22. Day 2 – Through the Temple of Cairns – August 10

Our wakeup call came at 6:30 that first morning.  It was barely dawn, quite cool outside and I didn’t want to budge from the cocoon of my sleeping bag.  We had an hour to get dressed, freshen up, pack up our gear and go to breakfast.  If unpacking our gear and laying out our sleeping bag and mat had been difficult, packing it all up was even more of a challenge.  I struggled every morning trying to stuff my sleeping bag into it’s sack while sitting on the floor of our tent.  There was limited room to sort through my belongings and find what I wanted to wear for the day.  Getting dressed had to be accomplished in sequences of steps.  I had to kneel to slide my long underwear down to my knees, then lay on my back or sit to get them off the rest of the way.  The reverse was needed to put the bottom layers on.  Of course, the top layers weren’t as difficult.  The next step was to get everything back into the duffel bag.  Ugh!  Socks went on last and to get out of the tent, I had to take my shoes out of the plastic bags used to store them inside the tent, set them outside the opening and figure out how to get my feet in them with my body still inside the tent and then stand up.  Jo decided after our first morning that we needed more than an hour to get this done and set her alarm to wake us up at least a half hour earlier than the wake up call each morning.  The thoughtful crew would bring your coffee or tea in a cup to your tent opening every morning so if you needed that cup of brew to help you wake up you could count on having it delivered to your tent door.  

But for me, it was off to the breakfast table in our mess tent to get my morning Hibiscus tea along with breakfast.  Each day there would be two thermos pitchers on the table, one had hot water for hot tea in individual packs or powdered hot chocolate.  The other pitcher had piping hot ginger tea.  Then we were served a breakfast of pancakes, eggs cooked to resemble a large, flat pancake, a large pot of porridge which was thin oatmeal, fresh fruit, and various bread selections.  I’m sure there was a meat selection as well, but I did not choose this option.  Before we left the table, the cook staff would bring a snack for us to take along for the day’s climb.   This was a box of mango juice, muffin, a package of dry biscuit cookies and a few pieces of hard candy.  Next, you had a short time to use the porta john, fill your water bottles, brush your teeth, and assemble for the day’s journey.

While we were eating breakfast the crew would be taking camp down and packing it up.  They would put our packed duffel bags on a tarp in the center of camp so they could pack up our tents.  Each crew member had their assigned duty.  There was the tent staff, cooking and food preparation staff, porta john staff, guard staff, and our guides.  As the various aspects of the camp were ready, the porters/crew would begin taking it to the next campsite.  The mess tent and porta johns which were two little, bright blue tents with a zip entry and housed a little porta potty, were the last to be packed up.  Once we were ready to go our head guide would start us on our next leg for that day.  As we would start our very slow pace, the porters and crew would pass us carrying very large packs often on both their backs and their heads. 

Our destination on day two was to get to Shria Camp II.  It wasn’t a very difficult hike for this day but to be honest, I lost all track of time, distance, and elevation gain.  I just followed the leader and put one foot in front of the other until we got to the next camp.   It seemed to be more of a gradual climb in a vast, desolate area where the vegetation was scrubby and dry.  There were white and yellow flowers along the way adding some color and interest to the landscape.  We made stops at times for water, trail breaks (emptying one’s bladder), and snack breaks.  As we neared the camp, the porters and crew came down the trail to meet us and carry our daypacks the remainder of the way.  Once we got to camp, the staff circled around and sang a welcome song where they named each one of us in the various verses.  This was a ritual that occurred each time we got to camp.  They always had a smile on their faces and took great measures to please and help us with anything that would make our journey lighter and easier.  They would be ready to dust off our boots and pants, help us find the tent where our duffel bag had been placed, take our gaiters off or literally anything we wanted or needed.  We were treated like royalty.  The mess tent would always be set up and as soon as we had our tent settled, there would either be a hot meal or snacks ready for our consumption.  On this day we arrived in camp early enough for a nice afternoon break, but after lunch, the head guide told us to gear up for a short walk up to a higher elevation.  He wanted to see how we would do going to 13,000 ft. and this would help us acclimate to the higher elevation we would be encountering over the next few days.  So off we went up the dry, stony, dusty trail to a place I called the Temple of Cairns.  It was full of stone cairn towers obviously stacked by previous hikers.  We rested at this destination for a while and then returned to camp for a snack of popcorn and peanuts before the main supper meal.  Between the snack and supper, I decided to rinse out some socks, undies, and the very dusty leggings I had worn that day.  It turned out to be a big mistake as most of the garments did not dry out for the remainder of the trek despite the very dry air.  I think it was too cold to let the bulkier things get dry.  I had counted on having the leggings to wear but had to make do with other lower body garments until the ascent to the top when I needed four layers, and our head guide sent my leggings to the cook tent to dry them by the stove so I could wear them on that final push to the summit.  

After supper Jo and I made our way to our tent and noted the clarity of the stars and once again saw that cloudy image we call the Milky Way.  It was just as amazing the second night as the first night we saw it.  I quickly fell asleep but was awake again in the night to go to the bathroom.  I was taking Diamox to help prevent altitude sickness and acting like a diuretic is a common side effect.  It was too cold to go to the porta john and so this had to be accomplished with some ingenuity in the tent or just outside the zipped opening in what we called the vestibule.  Then I had trouble going back to sleep as the sounds of the breeze causing the tent to flap and other noises that I thought surely must be wild animals just outside our tent kept me awake for much of the night.  At last, it was morning and time to pack up again and see what the day would bring. 

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