Everest Base Camp Trek — A Dog Named George

May 7

Con­trary to pop­u­lar belief com­ing down the moun­tain is no ​“walk in the park”. The dis­tance we are cov­er­ing now is equal to what we did in two days on the way up. Grant­ed we do feel like we are swim­ming in oxy­gen since we got below 14,000 feet. I find myself want­i­ng to make these long days on the trail last longer. This is not hard to do since both of my knees want­ed to quit about a week ago. So, I trot along at a snails pace tak­ing in every­thing and every­one around me. This includes the stray moun­tain dog we picked up along the way, which Jon and Blan­dine have named George.

Why a Nepali dog has an Amer­i­can name, I don’t know. He has been a very wel­come addi­tion to the team. But, George is just one of the many friends we have made along the way. We rou­tine­ly cross paths with sev­er­al oth­er trekking groups. Trekking groups from over the world. So, obvi­ous­ly com­mu­ni­ca­tion is some­times a chal­lenge. My solu­tion to this com­mu­ni­ca­tion prob­lem is a warm smile, a wink and a friend­ly ​“Namaste”. This lets oth­er trekkers know that I know what they know (or they think I’m try­ing to hit on them, I’m not too sure). For those of you sit­ting at home read­ing this that don’t know. I sug­gest you come to Nepal, hike in these amaz­ing moun­tains and find out.

Martha