Flying Rampart Ridge - The story that started when I landed

Every once in a while you luck out... Well, that's how it went for me. In the paragliding community, it seems there are two groups: The super experienced pilots who fly Cross Country (XC), and "The Newbs." With only 140 flights under my belt, I would solidly place myself in the "Newbs" category. There is so much to learn in this sport. However, being part of this community is also quite cool at times. This past weekend, one of the more experienced pilots, Owen Shoemaker invited me out to a new site in the back country. Don't get me wrong, flying at Tiger Mtn (my home site) is great, but I've been desiring to fly in the REAL mountains for years. When we arrived at the site, Matty Senior was there and graciously gave us a ride up the bumpy, unkempt & steep old forest road that led up to the launch.

It was a little past noon. The wind felt gentle and in the right direction. The thermals were just starting pop, and after a site introduction, I and a few other newer pilots launched behind the more experienced pilots.

My initial thought was to get high so that I could go explore a bit, so I worked with Jake to find a thermal and did just that! However, I saw Brent in the distance in his red & yellow wing already exploring the ridge below and it made me to want to get over there!

I made it over to the ridge and started gazing at the alpine lakes. However, farther in the distance was my real objective: I wanted to fly over Mt. Alta

8 years ago, I had hiked up Mt. Alta with my buddy Wolt, and now 8 years later, I wanted to FLY over it! It was further into the mountains than I was comfortable with, but I thought I had enough altitude to get there and back to the landing zone.... At least I HOPED I had enough :-)

I DID finally make it over Mt. Alta, and while this feat may have seemed small & inconsequential to the the more seasoned pilots, I was stoked! The other pilots were already started on their XC routes miles away but I was happy with this... for now :-)

So my next hope was to gain some more elevation so that I could get on glide and get back to where I hoped to land.

Toes: I know I'm excited & enjoying life when I extend my feet in front of me... This is my happy place... Keep Reading below on to hear the REAL crazy story.

Side Note: This Doarama link above is a SUPER COOL online tool that shows my route in 3D. If you click on it and give it some time to download the satellite images & track, you won't be disappointed. I recommend using full screen. Watching this made me think 2 things: 1.) I seriously need to get better at thermalling. I was sloppy and very lucky that there was lift everywhere.  and 2.) People are gonna think I landed in a lake! Just to be clear, I landed safely on dry ground. The lake bed was dry from low water levels.

• But HERE's where the crazy story starts:

As soon as I landed, I reached for my phone to text Rachel and let her know I landed safely... However, as I was searching my pant pocket, a feeling of dread came over me... I released a few choice expletives as I realized that my $700 phone had slid out of my pocket during the flight and probably dropped to an untimely death! As soon as I caught up with some friends, I had them us the "Find my iPhone" app in the hope that I had only dropped it at launch.

After inspecting the photo, I thought "Well, S#%T!" I realized that the phone was a goner. It was no where near launch, a dirt road, or even a trail. I wanted to get up that crazy road, but I knew my car was not burly enough to get up there... So, I left it and drove the 1.5hrs back to Seattle extremely bummed and feeling stupid for not attaching it to myself better.

The next morning, I sullenly went to the AT&T store and had my service swapped to my fiance's old, small, slow iPhone 4. When the sales person heard about how I had lost my phone, he laughed and said "NO WAY! That's crazy, man!"

In the early afternoon of that same day, I get a leading text fro my buddy Jake Pratt (who happens to own an awesome 4WD vehicle), saying "I think we can find your $700 phone. Want to take a quick evening stroll?"... My response: "Uhhh. yeah!"

What I did not know, is that he had been looking at the location of my lost phone via the find my phone app that I had left logged on to his phone. After studying the map, he approximated the location on google maps, dropped a pin, exported the location to a GPX file, and then imported the GPX file into his GPS unit. We were IN BUSINESS! We drove the 1.5hrs back to the launch and started our search.

We had to bushwhack through some varied terrain for just short of a mile and ~800ft of elevation gain. Branches in our faces everywhere.

A quick stop to pick some delicious alpine blueberries

The terrain became steeper and steeper until the GPS unit BEEPED. "You have arrived at NM iPhone"... now we just had to scour the area and hope for the best. I was thinking that we only had a 30% chance of finding this thing, and even less of a chance of it actually being in working order... I mean, I DID drop it from 150-300ft over gnarly terrain as I was flying overhead...

