The Vision....
When we hiked around The Annapurna Circuit in Nepal in 1997, it was a wonderful hike, and quite challenging. Some of the trails were rough, some were slippery - but others were LOVELY! And some would be good for bicycling. We never went above 17,800', up at Thorong La. So over the years, I kept thinking about the possibility of a bicycle trek around that Circuit. We did other treksin 1998, and a full month in the Mt. Everest region in 2000. Why couldn't I set up a good bicycle trek around The Circuit in 2001?
The Permissions
As soon as I began to inquire about this trek, I began getting strange stories. Several people said, "No problem, you can just go. "But I kept hearing little statements that it is impossible to go up there by bicyle. After much haggling, we finally got in touch with ACAP, the Annapurna Conservation Area group, which is in charge of rights and permissions in that area, and upon close questioning, they stated that it is now impossible for foreigners to get permission to ride a bicycle up there. H'mm. Apparently as recently as a year ago, any tourist would be as free as a bird to go around there, with no special permit required; but now it was impossible. H'mmm.
Some of my friends in Nepal helped me get in touch with some Important People in ACAP. After much pointed questions, and many delays, and many confusing answers, we finally got a statement that a group could get permission to ride bicycles up in the Annapurnas, for the purpose of making a movie - a documentary film. Of course, there would be big fees for the bicycles, AND a big fee for permission to make the movie, and you could only ride up there in June or July, or January or February.Ahem. In January, the snow is only 5 feet deep on the pass, whereas in February it's 10 feet deep. And in June and July, the Monsoons arrive, making many stream crossings impossible.
So these old men (who probably never rode bicycles) in ACAP had made it substantially impossible to go bicycling in that beautiful area. I mean, I definitely wanted to take some video in that area, and I was willing to jump through hoops, but paying a fee of $2000 for a camcorder, or $20,000 for a movie camera, was a BIT MUCH....
The more the rules made it impossible, the more I wanted to fight the rules. After MANY conversations with some of the important guys in ACAP, I finally got a new interpretation. We could pay $10 per day, in addition to the usual $100 fee, and we did not have to pretend to be making an official movie. But we still had to get in and out in 14 days, maximum - and we could only go in June, July, January, or February. This was allegedly so we would not interfere or clash with the thousands of hikers that go around every year.
We sent our friend Kalu to the ACAP Office in Kathmandu. They told himit was impossible to get any permission, so if Mr. Gurung in Pokhara said he could get us permission, he would have to travel to Pokhara (a 6-hour bus ride) to arange the permission. Oh, these guys were SO helpful! But we did send Kalu on a trip to Pokhara, to carry in our money, and we got our permissions.
The Monsoons
We talked with Peter Owens, who runs many treks in this area. He said he knew some people who had gone trekking around the Circuit in June, and the weather was not necessarily bad. I talked with some of these people. They said that in June the rains are not always heavy. The rain was not very many hours in a day. They did not always have heavy clouds. So we would expect to see some peaks. Not all socked in.
So we figured, if the monsoons came on schedule, we should get around the Circuit by June 14 and not get very wet. If they came a week late, we wouldn't get too damp. If they came a week early - we'd just get wetter. We decided to go for it.
The Riders
The primary instigator was Eric Mack, who had done a lot of bicycle trekking across the Andes, etc. He was really interested in bicycle trekking over high Himalayan passes. When I told him that I'd been across Thorong La, and that it was bicycle-able, he was hooked.
Hideya and Matt worked right down the hall from me. I had not known they were such good mountain bikers. But they were. THEY signed up.
We had several other people who expressed interest - but they all pulled back, as they were not quite serious enough to want to go. Then Jeffrey Fisher, from the Atlanta area, got interested and he signed up. We all sent in our money for the permits.
And then - - Hideya had to stay home in respect for his dying father. Matt had to have two knee operations, for old hockey injuries. And Eric had to stay home because his company was having serious financial troubles, and he had to stay home and help his new boss raise funds. He had his air tickets and everything - and he bravely abandoned his tickets and pre-paid fees, and stayed behind to help his friends in his company. Sigh. So, that left Jeff and me.
And Kalu. When we started to plan this, I asked Kalu if he would like to come and be our co-ordinator. Kalu Tamang had recently led us on some other treks in Nepal. He is a great guy, and a great leader. We did not really need a GUIDE, as we knew we could not really get lost. But it would be fun to have Kalu along, as an interpreter. Kalu could ride a bike, when we first talked about this. In just a few months, he mastered riding a mountain bike, very well. He was, of course, terribly strong. He could ride up steep hills very well, sometimes even farther than Jeff could. And his technique was excellent. I could see him hold a line between rocks, sometimes even better than Jeff could. He was a VERY strong and steady rider. So we had a lot of fun, riding with Kalu.And dining, and goofing off.
