Day 7 - Trek Day 5
Sunday, September 13
Pofu Camp —> Third Cave Camp 4 miles
13,200 —> 13,000 DOWN 200 ft. (with some up in there too of course!)
9:00am —> 1:20 4 hours 20 minutes
7:00 Coffee Call - 8:00 Breakfast - 9:00 Hiking
It seems that no matter how rainy and dreary it is in the evening, we always wake to a clear sky and beautiful views of the mountain…and an undercast (the opposite of overcast: we’re above the clouds looking down on them from above rather than looking up at them from below).
This morning as we were getting ready to leave the porters started singing and dancing! Eventually they pulled all of us into the dance with them. What a joyful way to start the day!
Even though we lost altitude today, the day really was a lot of up and down. The sun was shining, the flowers were blooming, the mountain was showing herself to us! There were a few “spicy” places, where the guides took our walking sticks from us so we could use our hands to scramble up/down the rocks with their help. Even though it was a shorter day, I was really feeling weary. We took plenty of breaks for “sippy sippy” (water) and snacks and rest. Then (as usual) about a half hour from camp, our porters cam to take our packs from us.
Third Cave Camp is beautifully situated with a view of the summit on a wide open flat space. We were greeted with warm towels; Frank and Christopher took off our boots/gaiters and cleaned them for us. Then in for lunch: Pepper soup, vegetables and fruit, empanadas with fresh guacamole! SO GOOD!
Then to our tents to rest and nest. I took a deep rest for nearly 3 hours! Then the usual tea and popcorn in the late afternoon, and dinner at 6:30.
You may be wondering about the Toilet Tents. These travel with us from camp to camp (2 for the men and 1 for the women). In the tent is a plastic “port-a-potty” type contraption into which we do our business, which has a manual pump for “flushing” and a little trap door we open and close so that the waste stays sealed in the container below the seat we sit on. There’s also plenty of toilet paper, a toilet brush with cleaner, spray, and sanitizer in the tent as well. As best we could figure out, they either bury or burn the waste before leaving camp each day. (Paper is put in a separate container and carried out with all the other trash we produce over the course of the trip.)
And today’s trek via AllTrails: