Stairs and more stairs

Day six: Tatopani to Ghorepani

Imagine roughly 4,000 giant stone stairs leading relentlessly upward through rhododendron and magnolia forests, interspersed with friendly village towns of cobblestone pathways lined with thatch and mud huts. This is the path from Tatopani to Ghorepani. If this were at higher altitude, it would be an absolute killer. But mercilessly, the climb ends at 6,560 feet, roughly 1,000 feet lower than my home in Estes Park, Colorado. Nonetheless, with all our side trips and excursions we'd already walked a good 75 miles thus far on the trip, and this day felt brutal.
My tiny Nepalese porter, Danu, saved me from my borderline delirium twice along the way: Once, she stopped me from eating a corn-like fruit called monkey-corn that I plucked from a plant alongside the trail: Turns out it's poisonous. She also pulled me from a prickly thatch of stinging nettles that I was poised to use as a lavatory.
A team of wayward mules ran us off the trail more than once, the lead mule mysteriously aiming straight toward Kim each time they passed.
We finally arrived at the chilly, fog-shrouded town of Ghorepani at dusk, and checked into a "room" at the Sunshine Lodge that was no more than a plywood box with two blanketless beds. The dining hall, however, was glorious, with a roaring fire to dry our wet clothes over and chilled Australian Chardonnay awaiting. The place was a bustling convergence point of the many available treks in the area, so roughly a dozen female porters and guides from Three Sisters Trekking were there. They took their shoes off and danced to vintage Michael Jackson, coaxing me to the floor to join them in a groove to Billie Jean, despite wobbly trail-weary calves.
It was one of the most memorable nights of the trip.