500 meters distance particularly strenuous. I could see the pass clearly but I had to catch my breath after every ten steps. The 10 Kgs of backpack ensured that my back worked and pained as much as my feet. I was sunny near the Pass but it got colder. By the time I reached there, I was quite exhausted and it was very nice feeling of achievement. In New Hampshire, I have driven to Mount Washington, about 3000 meters high, a couple of times. But, here I was at the "Dead Woman’s Pass", about 40% higher than that and I climbed it. The air became increasingly chillier. The youngsters, whom we had met the day before, were at the pass before me - and I think they started the day after us - that is some speed! I could see scattered snow there. We spent about half an hour at the pass till majority of our group members came and then proceeded below to safer and hopefully warmer surroundings.

Happy at the highest point (Dead Woman's Pass - 4050 meters)

Once about 200 feet down, we stopped for some hot beverages (you guessed it - cocoa tea once again) and refreshments (biscuits and pans). What we had ahead of us was a climb-down for about 900 meters. After which we would decide whether to proceed further or to call it a day. After mostly climbing up for the last one and a half days, climbing down was a welcome change. Initially that is - as I figured out, climbing down can also be very strenuous as one constantly faces the risk of putting the foot down in a wrong way and spraining the ankle (as you may have noticed, the hiking has given me enough opportunities to make straightforward statements that appear to resemble idioms). The weather changed from cold to cold and sunny to sunny and warm to overcast-to-overcast and cold by the time we reached our lunch spot around noon. This spot turned out to be a big camping site in a valley, around 100 people capacity, complete with toilets and showers. After discussions around our folding dining table, we decided to call it a day due to general feeling of tiredness, chances of heavy rainfall and sprained ankles. This almost felt like unearthing a bounty - I suddenly had an afternoon of no hiking and was free to complete my journal, gossip or simply sleep. After lunch, the ever enthusiastic hikers from Austria, Sweden and England decided to conquer the remaining trek of the day anyways - only that they would come back - which straightaway made their hike twice of what we would have done otherwise on that afternoon.

It rained heavily that night and that added significantly to the justification of our decision of not proceeding further that afternoon. In the evening, we had a game of cards and a hearty dinner to celebrate the conquest of the Dead Woman’s Pass. Heavy rains made keeping the café tent dry a big challenge. Mark came up with some innovative ideas for keeping the water from accumulating on the roof of the tent - this involved tying two sticks to make them long enough to reach the ceiling and then keeping them vertically positioned somehow. Being almost half-way through the trek I felt good. The sleep didn’t come too easily that night - it happens to me if I am too tired. But still, when I woke up next morning, I felt reasonably refreshed.

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