YakYakYak: Annapurna Circuit

Yaks, the highest lake in the world, medieval towns, no roads, mud guest houses, mule trains, sore feet, and an 18,000 ft pass complete with blizzard.
After a long break, here are some pictures from our last big hike.
We returned this past weekend from a two week trek around the annapurna mountain range. It was an epic hike with phenomenal views and a constantly changing landscape.
We started by taking the bus 3 hours along the highway to a little town called Dumre where we had to jump off an flag down another bus going north for another 3 hour ride. We were on the roof as the bus went offroading towards the mountains. (technically there was a road but it was very trail-like in nature) We got let off at the trail head and decided to grab some lunch. At this point, Dave was feeling rather ill so we decided to stay the night rather than hike on. We're not quite sure what cause it, but for the next 24 hours dave spent most of his time in transit between the fetal position and the bathroom down the hall. He was kind of miserable. The next day, he felt well enough to walk at least so we headed off down the trail. We spend the next few days following a river valley north as is weaved its way up into the mountains. The days were sweaty with the sun beating down as we crept up the steep valley walls between bamboo forests. The little towns along the way were really neat with the people's lifestyle almost unchanged in the last few hundred years. The little tea houses where we stayed were very simple with a kitchen and a couple rooms but were more than welcome after a long day of walking. Most were made of wood and mud but a few days we splurged and stayed in nicer ones complete with an en suite bathroom!
The trail was fairly busy with nepalis and trekkers and the occasional mule train. Mules don't like to share the path and it is always a good idea to move to the uphill side of the trail lest you be pushed off the cliff. It seems like 95% of the time there is a cliff on one side of the path.
It seemed like a fair amount of time was spent avoiding landslide areas. The valley walls were very steep and the trail kept crossing back and forth from one side to another across bamboo bridges. The route is constantly changing due to these huge rockslides.
About day 6, the valley started to widen and we began to enter pine forests. It looked strangely similar to canada. Without the 8000m peaks that is. The landscape slowly got more dessert-like as we got behind the mountain range and into the rain shadow with water buffalos disappearing and being replaced with yaks. In Manang, the regional center, we stayed in a little 3 story mud and stick building who's bottom floor was dedicated to the owners cow and other livestock. It was rather basic but ridiculously cheap. The town was extremely dusty and windy though it was a good spot to buy crackers and Tang for the next few days. It was also a great spot to watch the local restaurants hack apart yaks with axes that looked like they came from a museum.
Having a couple extra days before we needed to be over the pass to the other side, we decided to take a couple days and hike up to Tilicho Lake which is apparently the highest lake in the world. It was a grueling side trip with some very steep climbs and a rather grumpy herd of yaks sleeping on the path. We managed to huff and puff up to the top at 5000m and it was worth it. There were amazing views of the lake, icefalls, and massive peaks surrounding us.
After a 12h day of walking back to Manang, we took a rest day and hung out on the roof of our place and read some books before starting to make our way up the valley towards the pass. It had been great weather every day untill the day we were to go over the pass when it was cloudy and windy. The top of the pass was complete with howling winds, low visibility and driving snow. Though the views would have been nice, one sort of felt like a serious mountaineer.
We descended down into the valley beyond and after a couple days got to the airport where we took a 20 minute flight back to pokhara. Now it's back to making Ice Tea...