Ride Report: A Riv in the Himalayas

[John Rinker]

“Begin by drinking garlic juice immediately!” This was the first piece of advice my new friend Sharad offered as we sat sipping coffee at Himalayan Java in Thamel. I was preparing to cycle the Annapurna circuit, and according to Sharad this was a sure way to avoid altitude sickness. Michelle is always super supportive of my tours, but I figured this might need some discussion. Or at least a courteous warning.

“Don’t cycle near the edge. The dropping is very dangerous!” Even as new friend, Sharad was already concerned with my safety.

“And watch out for bears throwing stones!” Up to this point altitude sickness had been my biggest concern. “Bears throwing stones?” I was puzzled. “Yes, purple bears!” Hmm. I made a mental note to avoid what must be very potent hashish in the mountains. “Purple bears!?” I pressed. “I mean deers!” Sharad clarified. “The purple deers are on the mountains above you and will knock down stones.” And so altitude sickness remained my greatest concern.

Riding a bicycle over a 5400 meter mountain pass (17,769 ft for those who refuse to think metrically), or more likely pushing, carrying and dragging it, was not something I’d ever really planned on doing- not a ‘bucket list’ kind of thing for me. But I had just returned to Kathmandu from a wonderful cycling adventure in New Zealand, and sitting around the apartment while Michelle is working makes me stir-crazy. I went for a ride to Thamel, ground-zero for trekkers in Kathmandu, and the bustle of excited travelers preparing for their hikes in the Himalayas piqued my interest. I wondered if anyone had ever cycled the Annapurna circuit. When I returned home, I jumped on the interweb and discovered that people do it all the time. Woo hoo! Within the week I had sound advice from Sharad, acquired my permits, received blessings from Michelle, and was on a shuttle to Besishar, a town about 140 km from Kathmandu and the traditional starting point of the circuit.

On foot the circuit is about 210 km in length as most people end in Nayapul and shuttle to Pokhara. By bicycle, the ride is about 320 km with about 7800m (26,000ft) of climbing. The road/track is the roughest I've ridden anywhere. Period. It is rocky, muddy, potholed and a literal pain in the arse. All of this, however, is mitigated by the incredible scenery, the sense of adventure, the fascinating Buddhist relics, and the wonderful Nepali people. The trekkers path is much better than the track, but there are long sections of stone steps that require carrying the bike. I opted for a combination. Once past Manang it is all path until crossing over the pass and dropping into Muktinath. With the exception of a few sets of stairs here and there, I was able to ride the entire way to Thorong Phedi, about 6km and about 900m below the pass. The combination of steep terrain and snow on the ascent to the pass and snowmelt and mud on the descent make the final 6km up and about 10km down the other side are hike-a-bike at this time of year.

The night before I left High Camp to climb the last 600meters to the pass, it snowed. As I set off in the early morning darkness under a crisp sky speckled with stars, the moonlight shone off a fresh blanket of snow. Thousands of individual snowflakes reflected the moon’s light and it was as if stars themselves had fallen into the drifts. In the highest mountains I’ve ever been, I couldn’t imagine a more perfect beginning to the day ahead. 

After about four and a half hours of carrying and rolling my Hunq, Sweet As, over the fresh but trodden snow, I reached the pass. At 5416 meters it is the highest elevation I've ever been. The air is truly rarified up there, and looking down on some of the highest and largest mountains on the planet was awe-inspiring, in the truest sense of the word. 

Regarding the Riv, I'm not sure how many such bikes have been up there, but it was, as you can imagine, in the eyes of many quite out of place. 'That's not a real mountain bike!', exclaimed one German trekker. 'You're going up there with THAT!?' was not an uncommon comment. But I think it was the basket and the Albatross bars that really threw people for a loop. And while many of the trekkers who pass me along the way as I plodded towards the top were encouraging and truly delighted for me when I made it up to the pass, I'm sure some were quite surprised that me and Sweet As made it. As we all know, Rivs are amazing machines, highly capable to carrying us and our gear to magnificent heights (and down again), and for my part I never doubted the bike would make it. I did, however, wonder about myself at times. 

As many of the trekkers gathered at the famous Thorong La sign, prayer flags snapping in the wind,  to capture a photo, I climbed into the saddle of Sweet As, shouted a congratulations to all, and rode off the pass under clear blue skies on a packed snow trail...for about 700 meters. When the snow got soft, the front wheel dug in, and Sweet As gave me a gentle remind that it was time to walk for a spell. 

