This is part three of an account of a study trip by a group of twelve students and a professor from Hiram College to the Kingdom of Bhutan in the spring of 2002. For a full description of the group and goals of the trip, see the beginning of the first writeup, 23 Days in Bhutan. Part two is: Old Growth Forests, 13th Century Temples, and Rites of Spring.
This is a combination of class lectures and observations in the field (in plain text) and additional writings (in monospace). All altitudes are estimates, based on atmospheric pressure. For this reason, there will occasionally be multiple altitudes given for the same location.
This part was written almost entirely in Bhutan. The experience on the trek was so extreme, so different, I do not know how to describe it, other than the words I used while I was there.
28 April
The last part of the trip was a nine day trek to Mount Jomalhari, the most sacred mountain in Bhutan. The plan was to hike to Jomalhari, then go over a pass and go back by a different route.
Early in the morning. About to embark on this trek. First breakfast, then on the road.
And this notebook is falling apart - I will have to re-sew it when I get home.
Why am I so worried right now? - the unknown. And because everything is so different already. So many of my ideas have changed - my views of what natural history is, how Man influences nature, and what influence I as a tourist have on all this. But it has changed bigger things, too. I care about different things now - more about the big picture and less about the little things, more about doing amazing things with my life and less about doing what I am supposed to do. Not that I do not still care about these things - I do - it is just that I am more interested in doing something long term - I want to make art. I want to change people. I want to change myself.
I am going to try to continue to pursue my dreams. I am going to make a book out of this trip. And I will do much more with all of this later, and I will continue to do things. I will try to change the cities, to make them more bright, less gray and drab.
Wow. A couple hours into this crazy journey... Amazing. The wind blows so nicely down the valley. And it is getting drier. 8640 feet. As we go higher, the soil becomes more dry and sandy.
The air is really dry here - the watercolors are drying so fast. Someone chopped down a telephone pole along the way, but did not cut the wires.
Lecture in the woods!
Much greater chance of seeing birds now.
Try to figure out which songs go with which birds - observe!
Read about climactic zones.
21 ponies for us!
Many altitudinal zones - observe changes.
See how leaves are designed - drip-tip leaves?
Can see so much more!
CHANGE - population and economic.
What is normal? Change.
So much uplift - changes cover up history.
We want elastic change, not plastic change.
In the Hindu Kush, tremendous downward spiral due to deforestation.
Vegetation cannot hold land - flooding and landslides.
Here, upward spiral - terraces improve, over time gets much better.
We tend to hear the story of Nepal.
Need to take terracing into account.
US refusal to sign the Kyoto Protocol.
We take resources at a far far greater rate.
Land mine treaty, too.
Mountain areas will be most affected - they are the extremes.
We have good records for the Alps, showing the effect of weather on communities.
M.A.P. program - mapping weather over the long term, in alpine communities - what is the effect of global warming?
But every valley is different.
And there is a real difficulty working with averages.
Trying to take in local information - local farmers know a lot - more than even what weather gathering can do.
Fish are a better way to measure the temperature and that stuff of rivers and lakes because they have to live there.
Agricultural systems can respond to change. If they don't, they die.
And they must look short term. And science is trying, in some ways, to look too long term.
Totally different philosophy here - everything is based on modeling.
Topographical barriers - The Alps have an effect on Siberia
Trying to work on smaller 3-d models.
Biological level - over 30 years of data - can predict present based on past, and predict past based on present.
Bogs are a great place to start looking - fossil record of the pollen of the region
Also tree ring dating - Bristlecone pine
Can also look at timbers from Dzongs.
And can see overlap, and complete it - complete records for an area
Ice cores show glacial fluctuations.
Beetles fossilize well.
This area, like most mountain areas, is an area of catastrophic change - records show this - tax records and the like.
A third of the agricultural land in Europe was lost during the Little Ice Age.
Ocean surface temp was 2.8 C lower
Glaciers 5-6 C cooler - affected areas even where there was no human history.
Also, human impact - outside Bhutan, human impact has wiped out records.
Roman agriculture made North Africa a desert. And present human impact has not helped - 18th and 19th century colonization -removal of traditional agriculture.
During the Little Ice Age, great fluctuation in temperature.
Increased floods and avalanches.
Plague.
Fewer people to maintain land.
Developed world is more interested in tourism. Skiing.
Developing places that really should not be developed - avalanches.
Need to look really long term - agriculture can respond.
