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Published: November 6th 2012
Gnarly Heather
Giving it! down the mountain.5 am alarm to get us up for our 6:30 flight to Jomsom. We had coffee on the roof of the airport as the sun rose over the Himalayas. Spectacular. The runway in Jomson is short so landing is dramatic. As I write this, we are sitting in Jomsom waiting for our bikes that were coming overland. This is a hurry up and wait day…with the bikes always being a ‘’little bit” late…all day. We did a short hike through a local village. The landscape here is very dramatic or maybe severe or barren or some other similar descriptor. But strangely, the major local crop is apples. I have a huge bag of dried apples sitting beside me that I paid about $1 for and that I may demolish before I finish writing this. I wouldn’t say that my diet over the last 4 days has included a proper serving of fruit or vegetables so these are good for me. Today, after being here for 4 days, our group was discussing the different Nepalese greetings and when you should say Namaste. Shelagh pipes up “Oh is that what they are saying? I thought they were saying Como Estas!”.
Kagbeni local
Local kid working... Yes Shelagh, everyone in Nepal has been greeting you in Spanish. As I speak everyone here has headed to the local pool hall, as you do in Jomson. This is a bizarre place that has Bryan Adams music playing and the Sex Pistols posters on the wall.
Eventually our bikes arrived and we biked to Kegbeni where we are staying for the next few nights. The ride was not the best of our trip and was mostly due to the fact that the jeep couldn’t cross the river in Jomsom so we had to take out bikes out here. We passed many trekkers on the way – most of which were finishing the Annapurna Circuit hike. They didn’t look too happy for the most part with scarfs covering their faces due to the massive headwind. Thankfully for us it was a tail wind…all we needed was a sail and we would have had a really quick trip.
This was our introduction to the Mustang region of Nepal (named after the horses). Lower Mustang is where we are staying, with Upper Mustang being just beyond Kegbeni. This used to be the forbidden kingdom that borders Tibet, but now can
Mountains!
Words don't do this justice. Amazing view in all directions. be entered with very expensive permits.
When we arrived in Kegbeni there were herds of goats running through the streets with cows wandering around everywhere. Cows supposedly find their own way home (to get fed) and just wander the streets. This was particularly true in Kathmandu where they would stand in the middle of busy roads.Our hotel was basic by most standards and we had to sleep with many clothes on as there is no heating in the rooms. Heather was having flashbacks to Bolivia. It turns out that there was an electric blanket on the beds and a gas powered shower so we needn’t have been so cold.
We now are at about 2500m elevation…with way more elevation to come.
Day 5 Today was the first of our epic rides. For some reason today I couldn’t get out my head the time that we dressed up as a herd of goats for “Dress up sound of music”. It seemed appropriate for today.
We took a jeep ride up to the next town (Ranipouwa) and then had nice single track riding up to the top of the pass. I (Shelagh) got a flat rear tire
Next mountain top
ready for more downhill from here. within 5 minutes. After not having had a flat for 5 years I have now have had 4 in a month….just like buses I guess. We reached the top of the pass and then hiked up to the top for some more views. Today I felt the altitude big time…but not as much as tomorrow. Today I just felt light headed every time I pedaled up. The landscape is dry, barren and rugged with massive glacier topped mountains in the background. We then began the long and awesome drop into the Lupra valley. This trail was flowy at times, but super technical in places, with rocks, sand and switchbacks. When we hit the bottom we were all pretty pumped….GoPro videos still to come. This trail (along with the Nepali downhill trail just outside of Kathmandu) was in the bike movie “Strength in Numbers”. In fact the voice over in the Nepal section is done by Mads the local tour operator in Nepal. We then rode through a small village, bumping down steps on the way through. We then had to climb up to the top again before getting more sweet single track. You might describe the uphill as Hike-a-bike, but
Our bikes were of interest!
Everywhere we went locals were fascinated by our bikes. more accurate would be climb-a-bike. We had to put our bikes on our backs to get up this mountain. Boy was I glad to reach the top. All the mountains have large “cairns” at the top – but unlike in Scotland these have religious significance with prayer flags attached. For us however they were a fantastic windbreak.
We then continued down for the last piece of sweet flowy single track. It spat us out at a local village where we were ravenous for our late lunch. Dahl Bhat all round and some beers. After lunch we rode the 2.5km back to the village we were staying in. Again we passed some herds of goats…but unfortunately my go-pro batteries had died by this point. A great dinner with vegetarian pakora…and then bed by 9pm exhausted.