As is my habit on such rides, I record the journey via Gaia GPS and add photo waypoints along the way. For those interested in the route and a ton of photos, here's a link the my Annapurna circuit tracks: 

The Annapurna Cycle

Cheers, John

[Shoji Takahashi]

Many thanks for this write up and photo tour. Albas+Basket+Hunq: perfect for nearly all occasions. Just Ride (or walk+push), indeed.

shoji

Arlington MA

[Bill Schairer]

AMAZING!!

Those bridges would give me the heebie jeebies under any circumstance.

Bill S

[Steven Sweedler]

John, thanks for the report and pictures, well done. Steve

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Steven Sweedler
Plymouth, New Hampshire

[Deacon Patrick]

Amazing photos and journey, John. Thank you. Did you ever suss out what the purple bears or deer were up to?

Some of the most challenging ridable riding I've encountered is very narrow trail traversing long, steep slopes. How much is my vertigo I don't know, but I find depth difficult to discern on them, an they are hypnotic, making the little shifts and turns seem straight and vice-versa, then pedaling up them, when very narrow, requires riding the outer edge of the trail, with a scree drop-off waiting if I mess up. I saw some slopes in your photos are on a completely different scale than the ones I've ridden. Amazing! And that mud! Yowza! Grin.

With abandon,
Patrick

[Patrick Moore]

Very interesting report. How much of your trek was accomplished riding and how much required pushing and carrying?

Your photos bring back memories and indicate huge differences from a trek from Pokhara to Ghorepani in spring 1968, I just turned 13, this long before there was any tourist infrastructure -- we saw about half a dozen trekers over our week-long out and back. We flew from Kathmandu in a military surplus DC3. Pokhara at the time was a small market town with dirt streets and 2-story hotel hand built from local stone and heavy planks with no electricity or running water -- and no indoor plumbing as I discovered to my discomfort when I got up in the morning.

We hiked from Pokhara to Ghorepani at about 11K feet IIRC where we overnighted in the Ghorepani Hilton, a 2 room mud hut with stars visible through the thatch after a mean of oily red curry with chunks of goat -- meat and bone -- floating in it. Someone told me a few years ago that there are now modern hotels with piped-in oxygen.

No roads once outside of Pokhara; just tracks, flat or steep, open or forested countryside -- I expect a great deal of the forest has been cut down. The traffic was porters carrying small trade goods to interior farming villages and the occasional troup of Tibetan resistance fighters with mules; so I was told. 

The people lived as subsistence farmers (one overnight stay was in the second story master bedroom of a Ghurka on leave to get married; his new wife was displeased taht he rented us the master bedroom; again, as I heard it later. No technology except kerosene lanterns (paraffin carried in on porters' backs) and small goods like axes and knives made in lowland village smithys. They struck me at the time as independent and happy; curious and open, and without the cringing servility of the poor in India.

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------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Still 'round the corner there may wait
A new road or a secret gate,
And though we pass them by today,
Tomorrow we may come this way
And take the hidden paths that run
Towards the Moon or to the Sun.

                                --- J.R.R. Tolkien

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

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Patrick Moore

Alburquerque, Nuevo Mexico, Etats Unis d'Amerique

[Ash]

WOW!  What an epic adventure John.

Thanks a ton for sharing the story and the pictures.  

Seeing a Hunq with Wald's basket on such extreme adventure gave me a chuckle.  You 'just rode' what you had.   That's truly inspiring.

I've seen people spend 4 figures accessorizing the bike with all kinds of Ortleibs and what not, to ride from San Jose to Mt. Mount Tamalpais  :)

[dougP]

That is one epic adventure.  Thanks for all the photos & report. 

dougP

[John Rinker]

Deacon,

The 'Purple' deer are a kind of musk deer and are prevalent in the Himalayas. They just cruise the rocky slopes in search of food. Why the locals call them 'Purple deer' remains a mystery to me. Perhaps in reference to the color of the bruise one would receive after being hit by a rock dislodged by a grazing musk deer?

Cheers, John

[John Rinker]

Patrick,

From Besisahar to Thorong Phedi, I rode 99% of the way. Although the roads were bumpy in places and the track steep, slow and steady wins the day. A couple sections had steps through villages that required carrying, and one short section up near Thorong Phedi had a steep drop to the river, across a wooden bridge, and then a steep climb back up to the trail. This was also a fine time for a stroll. From Thorong Phedi to the pass (6km and an almost 1000m ascent, it was carry and push all the way! 