Kalu, the Guide
Kalu's first value was to make sure we stayed at the best "teahouse" in town. This minimized the chances of us getting poisoned. Bad gastro-intestinal problems can not only make you feel miserable, but slow you down. We had very good dining. We did not get sick. He also helped us avoid the two or three places where it was NOT OBVIOUS where the main trail went.
He also helped us hire a porter, when we needed it. He also helped us lugour bikes across a few places where the trail was narrow and rough and lousy. (More on that later.) He helped interpret what we were doing in towns, etc - obviously, if we didn't have Kalu to explain, we would have had to put a LOT more time in learning Nepali phrases.
And Kalu was a good man, cheerful and friendly. A good friend. If you wanted to go around this Circuit with Kalu, there's about 10 reasons why you would want to bring him along. If you wanted to go around WITHOUT Kalu, you would make it, but you might have less fun, and more effort. Is there anybody else anywhere near as experienced or wise as Kalu, at bicycling around here? Not likely. If you want to hire Kalu, you should contact Peter Owens at peterktm@mos.com.np
The Travel
Jeff flew in from Atlanta, and I met him at SFO. It costs about $75 to bring a bicycle box on a domestic flight. Bringing a bicycle box on a trans-Pacific flight is - at no charge. Of course we had a pleasant flight from SFO to Korea (refuelling) to Bangkok (overnight nap) to Kathmandu. We were fed well and taken care of nicely on Singapore and Thai Airways. When we picked up our baggage at KTM, Peter Owens met us and helped us get carted to the Potala Guest House.
A couple days later, Kalu went over and talked to the bus operators. He hired a small bus that would easily carry us and supplies and bikes, to the start of the ride. He only had to pay $90 - if WE gringoes had gone to hire a bus, it would have cost us a higher rate.
Training Rides
As soon as we got settled, we planned to go on some good practice rides. The first morning, we started up to Bhaktapur. (Tip: don't take the main road, crowded with nasty stinky traffic, but, take the side road through Thimi.) Then we went up 1600' to Nagarkot. The weather was nice and cool and in fact slightly drizzly. We started out fine, but I had stupidly neglected to bring my potassium pills with me. I got leg cramps on the shallowest grades, and I had to walk up a lot of easy hills. I was embar- rassed. I was sure the others were thinking, "Boy, are we in trouble if Pease can't make it up these easy grades". But at the top, we had some lunch, and then rode down some good dirt roads, back to Kathmandu.
The NEXT day, we decided to go up Pulchowki, a 5000' ascent. It was afairly rough gravel road with rocks and sand. I had to push my bike about half the way, but I moved along OK. Jeff was very strong, and so was Kalu, but I didn't slow us down much. We got up as high as we could - and then we were turned back by polite soldiers at the new security gates. THAT day I took my potassium pills and had no trouble with leg cramps.
There was another good "training ride" we took, but AFTER the trek. We started up the road NW from Kathmandu, toward Trisuli Bazaar. This was a pretty good paved road without much traffic. After we ascended about 800', then the road ran off further to the NW. We rode for a few hours, but since it was getting cloudy, with no more chance of good views, we started back and ate lunch.
We then started on a woods road around Nagarjun, another tall hill overlooking Kathmandu. After an hour, the others decided to go back to town, but I decided to keep going. I thought I could take a short-cutto circle back to the main road. But I guess I mis-remembered the map, so I wound up at the summit at about 5 PM.
The view was glorious, looking down more than 1700 feet onto a view of Kathmandu, in the day's late golden sunshine. I walked around the summit area - temples, shrines, and great viewpoints, looking out through a cloud of more than two thousand colorful, waving prayer flags. Then, time to hurry down back down to town.
Another place that might make a good training ride would be to start from Naubise on the road to Pokhara. Take the Old Highway up to the high point and then down toward the Terai at Hetauba. The thing that is wrong with this is, the highway from Kathmandu to Naubise is fairly narrow, and crowded with many big pushy busses and trucks, and it would be EXTREMELY dangerous to try to ride down to Naubise, and even more dangerous to ride back up. You should get a taxi to take you down there, and wait for you until you come back. I really would like to ride that.
