Inca trail – Day 2
Day two is known by anybody who has done the trail as “The hardest day”. This day would involve a steep and steady climb uphill for about 5 hours to “dead woman pass” at over 13,000 feet. The name comes from the profile of the mountains, which look like a reclining woman. I have also heard that the porters joke that it is named that because the white women who make it to the top look like death. After the summit is a 2 hour descent down the other side, about half if which is stairs.
We woke up early to a beautiful, clear and sunny day. We could see perfectly the snow covered peaks stretching across the horizon. The first half of the uphill portion was through cloud forest. It was mostly cool and shady, and our legs were fresh from our night of sleep so I didn’t think it was so bad. After lunch, things definitely changed. The forest opened up as we hiked above the tree line, and the incline got steeper as we slowly trudged uphill in the beating sun. It was slow and grueling, and with the altitude we would be gasping for breath if we took more than five steps in a row faster than a snail. Even the porters were sweating and moving slowly (although still faster than us).
Reaching the top was sweet, sweet victory though. The view from the top was unbelievable in both directions, and we all slung off our packs and hugged each other feeling as though we had conquered an obstacle bigger than us.
The walk down was a completely different environment. It was a field of tall, yellow grass with our stone trail winding down the middle. I loved that my forward view was now of a stretching valley swathed in sunlight instead of the rocky incline from the way up. After about an hour though I wasn’t loving the downhill hike so much, as all of out legs were aching and shaking like jello with every step down, and our toes sore from being jammed into the tips of our shoes. Slow and steady though, we made it to the bottom where our campsite and fellow trekkers awaited.
This night was the highest altitude campsite that we would stay at, and it got cold, really cold. We found out later that the temp dropped to just below freezing. Thank God Peru Treks provided us with some pretty good quality sleeping bags, and that we packed a lot of cold weather gear. It didn’t necessarily keep us warm, but it kept us from freezing!