Day 2 - Big Tree to Shira One

In the morning, we woke to clear skies, which evetually gave way to sun! Woohoo! Breakfast was oil-fried scrambled eggs, oil fried bread, and oil fried sausage! Ugh! I am sure I will gain weight on this trip... They made me lunch, too, which was deep fried chicken drumsticks and wings, fried corn muffins, thickly buttered toast, and packaged 100% fresh mango juice (containers looked like large caprisuns). Meal-wise, I think Turtle would be in heaven.

As the data will show, I argued with James (guide) about our speed of hiking. He said that the rule for muzungu was "no sweating." I explained that I derived great pleasure from challenging myself physically, and I finally won. We took off and full speed. Uh, I wonder what I asked for. We'd started after one small (6-porter, 1 client) group, and a bunch of porters for the big groups (they need to get to vaious places, build kitchen and mess tents, and prepare warm meals for their clients. The hike is listed as 6-7 hours.

We poured on the speed. I mean holy crap fast. If I stumbled, I had to jog to catch up. And steep! I am curious about the data but haven't reviewed it yet. I feel like this trail was similar in grade to the MR on Whitney, though not sustained - very steep up, very steep down, more steep up, and then rolling flatish for miles. Our tent porter was with us, leading the way - he had his personal gear plus 22.5 kg of team gear (that rediculous propane tank, the tent, etc). I can't understand their physical capability... And he had that 50 lbs in a burlap sack which he alternated from on top of his head to on his neck, head tilted down forced to look at the gound. He led the charge. Our other 2 porters never caught up to us.

I think they were f'ing with me, though, pace-wise, because we passed porters left and right :p. Anyway, we charged up the trail and passed everyone. The lunch city for the 4 Americans was a sight to behold. I heard that they set up a radio to communicate with their base and that the radio was so big that it and the antenna were one porter's complete load. I appologize for not taking pictures. The only thought in my head at the time was 'please don't die or pass out from the effort!' Don't worry, I took in the sights and took some pics. But often, we had thick cloud cover so I couldn't see much. And in the deep forest, visibily was limited to a few feet off the trail. We pulled into camp after a mere 3 hours - that's when I finally ate my fried lunch. Camp was about 11.5k ft. I am taking a half dose of diamox, figuring we're taking it easy, altitude-gain-wise, and so far, I feel great. Tomorrow's plan calls for a muzungu 3-hour hike - should take 1.5 hrs tops. Since it's so short, I'll drop pack and see if I can summit the 3rd peak of Kili, Shira. I think it's 13k ft or so. Hmm, tomorrow will be yesterday by the time I get signal...

So far, its been a beautiful day - a bunch of cloud cover kept the temps down but we've only had a few spells of light rain so far. I would guess it's about 55 degrees at 3:40pm now. This is nice!

Hmm, i'm picking up writing this on day 3. LAst night... I went to sleep around 9 to a somewhat brisk breeze. I woke around 10 to the sound of a pack of wild dogs (jackels?) tearing through camp, yipping, looking for food... I soon passed out with my vent fully open. As the night progressed, I got cool (bivy and bag still wet, bag lacking some loft), so I slowly cnched the face opening of the sleeping bag down. When I woke before sun-up, I sat up a little and my face touched something hard... The bivy was rock solid, moisture on the inside and out, completely frozen! My bag was even a little crispy!

I got up and snaped a pic when the sun backlit Kili a little...

Joel