{"id":22311,"date":"2017-09-29T00:50:23","date_gmt":"2017-09-28T14:50:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/?p=22311"},"modified":"2025-08-27T05:22:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-26T19:22:12","slug":"machu-picchu-hike-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/machu-picchu-hike-story\/","title":{"rendered":"The road to Machu Picchu starts at 385 lbs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>This story was shortlisted for the 2017 CBC Nonfiction Prize. Documenting the author&#8217;s experience on the Inca Trail with Intrepid, it is republished here with her permission.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Everyone died.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The significant ones. My first boyfriend, my brother, my mom, my dad, my Danish host parents, all four grandparents, my best friend. The roots of my tree. My tribe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Death by suicide, impaired driver, cancer, broken hearts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Gone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Gained?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>100 lbs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It was Krista, my best friend, on the phone trying to say the word &#8216;malignant&#8217; and it coming out &#8216;malign&#8217;, that made my tree fall. The last root, heaved out of the ground, with a futile sigh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8216;Krista, this is important. Did the doctor say &#8220;ma-LIG-nant&#8221; or &#8220;be-NIGN&#8221;?&#8217;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8216;MALIGNANT! That&#8217;s it. Is that bad?&#8217; A shattering question that sounded like it was coming from an innocent child, not a 40-year-old. The weight of how to answer that question sat at the back of my throat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I heard a tether snap. In my mind&#8217;s eye, a brilliant balloon was sky-rocketing into space, with me grasping at ropes, helpless to hold it to the Earth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After providing all the assurances and hopeful promises that a friend should, I hung up the phone and fell to my knees beside the bed and stared at the power cords on the floor. Tears welled up. &#8216;Seriously universe? You&#8217;re going to take my best friend too?&#8217; I gasped and I wheezed and had that deep, ugly cry that we save for the most primal moments in our lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I fell asleep on the floor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As with every other death, I numbed myself with food. In the six&nbsp;months it took Krista to die, I had gained another 20 pounds to add to the 80 that had crept on since my brother got killed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For a year, I floated. I felt nothing. When everyone dies, there&#8217;s nothing much that can shake you up. The small annoyances in life \u2013\u00a0standing in lines, gossip, being late, endless snowy days \u2013\u00a0don&#8217;t even register. Day-to-day life can not compete with grief. Grief has its own agenda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I was staring at the cobweb hanging from the bedroom light; it was noon, I was still in bed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The web looked like a rain-covered bridge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To where?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>My own voice broke the silence, &#8216;I&#8217;m going to hike the Inca Trail to <strong><a data-wpil=\"url\" href=\"\/peru\/machu-picchu\">Machu Picchu<\/a><\/strong>.&#8217;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I reached beside the bed, found my laptop, fired it up and booked a trip to Peru.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>How easily decisions can be made and then rapidly solidified with confirmation emails. &#8216;Ding,&#8217; sounded my inbox. &#8216;Congratulations on booking with Intrepid!&#8217;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8216;HOLY SHIT!&#8217;\u00a0I said to the cobweb, &#8216;I can&#8217;t get up a mountain in the freakin&#8217; Andes!&#8217;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And so, the road to Machu Picchu started at 385 pounds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Flash forward eight\u00a0months later, to kilometer 82; the entrance to the four-day, 45-km hike to Machu Picchu.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Quechuan porters that carry the tents and food were sizing me up with unmistakable looks of doubt. I could read their minds, &#8216;She&#8217;s not actually hiking this trail, is she?&#8217;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Looking at them, I had a small moment of panic. &#8216;Thomas,&#8217; I said to my guide, &#8216;I&#8217;m not going to die on the Inca Trail, am I?&#8217;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He looked at me and drummed his chin, &#8216;Maybe.