When we woke up the sky was mostly clear, but the mountain peaks are all hidden. We decided to skip breakfast at the lodge and hit the trail at eight. From Ulleri the trail continued up stairs for another hour or so. The next couple hours were mostly steep, but both ascending and descending. After two hours of hiking we stopped in the small village of Nange Thanti and had brunch. From Nange Thanti we walked through an incredible forest of rhododendrons - I never imagined that they could be so big - some of the trees were well over fifty feet tall! There was also a lot of small waterfalls and general riots of green, but the mountain peaks stayed hidden. Less than two hours out of Nange Thanti we arrived in Ghorepani. We quickly grabbed a posh room (relatively) and dumped our gear. We were hopping to climb Poon Hill for the views of South Annapurna, but the clouds started to roll in and there was no chance of seeing the mountains - we'll have to try before dawn tomorrow. We wandered around the town - it's a lot bigger than Ulleri and not nearly as quaint, but bigger is relative, it's still only a couple dozen buildings and no roads. We started up the Poon Hill trail to see if we could get a nice view down on the town but it was just gray. Back in the lodge it was time for a very hot shower - I find it very ironic that in the last couple months I've almost never seen a hot shower and yet here I am trekking in the Himalayas and paying less than a dollar a night for lodging and I get them!