And sure enough, within 20ft of Jake's dropped pin, we almost stepped on it! It still had battery life and NOT EVEN A SCRATCH ON IT! It works perfectly! Go figure!

Not only did we have a phone, we picked a full bottle of alpine blueberries to take home to our partners... WHAT A DAY! I'm a very fortunate guy. Special thanks to Jake Pratt for being an all-around nice guy!

Mt. Shuksan - A long day in the alpine

The route was 16 miles round trip, with ~7,000ft of elevation gain up the Sulphide glacier. Sounds pretty straight forward, right? Well, Rachel seemed to think so. We woke up at 3:45am, left camp by 4:20am and started hiking on an old logging road that was overgrown with bushes and forest. As the first person in the crew, it was my job to catch all the "Spideys", which basically just meant my face was the sacrifical lamb responsible for getting all of the spider webs that were across the trail. 

It was a hot & muggy morning, and I hate being hot & sweaty. It's in these moments that you remember the words all moms say "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all."  But thankfully, we eventually came out on top of a ridge where we caught a nice cool breeze

After passing over the first gap, we took a minute to grab some breakfast as the sun started to peak over the mountains in the distance. We didn't stay here long due to the bugs

We continued up the trail & enjoying the view

I told Jon to pause while snuck in a pic

As it became lighter we saw more & more snow. Note how far ahead the girls are. It was at this point when my mood became better. It's amazing how a little alpine beauty will get me excited and act as a natural mood enhancer.

At the base of the lower Curtis glacier we roped up. As you can see, most people who were smart camped at high camp (behind us). There were only a couple people who planned to the mountain in a day.  

A view of our summit! From far away, that summit pyramid looked STEEP and very far away. 

Snow conditions were great. All of the summer heat had compacted all the snow and there were very few crevasses. If we did encounter any obstacles in the snow, we could easily walk around them. There was the occasional small crevasse crack, but the route was pretty clear and we just walked around them.

From the lower Curtis, over the Sulphide was a long, slow, and gentle grade up to the summit pyramid. It was easy walking and the views kept us motivated. 

Once we reached the base of the summit pyramid, we dropped some of our heavier equipment at a stash and started the scramble up

While it was steep, no real rope or gear was needed on the way up. Scramble, scramble, scramble

After passing a slower rope team, we summited! Special thanks to Rachel who had been up here before and was showing us the way. 

Jon had recently just bought a new, thin twin rope which made rappelling down the steep pyramid much easier.  

This was Kim's first lead rappel down. As you can see there was some steep snow that much easier to rappel down than down-climbed 

The next time I come to this mountain, I want to fly off it! Maybe I'll top-land table mountain. The way back to the car was a long slog (~17hrs round trip). We got back at 9:30pm. I want to see if I can skip that part next time. We left the cars in the dark, and came back in the dark. Looking forward to the next adventure!

Ruth Mountain

We wanted to get an early start on Saturday morning, so we drove 3hrs up to the North Cascades after work on Friday evening. We set up tents in the parking lot and tried to sleep. I've been excited to climb Ruth for a couple years now, and was anticipating good weather.

We started at 7am (should have started earlier) and the approach was easy enough. There were quite a few landslides & areas of left-over avalanche debris that we found our way through.

First sight of Ruth Mtn in the distance

once we arrived at the Hannegan Camp, the real upward progression began

Leaving Hannegan camp behind us and headed toward Hannegan pass. The snow was hard enough that snowshoes were not necessary.

There was quite a bit of very steep snow... Can you spot my buddy Jake kicking steps for us above?

Rachel's dad as we headed up towards the arm of Point 9530. You can see where we started our hike from in the valley in the distance. 

Since the snow was pretty steep and quite hard in places, we put our crampons on.

This is the place where I should NOT have stopped and taken a picture. When we saw the remnants of a small wet avalanche, we all became a little nervous.

I was following Jake up as we approached the east arm of Point 9530

After going around point 9530 (the hill on the left), we were all not liking the feel of the snow. It was becoming deeper, much softer & sometimes it would slough down the side of the mountain as we took steps. It was at this point we thought it would be best to head back (without a summit) before the snow became anymore unstable. It was a bummer not to reach the top, but the mountain would always be there.

