meandering down

with only a few hours left to hike, we kinda got our slow pant on after the summit, and wandered down at a picture-taking sightseeing pace. the back side of the pass was even lusher that the uphill side, and the trail had a few muddy spots from rain in the previous days. there were a lot of stops to look at plants and take pictures. 

by about 3pm, we came to a rest at an amazing viewpoint where we could finally see more of the valley and surrounding mountains. 

our support guides waited for us at some point (horses were well ahead), and we got the message that we should pick up the pace a little. only 30-45 minutes more to camp, but we wanted to get there well ahead of the sun starting to set around 5pm. it goes down FAST, and by 5:30 in Bhutan, it is dark. 

we got the message, and all had tired bodies, so set out at a great clip to cover the last miles downhill to reach camp.