Hiking to South Strachan and North Strachan

Date: July 17, 2016  (Sunday

Trail: Cypress Strachan Trail (South and North Peaks)

Duration: 5 hrs. (started approx.. 7:30 am)

Weather:cloudy in the morning  with sunshine starting mid-morning

Difficulty: medium

Hikers:  Sandy, Erica, Sal, Jane (Kili Almunis’s) and Bill, Salim (wannabe Kili climbers)

Sandy, our key Kilimanjaro trainer, decided it was best to expose us to local terrain that was as close to the majority of Kilimanjaro’s terrain-- lots of loose rocks with little trees and the ground covered with  small to no vegetation at the higher elevations. At the same time expose us to various techniques and training on coming down the mountain trails from level ground to  trails with a very sharp slope. Needless to say, this kind of trail hiking is easily accomplished by the average hiker but not so for a V.I.P.  It was a challenge for both the guide and the V.I.P. hiker (myself) to navigate the steep inclines going up and even more difficult coming down the same sharp inclines.

The Cypress Strachan trail  is typically denoted as one of the intermediate  trails. We did not hike the full Strachan trail but hiked up Cypress’ ski runs to reach South Strachan peak first.

Check out Cypress Strachan ski trail information here.

We hiked up the Horizon run. Then the Top Gun run followed  by the Glades run to reach South Strachan Peak and were rewarded with a fantastic view.

Thank goodness the weather cooperated that day as we tackled the steepest part of the trail to reach North Strachan peak.  I was able to climb the steep embankment with my one guide holding the guiding stick at one end and me on the other end. It was a different story coming down the same steep embankment. There were no less than  four people guiding me down . One person using the guide stick to guide me down. One behind making sure I didn’t misstep and one or two alternating  alongside to ensure I didn’t slip. At different points we had to abandon the guide stick and just crawl backwards down with one person telling where to place my foot for a sturdy footing.  Slow stepping was the key approach going down. We managed to reach the bottom of the steep embankment without any mishaps. I’m told that if I could see what I had accomplished I’d be patting myself on the back. It was a Team effort!

Check out the whole trail we had short circuited by hiking the Cypress ski runs.

It was a great training hike!  We had lots of Kili similar terrain with loose rocks, various gradients to the trail and practiced coming down.  My muscles were never so sore.

Until the next post. Happy hiking.

Bill