We said goodbye to Namche. We were now on familiar trails…the same ones we took from Lukla to Namche the first time. We remembered it being a long, steep UP the last few hours on the way in, but none of us seemed to remember just how long and steep it had been for now it seemed like we were hiking down a steep grade for hours. No complaining. It was great.

We shared smug laughs about the fresh-faced trekkers making their way up the hills. The trails were SO crowded with people, dzokios, and regular porters carrying on normal trade and cargo transport between Lukla, Namche and places farther up. Boys that didn’t seem much older than 13 or 14 were carrying massive timbers up the trail and having to turn almost 90 degrees sideways when they met someone coming the other way.

We recrossed the suspension bridges and walked along the river. It started to hit, when we left Sagarmatha park, that this adventure was ending.