Things aren't always what they appear to be. This picture MIGHT look like someone who is triumphantly raising his ice ax as as he is reacting to the pristine beauty of the North Cascades. However, if you look a little harder, you realize that he is actually chasing his wife while yelling "Dammit Kim, SLOW DOWN! I need to catch up!" I believe the raised ice-axe was more of a threat.

Ruth Mountain, we'll be back for you!

Jake had no interest in hiking back down, so he decided it would be a good idea to fly & ski instead... He launched from the top of Point 9530.

Jake in his happy place... He ended up landing on the shoulder there, and then continuing over the side of the mountain to meet us WAAAAY below. Easily saved him over an hour of hiking in nasty snow.

Coming back down

Having fun heel-plunging as we came down the steep slope

As we were looking around this place, I was telling Rachel Rachel how I often fall into the trap of thinking that we need to go to distant & exotic places (like Nepal) to find rugged mountainous beauty, but then I arrive at a place like this and realize how much beauty is right in our back-yard. I'm very grateful for adventurous friends to share life with!
Photo: Jon Warren
 

Flying Washington Pass

I've been sitting inside entirely too long this winter. Seattle has been rainy and overcast for the past few months and I am becoming stir crazy. However, this weather has given me some downtime to edit some footage from an adventure I was on last April. 

We hopped into my buddy's adventure van and drove north to Washington Pass. It's a little south of the the Canadian border in the North Cascade mountains of Washington state. Usually the snow levels close-down the highway that takes us to this location, but the snow was low enough that the highway opened early. The wind direction and speed were aligned. Our weather forecast models were showing a good possibility for lift and we were hungry to fly! .... Looking down on the tops of mountains is something that is hard to explain, but hopefully this will give you an idea of what it's like... Enjoy!

Special Thanks to Jake Pratt, Coty Holifield and Matt York for their company and footage!

India - How to find a tiger in the jungle

After our time in Nepal, Rachel and I headed to central india to meet up with her parents, aunt & uncle for a tiger safari in central India. Our hope was to spend a week in the jungle in the hope of catching sight of a Bengal tiger at Kanha National Park. What I didn't know walking into this is that they are quite elusive. You can go on safaris for a week-straight and still not see one. So I entered this with low expectations...

Steps for finding a tiger:

1.) Look for tracks (Pug marks)  & poop!

2.) listen for jungle alarm calls from different animals. As soon as any animal sees a tiger, they all freak out. 

3.) Keep your eyes open and wait! 

We had 5 days, and a total of 10 scheduled jeep safaris planned. Many other people don't stay that long, but many people also don't see tigers. We wanted to make sure we had a good chance of seeing them.

There were several types deer in this park, but these were the most prolific by far. These are called Chital. They were seemingly EVERYWHERE!  The tigers eat pretty much everything, but they will eat alot of these lil guys too. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chital

We were hearing the alarm call of a barasingha deer and stopped the jeep to see if we could spot it as well.   

So, whenever we drove, we were looking for easy signs of tigers. Here's a picture of one of their pug marks. It was always exciting to see one of these on TOP of tire tracks because it meant that the tiger had been in this area recently!

Banyan trees. These things were huge and were scattered througout the jungle. 

No blog post would be complete without at least some mention of poop. We were found tiger POOP! It was HUGE! Notice all the hair! 

There were peacocks all over the place. The tail feathers were very short on most of them. Apparently they drop the longer tail feathers in the rainy season and start re-growing them in the drier season.

We also found some bigger sambar deer in the area as well.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sambar_deer

A langur monkey family caught in the process of grooming eachother. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gray_langur

We spent DAYS in these jeeps... The rules of the park did not allow us to step out of the jeep except in designated places... We became experts at holding our bladders, although, sometimes it was difficult with all the bouncing of the jeep.  

We saw this guy doing some work in the park. I don't think there are any wild elephants in the park, but they do use them to get into the dense bush.  

Rachel's dad took a picture of rachel and I as we were looking in the jungle. Thanks for the pic! 

Scenery... Sunsets and sunrises were the best part of the day out here. Always warm & beautiful. 

