I feel like I've just completed an epic journey, worthy of multiple references to Lord of Rings, and various other epic journeys through the wilderness. Mostly because our last few days have been filled with nerdy, geeky literary and cinematic references, and the scenery just happened to match. On Wednesday we got a ride (hired a jeep) out of Urumqi at the relatively early hour of 8 am. By 12ish, we had passed deserts, coal drilling, and highways and had turned off on a dirt road that crossed and re-crossed a river. Our guide, Harry, pointed out the valley we'd be hiking in. Armed with maps printed off of google earth, and some directions Alex had written down, Harry left us. The first few hours of the hike was along the river, but the valley looked
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