First Glimpse
After arriving by vehicle the night before, we woke up early in the morning, put on our warm clothes, ate breakfast, filled our water bottles, laced up our hiking boots, extended our trekking poles and started climbing. The temperature was brisk when we started, but, after about 20 minutes, a combination of exercise and the emergence of the morning sun forced us to take a quick break in order to shed our warmest layers and apply sunscreen—it ended up being a gorgeous, sunny day.
Our path twisted and turned past rivers and waterfalls, through pine forests, meadows and small villages, where we made sure to greet as many locals as possible with a warm “namaste,” which is the customary greeting in Nepal. We were well aware that there are upsides and downsides to tourists trekking through your land, and we wanted to be as polite and appreciative as possible. And in almost every instance our greeting was kindly returned back to us, sometimes even with hands to prayer and a gentle bow at the waist—a sign of respect.
This first day of trekking was challenging, especially as we got accustomed to the elevation, but we rose to the occasion. And even though it would be 6 or 7 days before we would touch snow ourselves, we did, as you can see from this photo, begin to see some enormous, snow-capped mountains off in the distance. The following day we would get a much closer look.
"If the path be beautiful, let us not ask where it leads."
-Anatole France