Another day ride would be to go out past Bhaktapur to Banepa, and then take the paved road up to Panautai. From there, the dirt roads go west, uphill and downhill to Patan and home. But I haven't tried that road.
Anyhow, there are many combinations of dirt roads and paved roads, around the Kathmandu Valley. In most cases, if you ride a long way out of town on a paved road, there may be a paved road just a couple milesaway, but the dirt roads are too tough to drive a car over there. But you can always ride a bike over there.
Just avoid the main road west out of town toward Pokhara - it's much too crowded with busses and trucks, and dangerous. The main road to Bhaktapur ain't much better. But it can be avoided.
Dining
As we discussed the eating facilities in the tea-houses along the way - I proposed that if we ate things that have been cooked good and hot, they are less likely to poison us. I ate a lot of fried rice and fried noodles, with meat and veggies and cheese, and they were VERY tasty, and we did not get sick. Dahl bhat (lentils and rice) was always good. We often had Roesti Potatoes. We often split a large beer with dinner.
For lunch, we usually got a good quick bowl of noodles with vegetables. This was very tasty and salty, and we knew we needed the salt. This was WONDERFUL!!
For breakfast I usually had pancakes - they had been fried hot, and they seemed safe. Of course, I usually put jam on them, or honey, and these had been hanging around in the open for several days. But maybe the extra sweetness prevented them from harboring germs...?? Since Kaluwas trying to choose the best tea-house in town, that probably helped.
Usually we each paid about 500 rupees for supper, 1/2 of a good bigbeer, lodging ( a small private room), and breakfast. About $7.50 - agood bargain.
Bicycles
I had bought a new Specialized Rockhopper A1 FS (last year's model) and had practiced and trained and I had about 500 miles on it. It all worked well (except the seat occasionally started to get loose and tip, and we had to re-tighten it.
Jeff had his good old bike, a Cannondale 900 HT Killer-V soft tail with a spring-cushioned comfy seat, and it ran fairly well. Finally, his wrist-twist shift control got looser and looser, though, and the gears would slip up, and finally he clamped it into low gear. He was quite grouchy that it had gone bad. He also had a brake cable break, as we rode around the town getting ready to start the last day. That was a good time for it to break. We put in a spare. We carried lots of spares.
Kalu had rented a bicycle that was in fair shape, and it ran pretty well. He had no problems. He returned it when he was over the trek, though he had an option to buy it.
Uphills
We did Ok on uphill rides in general, but we got slowed down a lot on steep hills with rocky steps.
On moderate uphills, Jeff would ride, and I tended to ride a short distance, and then walk and push. I was not much slower going up-hill. The higher we went, the less I wanted to ride very much. However, as we went higher, I got stronger at pushing and hiking, and Jeff seemed to get weaker at that, so I was not weak enough to fall behind. But Jeff and Kalu were ALWAYS much better riders, faster and stronger up-hill, and faster and bolder downhill. But I was strong enough and bold enough, to get there.
Downhills
We had a couple days of excellent downhill riding, one from Muktinath to Eklebhati. And one from Jomosom down to Ghasa. And a lot of the riding from Jomosom to Beni was pretty good. And the ride from Pokhari Dukhure to Manang was so flat, it was a piece of cake.
Kalu and I went up the valley toward Tilicho Lake , to check out the trail. It was hard work, and the going was slow. It would have taken much over a day to get up there. We just got as far as Thare Gompa, by noon, and then we went back down. The descent was fun and challenging riding.
The main problem was: good riding went by very fast; pushing and dragging a heavy bike uphill went by rather slowly. So the ratio of TIME - was - LOUSY, even though the ratio of miles was not quite so bad.
The MAP
Back in 2000, I bought a map that showed how some bicyclist had ridden around the Annapurna Circuit in a small number of Days - and he made it look easy. (More later on how it was misleading.) etc..etc.
The START
We got an early start from our hotel on May 30 and rode over a mile to the Bus Park, and loaded up - that did not take long. The bus road went on the familiar, crowded, busy road toward Pokhara. We stopped at Dhumre - had some lunch. When we went up the road from Dhumre to BesiSahar in 1997,the road was all rough gravel, and we had to ford 3 large streams, and traverse some rough gravel-slide places. To my surprise, it was almost all paved, with 3 new bridges, and not bad at all. We stayed at the hotel Kalu recommended, and it was quite adequate. Good supper.The next morning, we got a good breakfast and I found the post-office,to mail the last few post-cards, and we started.
