1999 Annapurna Circuit

Marcia & I had organized long trips in the past, both foreign and domestic, but were beginning to appreciate having someone else do the hard work and worrying about details.  The Mountaineers to which we belonged had a program of foreign outings organized by its members.  One member, Craig Miller, had developed an expertise at organizing Nepal treks.  For the Fall of 1999, he was leading a 4+ week trek of the Annapurna Circuit with a side trip to the Annapurna South base camp.  In total it would be about 220 miles of walking.

With 10 members, this was the largest group we had travelled with since our 1985 Mexican Volcano trip.  With that many, there is always the opportunity to find someone with whom you don’t quite “click”.  Fortunately that was not the case and we had a great time on the trip.

We spent several days sightseeing in Kathmandu.  I was struck by how much it had changed from my previous visit in 1983.

We chartered a bus for the journey to the trek’s starting point at the village of Besisahar.  From there we started walking.  We had porters who carried most of our gear while we carried our water, snacks, cameras, valuables and items we need during the day.  Lunch would be at a tea house midway on the day’s route.  At day’s end we’d stop at a lodge and sleep indoors.

While our meals were in tea houses, we had our staff supervise the lodge’s kitchen to insure water was boiled and the food properly handled.  I don’t recall anyone having G.I. problems severe enough to jeopardize their trip.

The weather was generally quite nice although we had some cool mornings at the higher elevations along the route.  Fall is post monsoon and usually dry. 

The scenery is quite stunning and the route spans lush low lands at less than 3,000 feet elevation and a high mountain pass, Thorong La, at nearly 17,800 feet.  The schedule was leisurely and it allowed adequate time for everyone to reasonably acclimatize to the altitude.

After completing the trek, we stayed for several days in Pokhara, a lovely city on a beautiful lake with stunning views to the Himalayas beyond.  Unfortunately, I did not get to enjoy Pokhara as I was sick for a couple of days and stayed in our hotel room close to the toilet.

Return to Kathmandu was via a commuter aircraft.  From Kathmandu, the trip broke up with some people heading home, some going on a rafting trip and Marcia, myself and one other trek member heading down to the Bardiya National Park near the border with India.  We got our requisite elephant ride and went looking for tiger.  In retrospect, given the absence of any firearms carried by our guides, it was probably good that neither we nor a tiger found each other.

Our return to Seattle was uneventful except for our shock to hear about the rioting occurring on the downtown streets during the WTO conference the day we arrived.

1999 – Grand Staircase-Escalante

Over a number of trips, we had become smitten with the Southwest, especially in their relatively cooler times during Spring and Autumn.  The combination of blue sky, mild temperatures and lovely reddish rocks were a welcome change during the cold and dreary times in the PNW.

Marcia planned this trip as a car camping trip in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument of Southern Utah interspersed with day hikes and short back pack trips.  We left Seattle in early April with our station wagon fully loaded for the two week trip.  Our first hurdle happened to be a late season ground blizzard which closed I-82 near Twin Falls in Idaho.  Fortunately conditions improved quickly and we resumed our drive taking US-93 towards Nevada and an overnight stop at a campground in the Great Basin National Park.  After a cold start the next morning, we took the Lehman Cave tour.

From there it was across the Great Basin of Nevada into Utah ending up at Kodachrome State Park. We picked up the incredibly scenic Utah SR-12 along the way and followed it to the Escalante Petrified Forest State Park.  This and the nearby community was our base for exploring the recently (1996) created Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.

Our main access to the area was down the Hole-in-the-Rock Road.  From there we did a day trip to Spooky and Peek-a-Boo Canyon and a multi-day trip to Harris Wash.  Nearby we did the Lower Calf Creek trail.  After our stay there we continued onto Capitol Reef National Park for a short visit.  It was in the town of Boulder just west of Capitol Reef that we heard about the horrific shootings at Columbine High School.

With the exception of the brief snow storm while driving through Idaho, the weather up to this point had been perfect.  But after Capitol Reef a wet front rolled in.  We had intended to stay at the Goblin Valley State Park but as we drove in the rains were pouring down and, only half jokingly, we feared that the hoodoos in the park would dissolve on top of us.  We started our journey home before our memories became tainted by camping in soggy conditions.

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