Friday, January 22, 2010

Binog Tibba Hike!!!!:)


YOU KNOW IT BLOGGING WORLD!!! YOU KNOW THIS IS THE FINAL HIKE OF THE TRIFECTA OF TIBBA'S!!!!! COUNT IT!! Top Tibba (CHECK), Nag Tibba (CHECK) and now Binog Tibba (CHECK!!!)!!! Needless to say one of my goals for this break was to complete the trifecta!! HA, in your face all you non-believers!! Yeah I know who you are......TROY!!! *If there is a Troy out there who is reading this, know that I just made that name up and in no way are you a non-believer!! **If there is a Troy out there who IS a non-believer then that name stays true!!! So apparently the plan was to leave for Binog at 7:30am, yeah, never received that memo and Dave and Leroy showed up to my door at 7:45am asking "ready?!?"!! Mind you I set my alarm for 8am and was planning to leave at 8:30am, so my answer was "ummmm nooooooo!!" What a great start to the day!!! Then when we were ready to go we headed to pick up Suman who was also coming along!! However, he KNEW about the 7:30 departure and when he came to the door he was definitely in his boxers and just woke up!! Again, GREAT start!!:) FINALLY at 9:30am we were ALL ready and heading for Binog Tibba!!!:) Only 2 hours late, no big whoop!! Our plan was to hike through the bazaar, through Happy Valley and just drop off the hillside....literally!! We google earthed Binog Tibba and noticed through the valley between Binog and Happy is the quickest by far, AND we even saw a path so that was our plan!! Basically a b-line shot to Binog from Mt. Hermon!! Is the phrase b-line?!? That doesn't sound right or make sense!! Maybe I-line cause that's more straight! I don't know, whatever line we were going straight at it!! Well we make it to Happy Valley; quick sidenote Happy Valley is a Tibetan refugee camp where 95% of the population is Tibetan and they have AMAZING momo's at the Staff Mess Hall!!, and eat at the Staff Mess for lunch!! After lunch we head South towards the path we saw on Google Earth!! But, as all hikes go, we couldn't find the path that was so obvious on google!! We asked some locals (when I say we I mean Suman) about the jungle path down to the valley and they said "just go down the jungle"!! So we took that as make our own path down!!;) Typical hike for us!! Who needs real paths, it's all about improvision!! We head down the Tibetan village until it became jungle and from there kinda just followed goat paths and did some major bushwacking!! I thought it'd be easiest to follow a dry stream downward while everyone else followed paths North down the valley via steep grass slopes and rocks!! Well turns out my option took a LOT longer!!:) To get to the stream I literally had to hang on to trees while the slope is at an 85 degree angle and walk from tree to tree, hanging like a monkey with one arm!!:) It was awesome!! Oh not to mention the MASSIVE amount of stinging nettles around!! Yeah, arms and legs were definitely victims there!!;) FINALLY made it to the stream and of course that wasn't easy!! Oh forgot to mention, I just HAD to have my rucksack on that weighed about 35lbs that day, and was SO easy to carry around doing this monkey stuff!!:) While everyone else had their day backpacks which had a couple bottles of water and a sandwich, weighing at most 10lbs!!:) So get to the stream and it's all rocky and covered in moss, two points going down stream I literally threw my rucksack down so I had more agility in climbing down the 7-15ft drops!! That rucksack is pretty tough won't lie!!:) One thing that kinda stalled my decent was during minute 15 I heard this "UGH" in the distance and then "you okay?!?" haha apparently Suman had fallen!! It kinda made me smile a little, ONLY BECAUSE he is our rock climbing specialist and of all people he falls!!:) Bad luck he has on our hikes!! Our last one he tripped over a rock and banged his knee pretty bad!! But always did it with a smile on his face!! Love it!! Okay so here this UGH in the distance I yell "YOU GUYS OKAY!??" they respond, "yeah Suman just fell a little!!"  I pause........laugh a little......then continue!!:) At about the 20th minute of my decent I hear Dave yell where am I, and I respond STILL DESCENDING!! They already have made the 500ft decent to the bottom of the valley, I still had about another 100ft or so, CHOSE THE RIGHT PATH IT SEEMS!!:) I get past the steep decent and reach a more level walking ground, but of course there is garbage ALL around!! AWESOME!! Hike through that, descend a little more, and FINALLY after the 30th minute at the bottom and regrouped with the rest of the crew!!:) Binog Tibba hike CONTINUED.........

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