Most of us in our group prefer to hike fully nude as my boyfriend does in summer😄 -- or like me, wear only sandals😉 -- so our leaders try to bring us to places that are nice and sunny,🌞but have few visitors.😉
Just got back from my favorite backpacking area anywhere. The Eastern Sierra. These shots are off the John Muir Trail which has some spots you can day hike. But most anything up high in the Sierra is pure eye candy. A little work but worth it.
@reflectingmonkey Ah. That's a nice shot. I've had friends hike Nepal and they loved it. Looks like it would be hard to not enjoy that scenery. Not crazy to get up where I took those shots. Maybe 1,750 feet of gain overall but there's a lot of descents where you lose what you gain. Great thing about the Eastern Sierra is a lot of trails start between 8 and 9K. So you can get up high relatively easily. I live at 7K so it's a lot easier. People coming from sea level usually get pounded the first day or two.
@Ynotisay it was the same in Nepal, we didnt start at sea level, we were at least one third of the way up but we go way up and way down before reaching the final destination which was poonhill where we get the best view of Annapurna. I feel so emotional just writting about it. one of my most memorable experience in my life. an interesting part is that even at those hights there are villages and people and we slept always in villages. but at those hights there are no more cars, its so pristene, it looks like it must have looked thoudands of years ago with the addition of a few descreet hostels for trekkers and a fiew places to have tea and Dal bhat (traditional meal of usually vegetable curry, lentils, rice, fried spinach and papadam ).
@reflectingmonkey Right on. Great trips have a way of sticking in our minds. Think about them and you go right back there. I know there's Sherpa communities living at over 14K. That's a very different lifestyle. One I think I could get use to. 👍
my favorite trek up to now was the poonhill trek in Nepal.. there is a nice day trek here in Quebec called "acropole du draveur", it ends with a beautiful view. the ciudad perdida trek in Colombia would have been awesome if I hadn't been sick the whole way. 9 hours of walking every day in the hot jungle, puking every few meters. that was hard. don,t know how i managed to finish that one.
@samueltyler2 i have a relative that was so pissed at her husband, she hiked it twice. There is a book about her. Her last name was Gatewood and she did the whole thing. amazing. and twice!!