Another clue that Tigers are in the area. They will stand up on their hind legs and mark trees with their claws as a way of marking territory. It is amazing to see how DEEP they can get their claws into wood. We saw some claw marks that were 12 and 15 feet high... these guys are BIG!

We also saw Gaur. They are the largest form of the Bovine family. These are all females, but apparently the males are ENORMOUS! Apparently they can grow up to 7'3" at the top of their shoulders...
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaur

Driving around and waiting for the morning fog to dissappear

Sometimes the monkeys were quite naughty... This guy was trying to steal our breakfast, and we had to chase him off several times. He got angry, and then hopped on the top of this jeep in the process of attempting to attack the smallest person in the area. Sometimes they bite. As you can see, that kid was a little scared... 5 minutes later, that same monkey sat on the edge of a jeep hood and pooped to show his un-happiness.  

We also found some sloth bear tracks. Notice the very long claw marks
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sloth_bear

When these guys were not being naughty, they were actually quite cute! 

More Chital... take a look at those antlers! They grow them, and shed them every year. 

A fun picture... Rachel's dad was giving me some ideas for different types of photos. 

Another sunrise... 

Our driver for the week. He had keen eyes for spotting tiger pug marks, and many different animals.  His weekly salary as a jeep driver was 4,000 rupees per month (~$65). Many of the people who live here rely heavily on the tips tourists provide them for their services. 

Keeping their eyes & ears attentive for ANY signal of a tiger. .. this park had both jungle and open areas as well. Very pretty.

We also happend came upon the blood from a recent kill. Our guide said that a leopard had just killed a monkey in this spot. Later that day, we did spot a leopard, but only for a second or two. They are quite shy.

On our last day & last safari, we finally drove up on a tiger... can you spot him? I almost couldn't!  These guys are well hidden! As soon as we stopped, he started hissing at us and whipping his tail around... Those are signs that he is about to charge. As soon as our guide saw this, he started whisper-yelling at the driver to BACK AWAY!!!! ... not gonna lie, when I heard the tone in our guide's voice, I started to get a little scared.

After we backed away, the tiger emerged from the greenery, and we saw that he was BIG! Apparently this tiger had recently found his way into the park and was not used to jeeps... He wasn't very happy with us and started following us...  Most of the tigers in the park had already been identified, but since this was only the second time that this tiger had been spotted, he hadn't been given a name yet. 

Our guide said that this tiger was bigger than the largest known tiger in the park, and estimated that this guy was about 300kg (~480 pounds)... HUGE! ... He was probably the one making the 15' claw marks on the tree... We were very lucky to see this guy. 

Headed back after a happy safari...  

Nepal - Relaxation, Monkeys, and Temples

In our final days in Nepal, we decided to take things a little slower. We ended our trekking in Pokhara. It's a beautiful, lake-side city that is known for paragliding. We were more than ready for some post-trekking drinks and diverse food options... After Pokhara, we had one more day in Kathmandu before we flew out. While we were there, we made sure to see the Hindu holy city of Pashupatinath. This is the city where Hindu self-cremate their dead relatives.

Heading up to the Bhuddist Peace Pagoda outside of Pokhara. From the city, you can spy a very large pagoda at the top of a hill across the lake. We saw it and hiked up to it. Before entering any monestery or temple in Nepal, it was required to take off our shoes.  

So we had two options: 1.) Trek around the lake to get to the peace pagoda, or 2.) row across the lake.... Easy decsion. I would do that again in a heartbeat.  

Walking along the lakeside in Pokhara. We thought it was pretty crazy that it became pretty normal to constatly have cows, buffalo, yak, or goats constantly sharing the same roads as everyone else. We had to avoid a few "landmines" but we eventually became quite comfortable with it.  

On our bus ride back to Kathmandu, we found these lovely little treats being sold at a produce stand... While I consider myself pretty adventurous with my food decisions, I left this one alone :-) 

The hindu holy city of Pashupatinath. Do you see the platform on the stairs? That is where families will burn their dead relatives over a large pile of wood.  

While it seemed much different to me, everyone else seemed quite comfortable with the dead. I actually walked right past this body, not even noticing that he was there until rachel pointed it out.  

Someone from the family is tasked with keeping the body burning until it is gone. 

Walking through this city was very cool. It felt like exploring ancient ruins. 

However, there were monkeys everywhere.  

