between the Nakvak and the Korok: an expedition to the Torngat mountains. Hiking through the Valley of the cirques, climbing Mont d'Iberville, fishing in the Nakvak Valley, Canada, Torngat Mountains, northern Québec, trek, Nakvak, Korok, icefield, caribou trail, summit, travelogue, trip, travel, hike

 
 
 





Terraces in the sun


 

Sunday, November 23
A moment near
Pokhara

Krishna showed up with a taxi van and we drove out of Pokhara to the foot of the trail up the mountain to his village, where his family home was located. I had put some band aids on my 2 blood blisters, but one of them was pretty deep. Normal walking did not bother it, but I thought the climbing up and down the mountain might. I took one of my walking sticks as a walking cane, which helped. Rob was not feeling that well, having caught the cold that I had had and Andy was getting over.

It was maybe a 45 minute climb, stone steps and grades. As we walked, I asked Krishna if they have snakes there, and he told me a story about his next youngest brother, Prem, when he was a young boy. There are poisonous snakes that lurk in trees, and apparently Prem climbed a tree and got bitten several times. He was on the verge of death and they called upon a folk healer, an old woman who used herbs and such, and eventually he recovered. We kept our eyes in the trees for a while, but Krishna said the snakes usually appear in the rainy season.

After reaching the top, we followed a trail along the crest. There were some farmhouses along the trail, but there was no road. On the other side of the mountain, it plunged steeply down into a valley. In some places where the mountainside leveled out were terraced fields. Beyond the valley below was a spectacular view of the white Annapurnas, even though it was not a particularly clear day.

His father was on a stone patio on the valley side of the house, where the entrance to the house was. His father was using carpentry hand tools and some wood from the forest to fashion a new yoke for the ox. His mother came out to greet us, a woman who smiled and laughed a lot and made us feel welcome, despite the language barrier. Krishna's parents had beautiful faces, leathery and expressive. The house was a story and a half. In a shed connected to the house was a water buffalo, a couple of young goats, with chickens and a rooster running free. The house was basically 2 rooms. The main room for living and cooking had a loft where the parents slept. There was one of the wood burning clay stoves I described before. The water supply was rain run off from the mountain, which was gravity fed and stored in a large black plastic tank with a faucet.

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