One of the World's Greatest Hikes

One of the world's greatest treks is shrinking. In February of 1992, I hiked the Annapurna Circuit - a 150 mile trek around the four Annapurna Mountains in the Himalayas.

I had planned to do the journey by myself, but on the eve of my departure, while I was waiting in seemingly endless lines to get my permit in the treking office in Thamel in Kathmandu, I connected with three Brits: Iain, Pete and Claire. After a 10 minute conversation, we decided to spend the next 17 days together on this adventure.

It turns out that the 150 mile circuit shrunk a bit in 1994, when the gov't extended the road a bit, turning the 17 day hike into an 11 day hike. Now the "foot only" path is shrinking even more, to 4 days, as the gov't plans to extend the road even more. My mother-in-law, sent me this interesting article from the NY Times that you should read.

While this is bad for hikers, it's a good thing for the thousands of people who live in this region of the Himalayas. Modern products will be more readily available and the roads will allow easy passage for the mountain people traveling from town to town.

And as my friend John said, "Would you rather travel across the US in a covered wagon, risk your life, and have it take four months, or would you rather drive across the country in a car or even fly in an airplane?"