DAY BY DAY - Day 1 (June 1)
We started down the trail - really a dirt road, here. I went down 60 yards, and I set up the camcorder, and recorded our start as Jeff and Kalu came down the hill. Then they went ahead, and taped ME. There were a few small rivers or streams to ford that day. There were a few muddy spots, but we made good progress. At the end of the road, we crossed the long suspension bridge to Bhulbhule - now, no more roads, no more vehicles. The trails were pretty good. (Day-by-day will be reported in a separate section.)
Camcorder
Usually on a trek, when we stay in tents, I carry a 15-ounce solar panel (0.4 ampere x 19 volts) on the back of my knapsack, and charge my spare camcorder batteries as I hike. But we were going to be staying in Teahouses, and I made an estimate that almost 1/2 of them would have electrical power (220 VAC) - and I was right. I brought along my standard 16-ounce line-powered SONY battery charger, to charge up the batteries in the evening, and had no trouble. (I probably would havebeen OK if I relied on the solar panel, but there was NOT a lot of sunshine, as I had suspected.)
I had my Sony CCD-TR-818, and it worked quite well. NO, I have not yet editted down my 12 hours of tape. I did a little taping WHILE riding. I would turn on the tape when stopped, and let the camera hang from my neck, and get started riding, and pick up the camera, and point it in the right direction. Some of the film was - adequate. Not wonderful, but I did catch a female sheep making a ewe-turn.
Cameras
Jeff had a good digital camera. It worked quite well, and he got hundreds of mediocre shots, and hundreds of GOOD shots. He put them on CD-ROM, and my friends have enjoyed them. We were both pleased how well it worked. I agree, if in doubt, take a shot, and if it's only mediocre, you can decide LATER whether you want to keep it. This attitude does help you to make more GOOD shots.
The Weather
Altogether it wasn't bad. We had rain several times - after we were securely in camp. We had two absolutely clear days, with great views of the peaks, on the WHOLE day going into Manang, and on the rest-day inManang.
We had a rather damp drizzly afternoon from Kalopaani to Ghasa, but wechose to ride and walk down a few miles, rather than just make an early stop in Kalopaani. We had evening rain in Bahundanda, and Dana, and a few other places, but, no problem. We had light drizzle on the our long ride to Pokhara, but notreally rain. So, the weather was about as good as we hoped for, and we couldn't complain.
When we got to "High Camp", a full half mile above Thorong Phedi, and a few miles below Thorong La (the high pass at 17,771') - we knew we were in pretty good shape. We were all in good health, going strong, and we already knew our porter Bim Tamang was a steady strong guy. The altitude was not bothering us. We set up an order for pancakes at 5:00 and we were ready for a 5:30 start.
I happened to wake up at 4:00 and walked over to the toilet. The weather was grey. When I came out of the toilet at 4:02, the weather had started to drizzle. In a few minutes it turned to snow. By 5:00 there was almost an inch of snow on the ground. NOT a good time to start. NOT encouraging. By 6:00, two inches, and still coming down.
I was VERY negative. Is there any chance there won't be heavy snow on the top? Will we even be able to get back DOWN? I was a real pessimist. I was annoyed. I was unhappy. The snow kept falling.
About 8:00 the snow stopped. We were ready. Could we force our way through the snowdrifts?
After the first half mile of ascent, we found - NO SNOW! The snowstorm had been very small and focussed on our camp. Outside of a half-mile radius of our hotel, there was no snow. Amazing! All the way to the top, no snow. All the way down the far side, no new snow. So we were pretty lucky that the snow we got at 5 AM did not spread very far.
Descending from Muktinath toward Eklebhatti - we were hit by the hard winds we expected, which blow up the Khali Gandaki every afternoon. For some odd reason, they bothered Jeff, forcing him to walk, sometimes, whereas I was able to keep riding. These were strong winds, 40+ mph (DC value) with gusts above 50. For some reason, these gusts did not bother me. I guess it helped that the "trail" was over 6 feet wide, so I could veer as needed, to keep my bike under me.
Actually, while were marching along the Khali Gandaki river-bed approaching Jomosom, we actually did get a few drops of rain - out of a clear sky! I never saw that before!! It was still VERY windy.
Viewing
We had fairly good views at random times. The day going up to Manang, and the next day (rest day) were almost perfectly clear, with GREAT viewing. We had some good views down by Jomosom - mostly clear views - but still no view of Dhaulagiri. Heck, almost nobody gets clear views of Dhaulagiri. Dhaulagiri is one of the 5 highest mountains in the world, and very dangerous for climbers. And, hard to see. When we were riding to Pokhara - we got to the top of the hill at NauDanda - and, eerily, the great peaks came out of the clouds. We gota good eery view of Macchupucchre (the famous Fish-Tail Peak) before we left to swoop down to Pokhara.