Day 6 “Can I have your lungs Mr Yak?” Today we jumped into the jeeps again and headed up to the same high village. We were all feeling a little tired today and it took a while to get moving. Before our big ride we went to one of the most sacred Hindu temples in Mukatinath village. Here there are 108 taps
that if you clean yourself in all of them you have good karma (and are very clean!). The temple is beautiful and is surrounded by apple trees and has views down multiple valleys.
After this we headed up towards the pass, which would be the high point of our trip. There was a great suspension bridge on the way and I stopped to get lots of photos. We then started the bike/hike up to the top of the pass.
I thought I was going to die at many points on the way up. Lightheadedness and the feeling that your head was going to explode was my main feeling on the way up. If I hadn’t stolen that Yak’s lungs I don’t think I would have made it! After about 1000m of elevation gain we hit the top of the pass. Measuring 4300m this is certainly the highest point I have ever biked before. The views into upper Mustang were amazing. Massive 7500m + peaks in every direction. The landscape was so desolate with cactus like bushes everywhere as this is incredibly dry land. The upper Mustang is an interesting region of Nepal that was a
Top of the pass
4300m high...high enough for biking down i think! separate region previously and only by a fluke of politics did it end up being part of Nepal. In many ways it is more similar to Tibet than Nepal.
We then started on our downhill (all 1700m of it!!)…and epic this was. I think overall this was the best ride of my life. The first part of the ride down was so fast and flowy with little jumps on the way. I bombed down it and it was amazing. As we were flying down the trail the expanse of the Himalayas was opening up in front of us. It was incredible, amazing and what every superlative you want to add! Its hard to find words to express what it was like to fly down this mountain. Despite my feelings about the altitude this was amazing.
I was waiting for the 3 other girls to come down the trail. As I was waiting Sara did a massive jump and popped her back tire. The funny thing that happened was that the 2 other girls (not Heather and I) were happy to set up camp and wait for their boyfriends to arrive (who had hiked up to the very top
Shredding again.
This trip was all about the biking and biking we did. of the mountain to free ride down) before changing the tube. Heather and I felt very accomplished when we changed the tube!
After this point we headed onto less flowy track with lose rocks and sand. My excitement for the day was I hit some loose rocks with my front tire and couldn’t hold the line and lost it. Within a split second I had lost control and was heading into a 30m deep canyon. I made the “holy sh!t I need to dump the bike decision” and let it go as I grabbed a rock that seemed stable at the upper part of the canyon. Luckily both the rock held and my bike stuck on a plant. It was all good as Heather and the others arrived a few minutes later and pulled me out! (yes mum I am fine!). Luckily due to my new POC knee pads I didn’t even have a scratch on me. Hanging on the wall of a canyon was probably the most exciting moment of the trip so far! It is of course all on Go Pro. I was pretty lucky to walk out untouched…having not been so lucky in the past I
At the top of a mountain
Ready for some gap jumps? was pretty happy!
We then hit a jeep road and flew down at 50km+ speeds. Crazy fast, with sand and other terrain’s en route. We were all pretty excited to get to lunch (at 4pm!) and sped down the last part. After demolishing “Momo’s” – Nepalise dumplings that look a lot like perogies we all were much more relaxed. We were ready to stay in our “less luxurious” hotel for a night due to some booking issues. Cold shower, cold room and hard bed was the end to this day…but it really couldn’t take away from 1700m of downhill riding.
Day 7 Today we headed down the valley back towards Pohkara. We had to set out really sharp so that we missed the crazy headwinds that start around 10am each day. We headed back to Jomson and then went to the crazy single track trail we saw from the plane on the flight in a few days ago. This was a rocky, exposed and steep (all of Heather’s favorite trail features!) single track trail. Lots of fun…with some walking sections for all of us with the stone steps carved into the trail. The consequences of
Exposure
...loose rocks and height. All of Heather's favourites! failure (50m cliff!) were too much for most of us to try these sections…but the rest of it was amazing. Heather even liked it. Although after the evening debrief I don't think she will every do it again!!
We passed a cow being skinned at the side of the road. A little odd location for this…but explains why we are mostly being vegetarian on this trip. We ripped down some single track along the river until we hit our village of choice for lunch. We had fresh pasta in the Dutch bakery for lunch! Yes tomorrow it will be Sushi in the Italian restaurant…It was amazing though and we felt well fed before we rode the final few km to our next hotel. This unfortunately was 2.5km up a steep road above the village. We took a short cut which again involved bikes on our backs climbing stairs. However when we got there it was worth it. Beautiful view in all directions with the 7
th highest mountain in Nepal in the backdrop. Amazing place.
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Twila
non-member comment
Thanks for sharing!
That's quite an adventure ladies! Stay safe!