Canada could still be a good place to grow crops
But wildlife cannot move because of people.
Transition zones become compressed, we lose species.
You do not see high density population here.
What is our responsibility?
(end of lecture)
Still a lot of trash on the ground. And the stumps of a lot of small trees. Electric Telephone poles. And really low grass.
The wheat is planted in clumps, in rows. And some is already rather large.
Though the soil remains dry, as we get higher, the trees seem to get greener.
Walls that have been here so long that there is a considerable amount of lichen growing on the exposed sides.
The valley quickly gets narrower. And rocks are smaller - but not terminal moraine.
Closer to and in the river, big boulders.
Pine cones 6 inches long.
Decent chunk of a mountainside burned by fire - probably five years ago.
Camp at 9,620 feet. This first day was a lot easier than I had thought, not that it was easy... just that the previous experience I had had had given me the idea that this would be near impossible. The joys of good gear.
The river is really cold - obviously glacial.
Need to figure out how to make this into a publishable something. Letterpress type of observations facing woodcut prints.
Wow. Dan's 22nd birthday! Fun stuff. And cake.
Betel nut stains, still, along the trails.
There are so many rocks in this place.
The people, everywhere, are so friendly.
Cold and raining. And it is 8 pm - I understand the 4 pm afternoon rain... hate to think what this place will be like during the monsoon season. But that is expected. This, this rain is unexpected. Not that it should matter. That does say something about the culture that I am from. Can't create or control the weather. We probably want to. Sigh. Talking about American movies in Bhutan.
So strange to see telephone lines going into places that only have footpaths going to them.
Electrical and telephone poles are often metal, because of the rot caused by the monsoon.
Trying to write papers, and it is just not happening - I have the ideas, but I am just not used to writing papers by hand.
No dogs barking yet tonight. Finally saw a pig today. Need to stop to make more observations, during the day.
Rain rain rain. And yet it is still so dry. And yet the river below is still rather low - it seems a rather big river for this size valley.
I miss Lauren. Though I have never met her, I feel such a connection with her, and I so value the time I spend talking with her. Of all the family and friends, I miss her the most. But she lives so far away, and any sort of relationship seems unreasonable because of this. And there are the issues of her graduating later than me, and having different plans... blah blah blah. This trip has changed so much. I just hope that she can see this. And I hope that she might accompany me on some future trips.
(later) I really had no idea I missed Lauren so much, until now, until I wrote the above words, until I was separated without any contact for so long. I just hope she understands. I know she will.
I have seen such beauty on this trip. And I have seen many things that force me to reevaluate the way I am living and the paths that are available to me. I now see the importance, more, of other things in my life, and I hope that Lauren can be a part of that. Really.
This is starting to sound stupid, like some mushy love thing. And it is that. A little. But it is also part of this reevaluation of priorities. I do need to find someone. And it would be nice if I found someone close. Yet at the same time, I am lucky to have found someone, even if she does live so far away.
I have to reevaluate the way that I am consuming. And I have to find a polite way to tell the people here the truth - not that they live in a beautiful country (they do, but it is a meaningless phrase) but that their happiness, their way of life, and harmony with nature has forced me to completely reevaluate and change my whole way of being. Consume less. More beauty in everything. Friendliness. Compassion. Care for nature. Belief. Faith. Legend. History. Conservation.
These people do not have much - in comparison, I have everything, I am so rich. How can I use the lessons that they have given me to help them? And how much of what is happening is better attributed to the king?
So many things observed and not recorded:
- water powered prayer wheels
- prayer flags
- chortens all over the place
- the importance of ritual
- the high degree of electrification
- There are a lot more roads than my map shows, all of them dirt and most pretty difficult to travel on.
- The national highway is a single paved lane, barely wide enough for one vehicle, with rock wall on one side, and a sheer cliff on the other. The few guardrails are minimal and probably ineffective. To pass, vehicles must often squeeze within inches of each other.
- Vehicles do often fall off the road.
- Traffic is comprised of four types of vehicles: Toyota tour busses, as long as the road will allow; scooters, mostly Indian (Bajaj); Big Indian trucks; and tiny tiny Indian minivans. Oh, and there are a few cars, too.
- These people are vegetarians, but... the food that they make for us makes such efficient use of meat.
- They are all short - I am probably the tallest person to ever wear a gho.
- Most things are imported from India.
- Locally made packaged products are limited: fruit juices; beer; some liquor; honey; jams; and some canned food.