Tired muscles
We all got tired, but we did OK and kept going. We did need rests, at times. As I mentioned in a column, *** half-way up the big hill going to Pokhara, I ran completely out of potassium pills, and I started getting leg cramps. But after the drizzle cooled me off, I was OK, the rest of the day. The drizzle cooled my legs so the lack of potassium was not abig problem. The worst I had for tired muscles and bad cramps was the first practice ride, where I had forgotten to bring my potassium.
Tires, Tubes
I had a minor blow-out on the second practice ride, when my brakes heated up the tire descending a long steep down-grade. Even though I had rested to cool the brakes. My brakes were not really hot - it must have been a lousy tube. After that I had no tire or tube troubles - my tires were very new, and very heavy, and very strong. I kept up to about 35-40 lb. pressure, pumping every few days.
Coming back to Manang after our rest-day ride, Kalu noticed his tire bulging, at a place where the tire had gotten tired and frayed. He let out most of the air, and eased back to Manang. Kalu was worried, as we had left our only spare tire behind in KTM. We did that because Jeff said, "No problem". Jeff showed Kalu how to sew a scrap of leather onto the tire, to hold the pressure. It took him a full half hour, on that quiet afternoon, but after that it held perfectly - "No Problem", indeed!!
Jeff had a leak develop as we were leaving Muktinath - he replaced the old tube - no more problems. I had not been riding much on mountain bikes until just recently, so I was very impressed at how durable the tires are. Really durable, riding over bumps, down steps, etc. Really good traction - we almost never skidded.
Brakes
Our brakes were almost always perfect. We rarely had problems. About 5 days in, we had to change some brake pads. By the time I got back to KTM, one of my rear brake pads was kinda shot, but no problem. I should have turned it around. But I didn't really have to.
Mileages
I wrote down the indicated mileage at the end of the day. My speedometer would indicate even at 1/5 mph, but Jeff's would notindicate unless he was doing 1.5 mph, so his odometer never read true, when pushing slowly. I had all the mileages on the envelope where I kept my maps. When my maps got wet, I moved them out of that envelope to dry out. After the trip, I never did find that envelope with the list of mileages.
I do remember that it was about 10.6 miles from High Camp (above Thorong Phedi) to Muktinath, and about 10.0 from there to Jomosom. Also, after a 6% correction factor, it did indeed take about 135 miles from BesiSahar to Beni. In these mountains, you aren't supposed to measure the miles; you are supposed to count the hours. Well, many old books gave utterly confusing mileages from the START of the trek to the end. In the old days, from Pokhara to Pokhara, it probably was about 200 miles, as you had to hike from Pokhara to BesiSahar, and then from Birethanti to Pokhara. Since the roads now got to BesiSahar and to Birethanti, the books often say ~150 to 140 miles. We went down the river valley from Tatopaani to Beni, and we did not go over the 7000 stone steps ascending up to Ghorapaani and then down to Birethanti, as that would have been awful.
So the hiking from BesiSahar to Birethanti probably is about 141 miles.
Fables. Baloney
I read some guy (on the web) writing that he rode around the Circuit, and came around a corner too fast, and nearly crashed into an angry yak. As I said, at the time, that sounds like pure baloney. After the trek, I knew it was pure baloney. It's easy to keep your speed down, and it's hard to come around a corner and find a yak. There aren't many blind corners, and yaks are only found above Manang.
Trails
Many of the trails were quite good for riding. Narrow, but fair. Many are rough and rocky. Sometimes you have to walk your bike downhill. At a few places, the descending slope is as bad as 50%. More later.
Slides
Between Danakyu and Bratang, there are about 6 big landslides or gravel-slides on the left side of the river, and after you cross the bridge at Thame, there are about 6 more on the right side. They mostly have very narrow trails that are somewhat flakey, but not really dangerous. Lots of pucker factor, anyhow.
There used to be about 2 miles of ratty landslide trail from Letdar to Phedi, but it was so dangerous and unstable they built a new trail on the south bank. It's not very nice, but at least it was not as hard as the old trails on the North bank.
Also there were some ratty slides below Jomosom, but they just slowed us down. NOT terrible, just annoying, when we thought were starting to make good progress.