This is the top-down view of the city. As a visitor, we were allowed everywhere except in the golden temple. That was reserved for hindus only.  

This was a sassy mommy monkey. When someone got close to her, she would hiss at them aggressively and then run away. I like that everything in this picture is out of focus with the exception of her face. 

Families preparing for ceremonies

We also had a little time to visit the bhuddist Monkey Temple. 

Happy to be exploring, sad to leave Nepal, but excited to meet Rachel's parents, aunt & uncle in India for a tiger safari

Here's a link to a map of our completed Journey:
 https://share.delorme.com/NathanaelMokry 

Nepal - The highest part of the journey

Thorung La pass was our objective. We were both excited to get to the top and a little reluctant to wake up so early. I was also curious to see how my body would react to the altitude. However, we made it without any hiccups... kinda.

We started hiking in the dark at 5am, below the clouds and eventually trekked above them. It was nice to get visibility of the mountains as we walked higher.

Rachel was C.O.L.D.! It was quite dry and crisp in the morning. Rachel always seemed strong, but it seemed that I was going at a snails pace due to the altitude. Each step felt like lifting a dead log. 

The horses didn't seem to mind the alitutde or the cold. They were happy campers

"The damned out-house"  - Let's just say, there was a point that I had to use this outhouse... well, twice if I'm honest... It was disgusting. There was no door, and human waste was piled high... not a highlight of my trek. However, it was memorable... I made sure to note the altitude... I remember walking out (both times) and seeing local porters smirking at me, and laughing knowingly. 

Our shadows... Not gonna lie... I did not want to pull out my camera at all up here. I was huffing and puffing. It was difficult to breath at times, but I'm glad rachel told me to "Keep taking picutures!" 

Our friend Christophe and the horse we all secretly resented... There was a person here who watched the trekkers, waiting for them to give up and ask for a ride.... none of us gave in. 

AT THE TOP! Almost 18,000ft. I had two devices that gave 2 different readings, but they were within 100ft of eachother.  

A word to the wise: Jumping for a picture at altitude, after trekking for 4.5hrs is NOT EASY... As soon as we finished this jumping pic, my quads IMMEDIATELY let me know that this was a BAD idea :-) 

Due to a growing altitude headache, we descended quickly. We descended over 5,500ft quite quickly... I was glad for it. I was starting to feel quite "woozy"  up at altitude.

Looking into an area called "Mustang." It is quite arid, and dry, with little vegetation, and is known for caves that are found within many of these mountains. Older generations previously buried their dead in these caves as well.  

Nepal - A village with no name

On our way back down from Shreharka to Yakharka, we passed some BEAUTIFUL scenery. This is the part of the trek when we started to feel the altitude. It was around the 12,000-14,000ft range, where each step up took a little more effort, and the air became drier. Much more dust in the air made it no fun to breathe sometimes.

After leaving Shrekharka we happened upon what we thought was an abandoned village. Instead it is a town for yak/cow herders. Many of these buildings and edifices are where anmimals hole-up in bad weather. 

At the very top of the town, I found a dead yak/cow. Here in nepal, there is some type of hybrid between a yak and a cow. This guy smelled terrible! 

This was one of my favorite parts of the trek

So, it's autumn in Nepal as well

My friend Jean-Daniel resting at a bridge as we were waiting for the rest of our crew to arrive. 

Our fearless guide, Aakash. 

Rachel getting packed up to start trekking again after a spot of tea. 

A happy couple... we LOOOOVE this place!!!! Thanks for the pic Aakash!

So, there aren't many options of things to eat up here, especially fresh veggies and fruits. So when we find apples, we eat ALL OF THEM! Nepal produces some pretty tasty apples. We were always excited when we found good fruit. 

There are lots of horses to cart people and goods around. We found more of them as we got higher. Some people opted to have horses carry their things. 

On our way up to Yakharka, there was a couple who turned their home into a rest-stop/cafe along the route. Tea, coffee, fruit, snacks. The view was awesome. They used binoculars to see how many potential buyers were coming along the trail. I want to live in a location that has a view like this. Right?!?

Over the doorways of many establishments, there are skulls of blue sheep. They are the natural prey of snow leopards and are protected. Luckily, we saw many of them, but they are all mostly found at 10,000ft and up. Not many people hunt them, and the ones that do are fined.  