- Lots of food grown locally, but not much packaged stuff.
- Dried cheese on a string is good, if really hard - good stuff to chew on - better than chewing gum.
- Arra, the national beverage, is distilled from fermented wheat. It is about the strength of wine, and really rather good. It is pleasantly smooth.
- Whatever book I do must be made with an awareness of the illustrations done by the 19th century travelers.
- The national highway has, on average, 17 curves per kilometer.
- The highway is being replaced, in many places, by a straight road that runs along the valley floor - a very different experience.
- So few animals naturally here - birds, Yaks.
- The omnipresent stain of the Betel nut.
- And all this trash, mostly from packaged goods.
- And for some reason, I can't sleep tonight, though I feel fine.
Outside, a little later.
Writing instead of trying to sleep.
For a brief moment there, before going into the bathroom, the valley was almost free of clouds. The nearly full moon illuminated the entire space, and the snow on the mountaintops glistened in the light. Ten minutes later, a cloud has moved in, from the bottom of the valley, and obscured the entire sky. The cloud seems to be concentrated at the upper end of the valley - the view of the upper end is completely obscured. The cloud is moving upwards - I am slowly able to see a little of the lower end of the valley.
The light of the almost full moon is very bright, even through the clouds, almost bright enough to write by, but not quite. The cloud is not disappearing as I thought. The end that seemed to be lower in the valley is now overhead and now there are more clouds to the lower end of the valley.
It feels much warmer, since the rain has stopped. The moon is now bright enough to cast a shadow. More of the top of the valley is filling with clouds - the closest ridge is becoming obscured, and the lower end of the valley is clearing up.
The pack animals - mules and ponies - make such sounds - I do not know very well what animals lurk in the woods here. Nothing too unfriendly, I think, but I am still scared, and the comfort of my ten, or the toilet tent, is preferable. Wish that I could get one of the chairs and just sit on it, but people are sleeping in the dining tent - that is part of the reasoning why they need to bring it along.
People have been talking about wanting, lusting after American fast food. I understand this, but I just don't get how some people can be so preoccupied by it. So content here. Then again, I have ranted a bit, too.
Less sure of the patterns of the clouds now - perhaps tomorrow.
29 April
And in the morning, there is considerable snow on the mountains at the top of the valley.
And as we go a little higher, more moist. Lots of mosses, Spanish moss, and more plants normally seen lower - 500 feet higher than camp.
This stone path was made more recently - stones are not polished on top. Not far away, much smaller stones are used.
This is almost temperate rain forest - and the trees are old growth, but not as big as I would have expected at lower altitudes.
These small rocks were part of a stream bed, I think.
Magnolia is used to make all these fancy wood bowls.
New - orange pink flowered Rhododendron.
Back to big rocks again.
Rocks in stream are getting bigger - at least 1 foot long.
10,100 feet. Huge boulders here. This is really a temperate rainforest. Surprising amount of trees and bushes 10 feet tall for an old growth forest. Boulders at least 30 feet long! (4 or 5 of them)
Ten foot tall flowering trees with 20ish trunks, each about 2 inches in diameter. Possibly honeysuckle.
Some flat grazed looking areas in the middle of the stream. Very little real grass - small leafy plants and moss. Some grass on this mid-stream island.
Ah! Finally just saw one big old growth looking tree. For the most part on this island there is no grass or anything.
It is getting a little dryer - sandier soil. And more humid - probably is the soil.
More rocks and debris in river bottom - glacial.
Forest fire 10-20 years ago.
So many birds seen.
Vegetation changing - as wet, but mostly smaller trees - bushes - too rocky, not enough soil.
Higher up this valley wall, a few bigger trees. And on the other side of the valley, many. And a mountain, covered with snow, that appear to not be that much higher than we are now.
The flat areas where the animals graze do have fewer trees and other vegetation.
More of the honeysuckle, but with less growth - just starting to put out leaves.
Lots of culleydock - and a small farm - dark, rich soil.
Less of a valley floor.
Bigger boulders in the river.
And more magnolias, shorter. Many many Aspens of the flat ground on the opposite shore - as Aspen will do. And ferns and grass growing on moss on rock walls.
Something is different - more dead leaves on the ground. And less undergrowth. Actually, plants of undergrowth, but not so high. And the trees are shorter, too.
The areas where grazing and camping occur are so obvious - no trees, or if there are any, very short, very short ground cover.
10,670 feet. 67' F. 10:00 AM. And still the occasional trash on the ground.