You'd find that much has changed since your adventure in 1968. My wife and I did the Ghorepani trek in October last year, and it is nothing like you describe. Tea houses (small hotels) abound and the number of trekkers has increased significantly. Poon Hill, the destination for sunrise lookout, now holds as many as 500 people on a given morning in high season. We opted to skip Poon Hill, added an extra couple days of trekking and went to Muldai, another lookout, higher than Poon Hill, and there were 5 of us on it the morning we were there. I could see Poon Hill through my binoculars across the valley and, indeed, it was jam packed. Michelle and I were afforded solitude and stunning views of Annapurna South, Machapuchre (Fish Tail) and Dhaulagiri. 

You also would not recognize Pokhara, now the second largest town in Nepal. It is a bustling center of trade and tourism with coffee shops, restaurants, and trekkers galore. Sometimes progress ain't pretty. On a very positive note you will be delighted to know that the forest remains intact as Annapurna is a conservation area, and one still wanders through primeval rhododendron forests that blanket the steep hillsides.

Cheers,

John

On Tuesday, April 30, 2019 at 10:14:29 PM UTC+5:45, Patrick Moore wrote:

Very interesting report. How much of your trek was accomplished riding and how much required pushing and carrying?

Your photos bring back memories and indicate huge differences from a trek from Pokhara to Ghorepani in spring 1968, I just turned 13, this long before there was any tourist infrastructure -- we saw about half a dozen trekers over our week-long out and back. We flew from Kathmandu in a military surplus DC3. Pokhara at the time was a small market town with dirt streets and 2-story hotel hand built from local stone and heavy planks with no electricity or running water -- and no indoor plumbing as I discovered to my discomfort when I got up in the morning.

We hiked from Pokhara to Ghorepani at about 11K feet IIRC where we overnighted in the Ghorepani Hilton, a 2 room mud hut with stars visible through the thatch after a mean of oily red curry with chunks of goat -- meat and bone -- floating in it. Someone told me a few years ago that there are now modern hotels with piped-in oxygen.

No roads once outside of Pokhara; just tracks, flat or steep, open or forested countryside -- I expect a great deal of the forest has been cut down. The traffic was porters carrying small trade goods to interior farming villages and the occasional troup of Tibetan resistance fighters with mules; so I was told. 

The people lived as subsistence farmers (one overnight stay was in the second story master bedroom of a Ghurka on leave to get married; his new wife was displeased taht he rented us the master bedroom; again, as I heard it later. No technology except kerosene lanterns (paraffin carried in on porters' backs) and small goods like axes and knives made in lowland village smithys. They struck me at the time as independent and happy; curious and open, and without the cringing servility of the poor in India.

On Tue, Apr 30, 2019 at 7:26 AM John Rinker <jwri...@gmail.com> wrote:

“Begin by drinking garlic juice immediately!” This was the first piece of advice my new friend Sharad offered as we sat sipping coffee at Himalayan Java in Thamel. I was preparing to cycle the Annapurna circuit, and according to Sharad this was a sure way to avoid altitude sickness. Michelle is always super supportive of my tours, but I figured this might need some discussion. Or at least a courteous warning.

“Don’t cycle near the edge. The dropping is very dangerous!” Even as new friend, Sharad was already concerned with my safety.

“And watch out for bears throwing stones!” Up to this point altitude sickness had been my biggest concern. “Bears throwing stones?” I was puzzled. “Yes, purple bears!” Hmm. I made a mental note to avoid what must be very potent hashish in the mountains. “Purple bears!?” I pressed. “I mean deers!” Sharad clarified. “The purple deers are on the mountains above you and will knock down stones.” And so altitude sickness remained my greatest concern.

Riding a bicycle over a 5400 meter mountain pass (17,769 ft for those who refuse to think metrically), or more likely pushing, carrying and dragging it, was not something I’d ever really planned on doing- not a ‘bucket list’ kind of thing for me. But I had just returned to Kathmandu from a wonderful cycling adventure in New Zealand, and sitting around the apartment while Michelle is working makes me stir-crazy. I went for a ride to Thamel, ground-zero for trekkers in Kathmandu, and the bustle of excited travelers preparing for their hikes in the Himalayas piqued my interest. I wondered if anyone had ever cycled the Annapurna circuit. When I returned home, I jumped on the interweb and discovered that people do it all the time. Woo hoo! Within the week I had sound advice from Sharad, acquired my permits, received blessings from Michelle, and was on a shuttle to Besishar, a town about 140 km from Kathmandu and the traditional starting point of the circuit.

