I always like to find a worthy charity when we go to a country that is less fortunate than ours.
It's funny how this one came up, I was Googling about one of my hikes and low and behold one of the finishing points, Lamay was also the center for the Casa de Milagros.
The foundation helps Orphaned kids in the Sacred Valley area. http://www.andeantravelweb.com/peru/ecotourism/casa_de_milagros.html
I am sure they would welcome your support as well. Thank You
It's just over one month until our august 1st departure to Cusco via Lima. We are arriving in Cusco and being picked up and quickly descend from the 11000 foot elevation to the lower Sacred valley.
The sacred valley is the "Tuscany of Peru" or the "Napa valley of Peru" located at an elevation of 8000 to 9000 feet surrounded by mountains on both sides with peaks of over 15000 feet. We are staying 5 nights there in Yucay (Sonesta Posada del Inca) to acclimitize before going back up to Cusco for 3 nights, then descending back into the valley for two nights before the Inca trail hike/run.
I am planning 4 hikes as preparation for the Inca trail. The first will go from outside Chinchero which is over 12000 feet. The actual start town is past lake Piuray to just outside the town of Tauca. It assends to the highest I will be on the entire trip 14700 feet at the pass, then descends to Huchay Cusco a Inca site which is the "goal" then descends back to the town of Lamay.I am going to take Diamox to help me with this quick acclimitization.
We will also do hikes in Pisac and two in Ollytaytambo.
Here is the elevation profile for the inca trail
We will be doing one very short day from Km 82 to the first dot on the left of the profile Llactapata. (6-7 miles) followed by the whole rest of the trail as the Inca trail Marathon.
So that would be 27.5 miles with about 8000 feet of uphill if I calculate correctly. There are 40 crazy folks out there doing this, my goal is to take it "easy" and finish in dead last ( Why hurray?) Ha Ha
Thank God that we are avoiding the whole Mess in Bangkok. I can only imagine how frustrating it would be to be stuck someplace you don't want to be, in this case a military airport in the middle of nowhere.. So I pass through Hong Kong On Cathay Pacific with an 8-10 hr layover each way.
I have a hotel to crash in both ways. It is only 5 minutes from the airport. It looks like a very comfortable place the Novatel.
I have raised about 3000 dollars for the American Himalayan Foundation so far. More contributions will come when I'm done.
I have almost a whole month. The longest I've ever taken. Partially due to the difficulty of getting dates as everyone was scrambling to get alternative to Bangkok tickets.
I'll do my best to post here. In Kathmandu I know there is a good internet connection. Maybe in Namche as well.
I've been lazy lately. I will be running Saturday but not Sunday.
Here is a photo of the recent fire/smoke near my house. the fire was miles away but we got smoked!
Well folks I had a very nice run Saturday. The Sadleback Mountain Marathon in the Cleveland National forest about 45 minutes east of San Juan Capistrano.
I just had a great day. I started out easy despite the temptation to follow those who were running the early hills. I knew that I would do better to just power hike all the uphills. Anything that even looked like it might go up at all I was calling a hill.
The run has a total of 5000 feet of gain. I am not sure if non runners can appreciate that, but here is a comparison. the feared Boston Marathon with "Heartbreak Hill" has a total of 1054 feet of gain.
The first two miles or so were on pavement and more or less rolling so it was walk run walk run.
then the first real hill. well at this point let me show you the elevation profile.
Continue reading "Beutiful weekend in the Cleveland National Forest" »
The remained of the days we hiked 4-8 hours, had plenty of good food and enjoyed the hike immensely.
Highlights- Views from the Refugio Lagazuoi
Food at the Refugio Averau
After our train and bus ride from belluno to Venice we welcomed being immersed in civilization