Though there are some outliers, as we go upstream, the rocks and boulders get bigger.
And it has gone from sunny to overcast, but bright.
Still, when there is enough dirt, the characteristic series of depressions left by hoofed animals is seen.
This water is so blue.
The higher we get on the valley wall, the farther from the river bed, the fewer rocks - difficult to move, perhaps.
The Spanish Moss is so fluffy here - more moisture in the air? Rich black soil here. More birds here, migrating. Ground here is more moist, but no streams have crossed the path for a while, nor has the path been a muddy stream, as it did lower in the valley, where the streams are used for irrigation.
The vegetation is slowly [changing. Not sure how, but it is.
Some bamboo here. And less Spanish moss - more sporadic. Starting to see the occasional coniferous tree.
Lunchat 10,960 feet. Starting to rain a little. What a lunch - tables and chairs and all sorts of wonderful hot stuff that was probably made this morning.
After lunch, up a little, the trail continues to change - more conifers, drier. Big lichen on trees - conifers. More wet. Looking more like an old growth forest. Birch! There are birch trees here! Mostly conifers - undergrowth is deciduous.
The bark on these birch is really peeling - and really red, too.
The river is getting steeper. And more white birch, but still peeling. More burned out trees! Looks like people light the fires in them.
Huge boulders, big trees, really humid!
Lot of shorter bamboo - not the big stuff seen at lower altitudes. Diversity of species is lower here. But still lots of plants. And trees are not as tall.
Perhaps some of these big trees are burned out after they die.
Little wood shacks - military?
Moss covers every flat surface - not as much on the trees as before. The variety of moss and lichens is astounding.
1:00 PM. 11,415 feet.
These mosses are so lush, so thick, so spongy. They stick up a couple inches above their supports.
Trees are more twisted, gnarled, here, higher up. We are getting closer to the snow covered mountain. And closer to a pass, too.
A forest fire, five years ago?
In the clouds, more humid than ever.
This is the end of volume 1, a notebook made in Cleveland, Ohio, to take on this trip. I made volume 2 from Bhutanese handmade paper, purchased in Thimphu, when I realized that I might run out of space in the first notebook.
29 April, continued
Camp. At 12,115 feet. Snowing! (Which is better than the sleet that we had before.) I cannot believe this! But it is beautiful.
Susan made it! Yay! (was so worried) Hopefully, we can all pull through this, as a group. The leaders that we have are good, both Phurba and Denny. Denny admitted that this was the stupidest thing he had ever done. I can't disagree, but in the same situation, I would probably do the same. I just wish he would tell us what we are supposed to do if he dies.
Still snowy. If only I could take Susan up on that offer to share her tent with about 3 other people without her taking it the wrong way. I did what little I could, earlier, and she made it. (Not that there is necessarily any causation between the two.)
I am still amazed by the variety of lichens and mosses - I have never seen anything like it.
30 April
Wow. So much snow, and so sunny, so glad that I got sunglasses - the sun on the snow is so bright.
Clouds scraping mountain tops.
I have yet to see a jet contrail.
12,530 feet. 9:38 AM.
Denny, Susan, Howie, and Peter went back today - they didn't feel that they could go any further, so they went back, supplied, with a member of the crew.
Snow seems to be melting pretty fast in the sunlight.
Really big birds - Griffons - huge.
Vegetation getting more sparse - but still lots of moss - humid.
I question the reality of all this - so high.
Streams here carve deep gullies - few trees to hold soil - water levels obviously have much higher levels at times.
12,860 feet. Getting to be more snow here. The trees are getting shorter - 30' max - nearing the tree line.
Still a fair amount of moss, though not so much as before, we are getting higher, but the yaks might be eating a lot, too.
Trees are really showing weathering - almost like Bristlecone Pines.
Lots of snow blown from mountains and [trees.
13,020' or 12,580'.
Started out this morning with almost all the clothing I had with me on. Am now down to about half that, and only that much because we are not moving.
Trees are almost entirely conifers, on south facing side of valley (side to the left of the trail), though there are some deciduous bushes on the north facing side of the trail (to the right of the trail), the side with more snow, trees are almost all deciduous, and have not yet put out leaves. Little snow on south side, only in shadows of trees.
Pine trees are getting thinner. Many landslides on right side of river.
All this snow is fresh.
Soil is very dark, but little vegetation. Pine trees - juniper, are very gnarled, on the south facing side of the valley. The north facing side is a mixture of deciduous and juniper.
