Kagbeni - Tiri - Kagbeni - Jomsom (Upper Trail) - Marpha (ACAP trail)

Long day today as I wanted to see Tiri in the morning and then walk to Jomsom avoiding the road. I took the upper trail to do so and even though I was technically still waking on the road most of the time it wasn't the main road so all I saw was 4 motorbikes. It offers some great views but the descent is steep in loose gravel so be careful. There were also very strong winds with some pretty powerful gusts that were strong enough to move me with my 15Kg backpack so it only made it more difficult. I was happy I had my trekking pole, it kept me from falling due to the winds a couple of times.

There is a small village before you reach the top between Kagbeni and Jomsom at around 3100m elevation, if you need water make sure you get some there. I only took 1 litre with me and when I got to the top I only had 300ml left. I tried to ask the lady in the watch house there if I could get some water and hey answer was no. So I walked down to Jomsom, luckily it wasn't a hot day and made it down with water to spare.

After reaching Jomsom and after walking a few minutes on the dusty streets of Jomsom I was determined to go to Marpha and to not use the main road. I tried to first use the official track and also go to the small village after Jomsom but when I saw it from afar I cut my way through the fields using a narrow path that probably the farmers use. If you want to skip the village entirely as well it might be faster to just go right after you cross the bridge that's right after Jomsom airport. I believe it leads to the same wooden bridge in the end but saves you some time.

Once in Marpha I tried to ask for the room price in the first hotel I saw but they wanted 700NRS, the second guest house (Rita's) only wanted 300 for a huge room with an attached bathroom. And the food prices were very reasonable so I decided to spend the night here as it was getting a bit dark already.

Finally don't trust the elevation chart, Wikiloc crashed and when I restarted the app it somehow assumed I flew up to 5700m. I thought walking a bit would make it correct itself but it was only gradually going down. It eventually corrected itself the next time it crashed as it picked up the right elevation. The max elevation on this trek is 3500m. It should be a lot easier if you do Jomsom to Kagbeni than Kagbeni to Jomsom at the way down is not very pleasant. The views were nice though even if it was a cloudy and windy day.