Sigh....   NEVER want to leave!

So many colors, and different types of terrain.

Find our location here: 

https://share.delorme.com/NathanaelMokry 

Nepal - Chased off the trail by yak

Our hope was to hike up to Tilicho lake (at over 16,000ft elev.). However, the way is a little sketchy with steep scree slopes.  

Lots of loose rock, but the pelasant views kept us going :-) 

At times, it was quite steep. 

There was one point where we had to climb up the scree slope so that a herd of yak could come through. It's amazing to see how adept these animals are in the steep terrain. It was good that we went up-hill because they are known to push people down the slope. 

The man herding them was constantly yelling, and throwing rocks at them to direct their path. 

Don't slip! 

After a very difficult 2.5hr hike from Tilicho Lake basecamp, we finally arrived.  

Rachel and I both agreed, that while the lake was cool, we enjoyed hiking through this terrain more than anything. We really felt like we were in the himalaya. 

So, it turns out that going down is just as pretty as going up.  

LOVE the stars. The view from basecamp of Tilicho Lake, was beautiful. After playing around with some photos, many other trekkers came out, and some asked to use the small tripod I brought along. It was a little extra weight, but totally worth it! 

Nepal - Rachel, the Nepali hair-dresser

As we continued to trek higher and higher, we walked through remote villages and farm life... I even accidentally stepped in horse-crap up to my ankles... YUCK!  

Sometimes, you just have to get out of the way. This is our friend Jean-Daniel marvelling at how big this guy's load is. 

Our friends also brought reading glasses to give away to the older population. This woman served us tea, and afterwards received a pair of glasses. She was noticing the difference when looking at map we had. 

Can you see the little town of Geyru on the left-hand side of the picture? This was Rachel and My favorite village. It was a long steep hike above Pisang. 

Before we entered Chame, this little gal walked up to Jean-Daniel and started a conversation in english. "Hello! What is your name? How old are you?" 

Doing a little harvesting

Leaving Manang we trekked through some very prettys scenery.  

And of course, Nepal would not be complete without a game of high-altitude frisbee. Rachel brought one along and we found a few places to throw the disc around. Not many Nepali have ever seen a frisbee and were quite interested to join-in.

Our friend's porter heard that Rachel regularly cuts my hair, and so he asked her to cut his. We found some surgical scissors and started clipping. 

When it was all said-and-done, Dili was quite happy with his haircut. Everyone was impressed with Rachel's skills. 

Nepal - First views of big mountains

Thank goodness we are getting higher. The hot jungle weather was too much for me! As we've been traveling, We've continued trekking with our French friends, their guide, and their porter. We still carry our own full load but enjoy the fun of this crew.

Hanging out on one of the many hanging bridges. We are coming to realize that trekking is just as much about creating new friends & enjoying trekking culture as it is about seeing amazing views. 

As you enter and leave each of the towns, there are many stone walls with bhuddist prayer wheels or rocks that have been carved. Love to see the handi work. 

I was leaving a small village (Dharupani?) and took a picuture of rachel. This little guy wanted in on the picture action.  

Getting a bit higher we  got to see this HUGE slab of rock come out of seemingly nowhere.

Sometimes it's more fun to use the old bridges... you can always take the new ones!

In upper Pisang where we got to see the first views of the BIG mountains. I think this is Annapurna II in the background. 

Nepal - Day 2 - Following the river

SO MANY GOOD VIEWS!  Today it was hard to choose which photos to post. Check out our location here: https://share.delorme.com/NathanaelMokry

Who would have thought that we would be hiking in sand in Nepal? I certainly did not expect that. 

One of my favorite times of the day is when we REST! Talk about some amazing resting spots. Beautiful views EVERYWHERE

Can you see our friend Jean-Daniel? He is on the actual trail, but there has been a road that has been built a portion of the way inland. Can you see the road that was built into that stone mound on the other side of the river? Only jeeps can get up there. We try to avoid using the road when we can. 

A pretty lady hiking along the river

Marijuana!!! This stuff is growing everywhere! Don't worry, we didn't try any of it :-) 

This is Rachel's favorite photo of the day.... Can you guess why????

hiking UP

Rachel is the Pano-Queen. She really has an eye for panoramic photos! She took this as we were crossing the river. 

