We were told up front that day 2 was the hardest day of the trail. We would climb about 1,200 meters (close to 4,000 ft) in approximately 6 hours, then descend for 2 hours straight. I knew the elevation was no joke, but I was mostly worried about the steps and how my legs would take it. 6 hours of up = a lot of uneven steps! Since I struggled with the "easy" day, Josh ended up carrying a good 5 lbs or so of my stuff. So sweet!
Getting ready to head out for day 2 bright and early!
We were rewarded with amazing views early on!
We saw horses grazing
The sun was coming up strong, but it never got as hot as it did on day 1!
Porters on their playground. They took those steps like they were nothing! These guys were absolutely insane. They're ninja angels that carry the tents and all the supplies our chef needed to cook us amazing meals. These are not actually our porters, they belong to another group. Ours had bright yellow pack covers. At any rate, they're all amazing, VERY hardworking people! I made sure the company we chose treated their porters well (not all of them do!) and after having them with us for 4 days, I'm incredibly glad I did!
The beginning of many...many...many steps. We were both feeling pretty crappy by this point. I couldn't seem to get enough water or oxygen. Even taking the tiniest of steps, I still couldn't catch my breath. We had a snack a little before this and we split a Clif bar. It was too heavy, so Josh was feeling bad from that and a horrible headache. Add in the not being able to breathe well thing and he felt pretty awful.
A very welcome break.
Slowly but surely, making our way up up up!
Llama!
Taking in the views!
This is leading up to Dead Woman's Pass and those steps are killer! Quick break for a breather and a picture to celebrate coming up the steps behind us.
But not for too long, because there was still a lot of up to go!
The end of up (for day 2 at least) is in sight!
Such a beautiful view!
We made it!!! The view was amazing, but we didn't stick around long to take many pictures. The pressure in our heads at this point was crazy. We did not feel very well and we were ready to descend!!!
Coca leaves! They really do work wonders for the effects of altitude sickness. I'm probably fine if I never taste them again, but I was very thankful for them on day 2! We chewed them constantly on the way up! I don't know how we would have made it through day 2 without coca leaves and Gu packs (these things are amazing for when you can't handle a heavy snack but you need some energy. We tried the Strawberry Banana (delish), Chocolate Outrage (delish - tastes like chocolate cake icing), Salted Caramel (delish), Jet Blackberry (meh) and Tri-Berry (meh). Dave tried the Vanilla Bean and he said it was delish. The concept sounds not so great - think GoGurt - but they were life savers.)
Now we go down. AND we can breathe better already!
And down some more. This actually wasn't too bad. Some people hate the down because it's tough on the knees. It was tough, but not as bad as I expected (I expected to have to sit and take LOTS of breaks. We only took 1 or 2). What hurt me the most at this point was my feet. I have good hiking boots, but these rocks are all uneven and jagged. After walking on them for hours and hours, it really starts to get to your feet.
Still more down. This is when my left knee actually did start to bother me. My big toes were also killing me by this point. They ended up feeling numb by the end of the last day and they still haven't permanently recovered.
This is our view from our tent on night 2. I didn't realize the background was washed out at this point. It's unfortunate, because there's a whole mountain back there.
We got to camp relatively early and had a late lunch. I'm very grateful it was planned this way, because I don't know if I could have finished if I had eaten a full lunch on the trail that day.
I skipped the pre-dinner nap on night 2. I wanted to make sure I got a good sleep in. There was a shower at this camp site, but it was FRIGID. I was still thankful for it though! After a long day of hiking and sweating, even a freezing cold shower is better than a Wet Ones shower. After showering, we had tea, crackers and popcorn. I was already hungry again even after having a late lunch, so I was thankful for this. Josh was still feeling awful, so he didn't eat much.
After our tea time, we unpacked our sleeping bags and got all set up for the night. We took out our things for the morning so we could get ready quickly and went to eat dinner. Josh was still not feeling well, so he only ate a little bit (I'm not used to him only eating a little bit and I knew he hadn't eaten much all day, so I was a little worried. We had the longest day of all ahead of us and I really wanted him to have enough energy!) We went to bed pretty much right after dinner. This camp site didn't have dogs around and I could hear running water from the stream, so I thought I was going to sleep like a champ! Nope, I sure didn't. This is what happened instead...
We were on a bit of a slope and I kept sliding down. I would wake up and my feet would be touching the bottom of the tent, so I would scoot back up...that happened a bunch of times. I also kept hearing it rain. I was really hoping it wouldn't rain on us all day on day 3, but every time I woke up, it sounded like it was raining harder. I also thought about the lock that was on our suitcase back at the hostel. What did I do with the key?!? If we can't find the key, we can't shower when we get back because that's where our toiletries are! That's where our laptop is and if we can't access our laptop, we can't check into our flight! Our cell phones are in there! If we don't have them, we can't call John and let him know we've landed and he can come pick us up! We could always break the lock, but we don't have a sledge hammer!
Yes, these are the things that are going through my mind when I've been hiking all day and I REALLY need to sleep because I have to get up in a few hours and hike all day tomorrow. Sidenote - I did bring Melatonin to help me sleep in case something like this happened, but you're supposed to avoid sleep aids if you're experiencing altitude sickness and I still wasn't feeling great, so I decided that wasn't a good idea.
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