On and On.

Every day has begun to feel epic. The passes have gotten higher and the tempature seems to be dropping. Today we are in the Tibetan city of Litang and it is awesome. The town is full of stores that would make a nomads heart swell with joy. Tent-makers, cobblers, stove-makers, tinners, tailors, sellers of prayer flags and yak butter compete for sidewalk space with beggars and horsemen, nomads riding motorcycles and pilgrims with prayer beads. The streets are awash in Tibetans you hoped existed but thought maybe were relegated to the pages of National Geographic. Tall men with sun stained faces and red yarn braided into their waist long hair. Men in flat brim hats and women bejeweled in turquoise and red coral. Spinning prayer sticks and trading dried yak meat. It is fantastic. Absolutely fantastic. It is unlike anything I've ever seen.

We rolled into town yesterday after two and a half epic days and decided to take a day to recuperate. Several days ago we knew we'd have some monster mountains to climb and stocked up on food at our last real town. The first day began early as we passed through small tibetan towns perched on ledges above a river. We pushed up hill all day and around 4 pm I started running out of steam. We looked up the mountain and saw several more switch-backs ahead of us. It turned out to be more than quite a few. The passed topped out at 14,900 ft. and it found all of us gasping for air. We were well above the tree line, the wind was blowing something fierce and it was almost seven o'clock. Like the day before, the view from the top brought no sight of town. It felt like bad things were going to happen. We took a picture and started heading down.

As the sun set, we descended 15 kms into a small valley that held the most amazing little town I've ever seen. The entire town was filled with tiny littly castles. Gone were the giant Tibetan mud houses and in their place were hundreds of little stone castles. It was great. It was epic. We found a guesthouse and after registering with the police, we crashed for the night.

The next day found us riding above 13,000 feet most of the day. We stopped at some lake and made ramen for lunch. It was high. The day rolled through monster landscapes where you couldn't judge distance. We found a grazing field next to a river and set up camp. Around 2 am it started to snow and then turned to sleet and then turned to rain. We woke in a wet dawn and packed up camp. I felt spent. I think we all did. I had the hardest time climbing yesterday morning. Caravans of Tibetan yak herders, in their little tractors/trailers passed us during the climb. All of them cheering us on and yelling hello. We raced a snowstorm into Litang and arrived in the city before it broke across the mountains.

Last night two waitresses from our hotel took all of us to the local disco. We jammed with the tibetans until 11 pm. An impromptu game of spin of the bottle led to charlie getting more action then he has in months. If kisses on the cheek can be considered action. This trip is amazing.