Approaching the place where we stayed the night: Dharapani

The further inland we go, the more prayer flags we see. 

Some of the views are fantastic... We are VERY fortunate to be here.

Nepal - Day 1 of Trekking: Hot as H-E-Double hockey sticks

Today we trekked 9.61 miles and a cumulative 2600 feet of elevation gain from Ngodi to Jagat. It was lots of up and down.  It was hot as heck. We promised ourselves that we would start hiking much earlier the next day to avoid the heat. As always, Rachel was a trooper and took it much better than I did, but we were both a little surprised at how difficult the first day was. I think we both thought it would be easier.  

It was so hot, that we looked for any type of shade we could find. Make sure to note the river in the bottom of the valley there. We cross that river later in the day.

Nepal - Hot bus rides, and the first guesthouse

Wifi has been spotty, and very slow, so we'll see if I can upload any pictures. I'm not sure if my delorme GPS has aquired a signal yet, but if it has, you can see where we are if you follow this link: https://share.delorme.com/NathanaelMokry. Feel free to let me know if it is working. Also, I'm sorry if this posts multiple times. It's hard to get wifi, and I'm never sure if anything gets posted or not. 

So Rachel got a kick out of the title that the ticket guy gave me "Mr. Tourist." We ended up getting a 7hr bus ride from Kathmandu to Besisahar for $4.50 each. Not a bad deal! 

This is us just escaping a big traffic jam in the city of Dumre. 8 busses wanted to through the intersection at the same time.  

However, this was a fancy bus. The bus organizer put a nepali film on for us. However, there was only 1 speaker on the bus, and he had to keep fiddling with the audio wire because the audio would go in and out. 

We passed so many villages, towns, rice fields, Cattle, Goats, and buffalo

After we arrived in Besisahar, we hopped onto a much smaller, local bus that took us to Ngodi. We made fast friends with two french men, Jean-Daniel  (pictured here) and Christophe (he took the photo). We were smashed like sardines into this tiny bus. There was a random computer CPU unit at my knees, and I had to carry 2 bags on my lap. It was HOT and sweaty. More than once, the bus tipped precariously to the side as we were going by a cliff, and we all had to lean away from the cliff to keep the bus balanced.... A cultural exprience to say the least

Our local mini bus. They kept the front door open to try and funnel fresh air into the HOT bus. It only worked slightly.  

Rachel and my digs at the first guest house in Ngodi. It had electricity but no Wifi. It was much fancier than we were expecting. We stayed there for $1.50 USD. We were woken up at about 1am to the sound of torrential rain pelting the top of our tin roof. SO LOUD! It was the first time it had rained in this area in 3 weeks.

Nepal - 32 hrs of Travel - Arrived in Kathmandu

We flew over 9,300 miles in 32 hrs....Needless to say, we are VERY tired, and are trying to stay up to acclimate our bodies to the time difference (12hrs 45mins different).  We are now in Kathmandu in a pleasant hotel that Rachel's Aunt suggested. It is quite warm here (77F and hazy), All of the locals seem very nice, even though driving is quite the experience here (left side, constant honking, and seemingly no rules). We have obtained the necessary permits to trek, and have even purchased a bus ticket that will take us from Kathmandu to Besisahar. That is an 8+hr bus ride and it costed us ~$4.50 USD. We are hoping that we won't be crammed like Sardines, but are ready for the "cultural experience." The bus leaves at 7am tomorrow. We are excited for some shut-eye. I'll try to keep posting, but it all depends on if we can find a wifi connection. 

Entering Thamel (Tourist neighborhood of Kathmandu). Shops with knock-off outdoor gear, fabrics, prayer beads, incense, cafes, and shop owners ready to haggle with you. It's actually quite nice to walk around. 

Welcome to my adventure blog

We will be using this blog to give those who are interested a place to follow some of our adventures. My goal is to keep it heavy on the photos, and light on text. I know nobody likes reading books when they just want a quick update. To keep things interesting for you, I will be posting a link to a map so that you can view where we are (starting Oct 1 - https://share.delorme.com/NathanaelMokry). We will be carrying a GPS locator that updates that map. Look for the Blue arrow on the map.  Sign up for email notifications below. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Enjoy the posts!

Photo: Jared Lyman

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