July 15th – Shira to Barranco Camp

We were up early – 5am – ready to get going so we went ahead and dressed and packed up. John climbed out the the temp to use the bathroom and saw Jeff outside getting photos. It was almost a full moon and the sky was full of stars. Jeff was taking advantage of the beautiful night to get some good photos of the mountain and the camp. He took one looking up toward the mountain with the tents in the foreground. Our tent was the only one lit up and it is one of my favorite pictures from the trip. We were loaded in to our boundary bags and off to the breakfast tent by 6. It was nice to relax and have a cup of hot Milo/Nido before the hustle and bustle of the day. Today we will start at 7:30 instead of 8 because of the length of today’s climb. We will go up to 15,500 and then back down to Barranco at 12,800 or something like that. We have some sort of porridge every morning for breakfast. This is a slow burning carb that will stay with us throughout the morning. Some days it is oatmeal, some days millet (brown) and some days either cream of wheat or rice. There is a tub on the table label “fat spread” which because a bit of a joke. I always ask for the fat to put on my porridge. It makes it taste better and I figure I am burning enough calories on this trip I can pretty much eat anything I want. We also have toast, sausages, eggs, etc. Every meal there is really too much food.

We start off at the back of Lori’s group. It is large this morning. Lori and Neil at the front, followed by Sierra, Monique, Nan, Doug, Jeanne, April, Kristy, Connie, Susie and Mickey. John and I are followed by our guide, August. The trail out of camp is a long gradual climb uphill – not sure of the grade but it is fairly steep. It is crisp starting out and we’ve all got jackets on and long johns under our trekking pants. At the first break we’ve climbed out of the cool Shira Plateau and are working up a sweat so we slip behind a rock to shed some layers. John and I take the opportunity to catch up with Mickey and hear Susie Weber’s story for the first time. Susie has been diagnosed with MS the longest of anyone in our group. She was diagnosed at 22 years old. Since then she has had 3 children and started running half marathons. She said she had some trouble after each child was born but was so glad that she had not let the MS keep her from having children. She must be a really inspiring Mom. In the last few years she’s been feeling pretty well and started exercising. She has done a couple of half marathons which I think is amazing. After a bit I walk up and talk to Kristy to hear her story. I am really interested in hearing the MS stories because my mother was diagnosed when she was 37. I think she would really have benefitted from knowing people like the amazing folks in this group. While I was talking to Kristy, Susie was asking John all about PD. I think its been good for everyone to share information about their diseases to promote greater understanding. Kristy is from Wisconsin like so many on this trip. She was diagnosed in 2005. She took the Interferon treatment until 2010 and it had a lot of bad side effects. She never really felt very good. She switched to a new Novartis med in 2010 and has been doing very well on it and feels much better. She also has asthma. After a while, I move up and talk to April for a while. She’s had the toughest life of anybody in the group. She had her first symptoms when she was 12 years old but wasn’t diagnosed until a few years ago. She grew up in a troubled home – her mother was an addict and there was often not enough food to eat. She basically raised herself and her little brother. She met her husband at a super bowl party a few years ago and it sounds like he is really good for her – a calm and ever present support. Something she was missing for so many years. She has a lot of pain with her MS. She had injections in the nerves in her legs in order ot be able to do this climb without having pain. So far it seems to be working and she amazes me as she climbs along the trail. This take more courage that I can even imagine.

At the second break spot we moved ahead and walked with Nathan, Daniel, Stephanie, Paula and Suz. They are going at a really good pace and we are feeling good. At the 3rd break we notice that Paula is not looking good. I think the pace is too fast and ask August to drop back and slow the pace. So John and Paula and I walk together with August and we talk about breathing and taking rest steps. Paula starts feeling better. August points out our blue lunch tent off in the distance. We leap frog back and forth with some German and Dutch climbers most of the morning. We saw some of them the day before as well. We get to the tent and lunch isn’t ready yet so we clean up, use the stick to roll our tired muscles and just take a rest. We are at 14,500 at lunch – the highest point in my lifetime. Lunch is ready and we have grilled cheese and tomato soup – my favorite. Also, Pringles – Monique’s favorite – especially the Sour Cream and Onion. The sun is out and the tent is warm. I don’t want to linger.