On foot the circuit is about 210 km in length as most people end in Nayapul and shuttle to Pokhara. By bicycle, the ride is about 320 km with about 7800m (26,000ft) of climbing. The road/track is the roughest I've ridden anywhere. Period. It is rocky, muddy, potholed and a literal pain in the arse. All of this, however, is mitigated by the incredible scenery, the sense of adventure, the fascinating Buddhist relics, and the wonderful Nepali people. The trekkers path is much better than the track, but there are long sections of stone steps that require carrying the bike. I opted for a combination. Once past Manang it is all path until crossing over the pass and dropping into Muktinath. With the exception of a few sets of stairs here and there, I was able to ride the entire way to Thorong Phedi, about 6km and about 900m below the pass. The combination of steep terrain and snow on the ascent to the pass and snowmelt and mud on the descent make the final 6km up and about 10km down the other side are hike-a-bike at this time of year.

The night before I left High Camp to climb the last 600meters to the pass, it snowed. As I set off in the early morning darkness under a crisp sky speckled with stars, the moonlight shone off a fresh blanket of snow. Thousands of individual snowflakes reflected the moon’s light and it was as if stars themselves had fallen into the drifts. In the highest mountains I’ve ever been, I couldn’t imagine a more perfect beginning to the day ahead. 

After about four and a half hours of carrying and rolling my Hunq, Sweet As, over the fresh but trodden snow, I reached the pass. At 5416 meters it is the highest elevation I've ever been. The air is truly rarified up there, and looking down on some of the highest and largest mountains on the planet was awe-inspiring, in the truest sense of the word. 

Regarding the Riv, I'm not sure how many such bikes have been up there, but it was, as you can imagine, in the eyes of many quite out of place. 'That's not a real mountain bike!', exclaimed one German trekker. 'You're going up there with THAT!?' was not an uncommon comment. But I think it was the basket and the Albatross bars that really threw people for a loop. And while many of the trekkers who pass me along the way as I plodded towards the top were encouraging and truly delighted for me when I made it up to the pass, I'm sure some were quite surprised that me and Sweet As made it. As we all know, Rivs are amazing machines, highly capable to carrying us and our gear to magnificent heights (and down again), and for my part I never doubted the bike would make it. I did, however, wonder about myself at times. 

As many of the trekkers gathered at the famous Thorong La sign, prayer flags snapping in the wind,  to capture a photo, I climbed into the saddle of Sweet As, shouted a congratulations to all, and rode off the pass under clear blue skies on a packed snow trail...for about 700 meters. When the snow got soft, the front wheel dug in, and Sweet As gave me a gentle remind that it was time to walk for a spell. 

As is my habit on such rides, I record the journey via Gaia GPS and add photo waypoints along the way. For those interested in the route and a ton of photos, here's a link the my Annapurna circuit tracks: 

The Annapurna Cycle

Cheers, John

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[maxcr]

Wow, that is sublime. What a trip and what an inspiring report!

I hope to go there one day.

Max

[Bill Rhea]

Thanks for the write-up and photos, John!  Epic....

-br

On Tuesday, April 30, 2019 at 6:26:49 AM UTC-7, John Rinker wrote:

[sameness]

Do the days get longer at that elevation?

Jeff Hagedorn

Los Angeles, CA USA

[John Rinker]

Well, it certainly seems like it! What would you do with a '68 hour' day?

Cheers.

[lambbo]

This is a ride-report for a magazine or something...Bicycle Quarterly? It's just too amazing, unusual, and inspiring! The fact that you did this beautiful high-altitude ride on a Hunq makes it that much cooler, for sure. 

Looking forward to your next ride,

A

On Tuesday, April 30, 2019 at 9:26:49 AM UTC-4, John Rinker wrote:

[John Rinker]

Thanks Lambo. Very kind of you. My next adventure will be my most magnificent of all- a ride down the mountain from my house in BC to the river, then all along the beautiful Slocan river for a summer of swimming and riding. Woo hoo!

[sameness]

Breakfast for dinner, dinner for breakfast, and back again. Hold the garlic juice.

Jeff Hagedorn

Los Angeles, CA USA

[Deacon Patrick]

May the ride you're on always be the most magnificent!

With abandon,
Patrick

[John Rinker]

A most wonderful perspective! It often is.

Cheers, John

[Tim Bantham]

I love this post! Thanks for taking the time to write about it. Such an adventure. Some of us only can dream about riding in a place like that. I love the fact that you did this on a Hunqapillar. Once again proving that a Riv bike has the ability to conquer all.