Lunch. Noon.
On the south facing slopes, trees only grow big on select faces - the rest are really small and gnarled.
Windy. Really really windy. And cold. Almost no grass - perhaps grazed or just worn down. Wonder how short the growing season is here - all grazing of yaks, I am sure.
Fantasizing about good food on the way home - sushi in Tokyo, deep dish pizza in Chicago, and some sort of greasy American chain in Bangkok.
Strong winds after lunch all the way up the valley.
Much of the lack of vegetation on south facing slopes can be attributed to grazing trails. On the north facing slope, I cannot tell whether the landslides are in fact entirely or partially caused by grazing - there are some grazing trails visible at the bottom, but the snow obscures too much.
Ruins of some stone buildings at the camp.
Damn, it is cold.
This paper is actually working decently! Yay!
Will probably rain later. Has been completely overcast since lunch. The wind really runs down the valley.
Tea. Tea is good. Though I do wish that it were possible to get decent coffee here. Sigh.
It is beautiful here. And the weather changes so quickly.
Lots of layered sedimentary rock - utilitarian uses - even bridges 5 feet wide.
1 May
In the shower this morning, when suddenly I hear this snorting of some large animal and the thundering of its hooves. Phurba called for me to get out of the shower immediately, and as I did, I saw, by the building, a cornered and very angry yak, bucking and snorting in a manner similar to what I have seen of bulls at rodeos in Wyoming.
Some thoughts for an essay I should have done a bit earlier, based on the experiences in Ura.:
The effects of the altitude are very strong here, 13,000ish feet. It is more difficult to breathe - I can feel it, and one tires after much less physical activity than normal. The sunlight is stronger here - I could feel the warmth and the burning after sitting out in it for but a brief time, and it heats one up so quickly - if not for the cold wind, it would have felt absolutely blissful. As it was, it felt good, except for the frequent interruptions by blasts of cold air. With the reduced atmosphere, I could feel the UV rays burning my skin, and those who did not use sunscreen burned quickly.
Most of the snow on the lower half of the slope melted quickly. The higher parts melted some, but not nearly so much. Jomalhari was visible in the bright, early morning sun, but by midday, was almost completely obscured by clouds, revealing how high it really is, in this location where it is hard to judge altitudes - everything is so big, and there isn't anything to provide scale.
To be considered a mountain, here, it must be covered with snow year round.
Jomalhari has never been summited. It is sacred, and looks like a really difficult climb.
Yaks may be somewhat tame, but they are still very wild - temperamental, too.
Here, it is sunny in the morning, strong, and starts to be cloudy by noon. By 2, it is completely overcast. The clouds keep moving, but it remains overcast. The clouds move all afternoon, more and more of them pushing up the valley. There is the occasional hint that there may be an end it sight - a brief break in the clouds, but as soon as it is created, again, it is gone.
Note: send real packing list for this trip to CIS.
The big old stone buildings were built to defend against Tibetan invasions.
So tired. I love this place, but I just want to be home for a few days. A good bed, some food that my stomach is used to... all these would be nice. But I do like it here. I just need to be able to relax a little. And I want to see how the pictures come out...
Oh, I wish I had a full length air mattress - to heck with weight.
Would pack differently if I were doing this again. Would pay more attention - this place is really extreme. Didn't climb up to the lake today - wish I had, but I just wasn't feeling good enough, and I would have had to turn around.
This air is so thin. The weather changes so quickly. And people live here - yak herders.
2 May
7:30 AM. About an inch of snow as of 2 AM. Much of it has already melted.
It is so warm - little atmosphere to block the sun.
Feeling a little better today. No mad yaks yet today. Must start walking back tomorrow.
Still having trouble getting used to wearing sunglasses at all.
The mosquitoes and flies around here are so big.
The sun is burning in the sky.
The grass is grazed very low, but some is left, unlike cattle, which will graze down to the roots.
Sitting out in the sun at 13,000 feet.
I miss the rest of the group, but I think that it is good that they went back - day 3 was so hard.
I do think that it is important that, for the next trip to Bhutan, that there be a good, well thought out equipment list. Rain pants are wonderful things.
And all these dogs start appearing once we start providing food.
The sky is so clear.
Walked up the valley to the glacier. Lots of sharp rocks, unworn by erosion. Clouds build up at the base of the glacier. The plants all look so old - geologically old, genetically unchanged for millions of years.
The