Portering
We knew we might need porters up high. So at the end of the first day,when it had had some steep places, we began to wonder when we would get porters. The SECOND day, from Bahundanda, was tough rough nasty steep downhill (very little riding) followed by steep rocky up-hill to Jagat. Weshoulda had a porter there. The next day, again, lots of steep up-hill to Tal. We shoulda had a porter.
The next two days we did hire a porter, to carry most of our panniers. THEN we went up much more easily, to Danakyu, and the next day to Dukhure Pokhari. We paid off our porter with big smiles.
The next day to Manang was mostly, a piece of cake. Mostly not steep, and good easy riding on smooth tracks across meadows. Glorious! Shallow upgrades (plus one big uphill) plus some nice downgrades from the Deorali (small pass) that looks down on the Hongde airstrip.
When it was time to go up from Manang, we hired a porter for 2-1/2days. The trails were generally not BAD, but we were now up above 12,000 ft, and the porter's help was very good. When we finally got to the pass at Thorong La, (18,771') we paid off our porter - about $25 - and eased down the other side. Some of the trail was OK, and some was lousy, but a porter would not have helped much.
The riding on the west side of the pass varied, but when we got down to Ghasa, we started down. There was a bunch of big hard upgrades, and then a few HOURS of UP and DOWN over various rough trails on land-slides. Even the DOWN was very hard and ROUGH walking and un-pleasant. We didn't get very far that day, only to Dana, and wegot really tired. Even that day we could have used a porter.
Locals
Some local people asked questions, when they saw Kalu. I mean, they don't see a Nepali guy on a bike, every day!! One guy asked in Nepali, "Father, son?" A good guess, but not quite right! Others asked, "Crazy?" But of course that answer should be - "only a little". Yes, a little crazy. But I'm sure glad I did it.
Nice Kids
We found MANY nice kids who called and waved to us, and were nice. I mean, they don't get to see a bicycle every day - - or every year. I would say "Namaste" and they would reply likewise. Many kids were nice, and smiled, and clapped, and some even tried to help pushing our bikes on slow uphills.
Wise-guy kids
I was coming down through Rakhu, and I saw a little kid with a stick, getting ready to poke the stick in my rear wheel. I was rolling about 3 mph, and I NAILED the front brakes. I stopped instantly, and reached over and grabbed the stick, and started screaming "NO, NO, NO!" I took the stick, and broke it in half and threw it on the roof. Then I picked him up by his shirt collar, and screamed in his face, "NO NO NO", and then I set him down gently. Maybe he and his friends learned not to poke sticks into bicycle wheels.
There were a couple other kids who were running up a hill beside me on a long slow upgrade, at Raghugat. They reached over and started to push, and help me up the hill. That was very nice, and I thanked them. THEN they started to pull the other way! I guess they couldn't resist trying that, to see what would happen. As soon as I figured out what they were doing, I stopped and smiled and said, NO, politely.
Reminiscences
Many things n this trek were just the same as I remembered them from 1997. (In Nepal, many things do not change very fast.) Other things changed. It was still a glorious area. I'm commissioning a 2' x 5' painting of this Circuit, primarily of the things we saw in 1997. I have made a list of about 150 items, people, things that we saw, that made the trek memorable. I have found a good painter who has agreed to paint the whole panorama - like Breugel's busy paintings. THAT is going to be fun!!
Clothes
We were prepared for weather varying from well below freezing, to the tropics. I thought that starting from 2400' at BesiSahar might be oppressively hot and muggy, and going by Beni at the end might be the same. We were very lucky to not have hot muggy weather; it was really quite pleasant. At the top of the world, at 17,771', it was cool, but not too bad. We had plenty of warm clothes if we had to beat cold weather. Hats, gloves. Ponchos, parkas, sweaters. No problems.
Bike Shops
In Kathmandu, there are a couple bike shops up at the top of the hill in Thamel, (near Pilgrim's Book store) and there are several others about 1/2 mile south-south-east of Thamel. Some of them might try to sell you junk, but they will also sell you good spare parts, tires,tubes, and accessories. NOT terrible prices. But if you had to replacey our bike, mostly what they have is inexpensive Chinese junk.
CONCLUSIONS:
Jeff said this was the hardest ride/trek he had ever been on. I had to agree. Yet some of the good riding made it worth while. If there are 24 people in the WHOLE WORLD who have done this bicycle trek, I would be surprised. So it was a kinda UNIQUE experience. The hard parts were, indeed, brutally hard. The nice parts went by REAL FAST. But I am glad I did it. Jeff was a really good sport. He griped, but he kept on going. Every damn' mile!
Best regards. /rap
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