Mt. Kenya - Day 2

 Chogoria Gate to Ellis Lake, via Nithi Falls

 

The plan for day two would be to carry on up the road for about three hours, across a valley, and begin ascending to a campsite called, appropriately, Roadhead - the highest point you are able to go with a vehicle. From here we would continue on trails.

Though it's possible to camp at Roadhead, for us it was a resting point and place to fill our water bottles. It's rare nowadays to find a place where you can drink straight out of a river but Lance assured us that it was safe. I've been in East Africa for 20 years and I felt that should be okay. It's a risk given that you don't want to jeopardize your hike, but the combination of being hot and sweaty and trust in Lance's previous 150+ hikes on this mountain, I figured it would be okay. It was particularly good water, I might add.

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Nithi Falls

At Roadhead, we would also make a detour of about one kilometer to see Nithi Falls. As we made our way along the somewhat gnarly, mostly downhill trail, I began to hope it was worth it given that we would need to make our way back to Roadhead and then continue on with our hike for another couple hours to our next campsite.

In the end, it was well worth it. It was gorgeous and the spray of mist dampening us in the midday sun was welcomed. After a short break, we hiked back up to Roadhead where we stopped again to fill our bottles and proceed on up the trail.

As we made our way along the treeless, exposed path, I was frequently checking with the family to see how we were all doing. My wife and daughters have a tendency to get headaches when doing physical activities, particularly when doing an uphill in the midday sun. The fact that we were now at altitude made me all the more wary of their hydration and fatigue levels. But all were well and moving along at a decent pace.

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Lake Ellis

We finally arrived at Lake Ellis, a small body of water in a completely treeless area of the mountain. Though it was only the end of day two, I was beginning to feel more confident that we all might make it to the summit. Kiran had had a bit of a headache on day one, not long after we started, and Kinaya had had a small one was well, but all of us seemed to be in good shape at this point as we settled into our new campsite. 

I was still trying to get my bearings on the mountain but it was slowing dawning on me that this was a slight detour in the overall ascent designed to slow progress in gaining altitude and allow for acclimatization. It also provides a nice place to camp.

We arrived early enough that we had some time to read and put up our feet. We took a walk around the lake, closely watching ominous clouds on the horizon. It’s apparently not uncommon for rainstorms to hit without much warning. If you get wet as the early evening temperature begins to drop, you can find yourself in a real bind. You need all your layers to be dry as night sets in since you use most of your clothes to stay warm during the cold nights.

It took me a while to fall asleep. The porters, stellar as they are, have a tendency to stay up late and talk loudly. I understand. They are away from their families and probably enjoy loosening up after their very hard days. But it’s not great for the hikers who, in some cases, invested a lot of time and money to fly to Kenya for this once in a lifetime experience. Indeed, it would prove to be their evening routine. Only on the last night would they be far enough away to avoid disturbance.

And Then There Were Two

After another chilly night, we awoke and began to prepare for day three. As I sipped my instant coffee, it became apparent that Kiran wasn’t doing very well. She had been doing well during the first two days. She also had done considerable preparation, including a couple of hikes, one of which was a four-night/five-day hike in the Aberdare Mountains (which included a 30-kilometer day) a few weeks prior to this trip. To be honest, I thought she had the second-best chance of making it to the summit. And now, unexpectedly, she was teetering on the edge of not continuing.

Lance is a paramedic, so he came over and checked her out. He was leaning towards altitude sickness in his diagnosis, but I wasn’t convinced. We were only at 3,200 m./10,500 ft. and she hasn’t had issues at this altitude previously. Either way, she was not doing well, and the clock was ticking. If a team were to continue, they needed to get moving.

We gave her some pain meds and decided to wait a bit before making a call as to what we were going to do. I know the thought of messing up the hike for herself and others was making her feel worse.

After about 45 minutes, and her condition not improving, we had to make a call. In the end, we agreed that the logical thing to do was to have Priya stay behind with her and they would either stay at Lake Ellis a second night and then head down. Or try to head down the same day if her condition deteriorated and she need to get to some help. Kinaya and I would soldier on. She resisted any attempt I made to have her continue and me stay or have all four of us stay together.

I also felt horrible for Priya. She has had so many concerns about her ability to fend off migraines during hikes. Now, midway through this trek she was feeling fantastic and had no issues. She was well on her way to pulling off a successful summit attempt. I thought back to Tanzania several years ago when she came down with a migraine midway through the Kilimanjaro hike and needed to descend, missing out on summitting then. This seemed so unfair.

The three of us heading out

Alas, Kinaya and I put on our daypacks, said our goodbyes, and followed Lance out of camp, leaving a sick and disappointed child and a disappointed and concerned wife. Needless to say, it was a bit deflated heading into this third day of the hike. The focus now was on keeping Kinaya in good health, making sure she was in good spirits, and, yes, getting her to the top.