Tales from the Loonybin

Peru Day 5: Inca Trail Day 2: Dead Woman’s Pass–This entry was written on May 12, 2006
Today was the most grueling part of the trail. We started from our campsite at 9800 feet, hiked up to 12000 feet by lunch, then hiked to 14000 feet over the next kilometer and a half. That brought us to Dead Woman’s Pass. Once we reached the top of the pass, we hiked back down to our campsite on the other side, at about 12000 feet. That 2000 foot descent was mostly over some fairly steep Incan steps.

The trip was pretty tiring for me, but not too bad. Unfortunately, the others in my group had a harder time of it. Two of them got sick, and were seriously pale and weak all day. I’m pretty impressed that they made it through the day! Another of my traveling companions seemed to completely run out of steam by lunch. I had to help her up the last hundred vertical feet, because she has mentally given up. Then, on the way down, the sun was setting and she didn’t know if she could make it to the camp before dark. The porters ended up having to come and pick us up because of the dark. But she did make it. Things do always seem to work out in the end.