Issue link: https://bluemagazine.uberflip.com/i/25038
total strangers, I was time and again greeted like an old friend. I choose the Original Lama Hotel, which has no other western guests. After more dal bhat and apple pie I'm ready for bed. Nature dictates the rhythm of life. You rise with the sun and sleep when your belly is filled. It takes a lot of energy to carry, climb and pedal at these altitudes. In the clear night, stars descend all the way to the horizon. What looks like an airplane turns out to be Mars, which rises above the mountains. The lodge owner invites me to share a pot of tea before bed. Using a very small dictionary, he and his wife discussed ways to bring electricity-through solar power, wind power?-to Rimche. II I feel the power of the Himalaya, 11 3: Rimche to Langtang Glacier day takes me out of the V-shaped, river-eroded gorge U-shaped glacier-scoured valley. With the steep '"lilmhinn behind me I meander up the valley, picking and 'I'hl�n"inn among the paths that follow the river. Signs of such as mani, can be seen along the trail. walls with Small blue and white flags printed with Buddhist text flutter in the breeze. A troop of langur monkeys plays on the cliffs. A lone woman hoes potatoes in the fields above. She sees me, stops and waves. I wave back. Most people here herd yak and grow potatoes. All other goods are either bought or bartered with cheese, curd or woolen goods. Wide and rolling, the trail is beaten smooth by the hooves of a thousand yaks. It is a fast ride punctuated by rock gardens deposited by the glacier's retreat. A few hours later I ride into Langtang at 11 ,480 meters. The first village since Syabru, Langtang is distinctly Tibetan-it harbors a monastery and many Tibetan refugees have settled there since the 1950s. The community-run bakery, powered by a hydroelectric plant that's fueled by a small waterfall, funds the school next door. The almond paste and vanilla cookies are delicious. I ride on to Kyangjin Gompa. At 3,900 meters it is the last village. Just an easy two-hour ride away is the terminal moraine of one of the three glaciers that enter the valley. Crossing over car-size boulders I arrive at the valley's 38