We set out for the Lava Tower with a different group – John, Paula, Connie, Gina and Suz. I am thinking that we are going to climb up the Lava Tower but quickly learn from August that we are just going up and will go around of the base of it. Only people climbing the Lomosho Trail will climb up the tower. We take a break at the tower and Suz drops back to walk with Nathan and Daniel. This is my first chance to spending talking to Connie on the trail. She’s from Jackson Hole and brought everyone in our group a Jackson Hole buff to wear on the trail. There are some Brits who’ve seen us on the trail a few times and said, “There go those American’s again with the Jackson Hole Buffs.” Funny. Connie is quite an adventurer. She studied the Masai in Africa a number of years ago. She has traveled a lot of places and will be going on to climb Mount Kenya on her own after this trip is over. Amazing. She has two children. Her son lives in Sun Valley and has the AML, the same thing my Dad had. He had a brain tumor when he was two years old.

We trek along the face of the mountain looking up at the Western Breach. This is a very dangerous trail where 6 American’s were killed a few years back. Timing is critical on this trail. Once the sun rises and shines on the face of the breach the ice starts to melt and a lot of rocks fall. We stopped at one point because we could hear the rocks falling. We just stood there for a few minutes and listened to the mountain. It is quite ominous looking up from this vantage point and thinking we are going to climb to the top. We can’t see Uhuru Peak from this vantage point but what see seems so far away.

Gina is still trekking with the same energy she had the first day. She’s a music teacher and plays the trumpet (I think). This helps her a lot because she knows how to breathe from deep in her belly. I can hear her breathing behind me and it motivates me to breathe my deep yoga breathing.

As we head down from the Lava Tower we are on a steep, dusty, loose dirt trail. This is the sort of trail I was concerned about. I really have a lot of trouble descending on this sort of trail and I worry about the instability of my SI joint. All I need is a hip rotation to make this a real challenge. I slip twice and Gina slips once – we catch ourselves before we end up totally on our butts. I am really hoping the trail down from the summit is not like this. My legs get really tired of this descent because my hip flexors are constantly engaged. I am ready to get to camp. I watch August and he is walking more like a duck so I decide to try that. It seems to provide some relief from the constant strain. We follow a thin stream along the trail down in to camp. There are these plants that look like short palm trees all over the area and I wonder how they survive in this barren landscape. The the other trail (not Lava Tower) comes in to view and we see April and Jeanne and their guide. We wave to each other across the chasm. We continue down and we can see the Barranco Camp in the distance. A cloud is settling into the camp and we know it will be cool when we get there. No singing as we come in to camp today. We are met with the tray of juice and we pick out our tents. Suz,Stephanie, Nathan and Daniel come in a few minutes after us. We are all getting set up and washed up. I find my can of “spray hair wash” and see what it does for my look. Suz uses some and it actually makes her look pretty good. It is too cool to sit out side the tents this afternoon. We decide to go ahead and get tent for Nan and Doug and get their bags delivered. It will be a long day and this might help a little. He still has a cold and I don’t think he’s feeling that well.

John blew up both of our sleeping pads today. It was nice not to have to crawl around in there and blow mine up. I crawl in the tent and do the full bath wipe body swab. I change socks and clothes and start to feel refreshed. We sit around with Nathan and Daniel for a little bit but it is just getting too cold.

We had a big dinner – chicken satay, beef with gravy, pasta, mashed potatoes, greens and a raisin bread dessert. It was really too much food for someone who is starting to have some tummy turbulence. I don’t really know why I ate so much. Jeff recited a poem he had written about Lake Superior, the area where he lives. It was really beautiful. The poem was about how the landscape talks to you. Jeff is right – big landscapes do have voices – if we just stop and listen. I got most of it on video. At 2:30 in the morning I woke up and most of the air was out of my pad – not sure what happened but I hope its not a pin hole. I have to get up and re-inflate it. John wakes up and asks me what I am doing. I wake up again at 4:30 and the camp is silent. I remember Jeff’s poem and listen carefully. I can just hear the stream whispering off in the distance. I lay awake listening to the voice of the mountain for a while before drifting back to sleep. I have to get a copy of Jeff’s poem.

I had a crazy dream that we got back from the climb and our car was in the parking lot. John drove us home (not our regular home) and I got out and realized that we had missed the Safari. I ran around the block chasing him in the car to drive us back to the Safari. Crazy dream.