&#8217;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left\">I, up until then, had no doubts about getting to Machu Picchu. I had been walking miles back home. Slogging it 17 kilometres&nbsp;around Western Head in the hot, humid Nova Scotian summer. I circled Pine Grove Park over and over again until I could recall from memory every twig on the path. I ran up and down my stairs feeling like my lungs would explode. At the end of the day, however, I was still over 300 pounds and, as I learned, not the typical trekker one sees on the Inca Trail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:20px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><a data-wpil=\"url\" href=\"\/peru\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"372\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-22313\" src=\"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Edit-0372-e1506117052303.jpg\" alt=\"Machu Picchu hiking Peru\"><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:20px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><a data-wpil=\"url\" href=\"\/peru\/machu-picchu\"><strong>Hike the  Inca Trail with Intrepid<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I didn&#8217;t die on day one. In fact, the porters cracked quizzical smiles at me when I walked into camp that night. I bowed, leaning on my hiking poles, &#8216;&#8221;&#8216;Oh yes, boys,\u00a0<em>Big Girl<\/em>\u00a0is still on the mountain!&#8217; But really, the bets were that I would die day two; the day where the daunting and much-feared 4200-metre\u00a0Dead Woman&#8217;s Pass is to be conquered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The mantra that played like a sing-song tune in my head was, &#8216;Anyone can climb a mountain\u2026 one step at a time,&#8217; interspersed with nuns singing, &#8216;Climb every mountain.&#8217;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And so I did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I laughed like a crazy person, as I stood on top of that pass. The thin air and blustery wind stole my breath, but I continued to giggle and turn in a slow 360, agog at the sight of mountain tops. Somehow, I was still alive. There were two more days of hiking ahead, but I had just crested what was expected to be the most challenging part of the hike.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Why was it so easy?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On day three, I was talking to a fellow trekker from Australia. &#8216;This is so hard!&#8217; she said. &#8216;I don&#8217;t know how you can always be smiling.&#8217;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I thought about her words as I ambled along, staring out from the cliff&#8217;s edge at the phenomenal mountain peaks that surrounded me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:20px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignnone\"><a href=\"\/peru\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"560\" src=\"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/IMG_0371-e1506519798380.jpg\" alt=\"Machu Picchu hiking Peru\" class=\"wp-image-22315\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/IMG_0371-e1506519798380.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/IMG_0371-e1506519798380-425x298.jpg 425w, https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/IMG_0371-e1506519798380-768x538.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/IMG_0371-e1506519798380-585x410.jpg 585w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:20px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left\">I wasn&#8217;t feeling that the hike was hard. I was feeling privileged. I knew that there were people that could never make it up that trail; and I knew that my most important people couldn&#8217;t do it because they were six\u00a0feet under the ground.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hard?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Trying to understand that the broken, stitched-together body in the coffin is your brother, is hard. Holding your father in your arms as he chokes on his last breath, is hard. Getting a letter in the mail that states, &#8216;He killed himself,&#8217;\u00a0is hard. Putting one foot in front of the other, is not\u00a0<em>hard<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On day four, I stood alone at the bottom of a steep incline leading to the Sungate, the entrance to Machu Picchu from the trail. I could see people taking photos and congratulating themselves with pats on the back. Everyone busily pulling out their bucket lists and putting a big check mark beside\u00a0<em>hike the Inca Trail<\/em>, sandwiched on the list somewhere between\u00a0<em>hold a Koala bear<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0<em>kiss my love at the top of the Eiffel Tower<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The finish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>No.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I wanted to stay on the trail, to go back, to sit in the cloud forest and gasp for air among the llamas. I got emotional with the level of my need for it not to end. I felt so strong and happy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:20px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignnone\"><a href=\"\/peru\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"526\" src=\"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/IMG_0501-e1506519677251.jpg\" alt=\"Machu Picchu hiking Peru\" class=\"wp-image-22319\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/IMG_0501-e1506519677251.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/IMG_0501-e1506519677251-425x279.jpg 425w, https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/IMG_0501-e1506519677251-768x505.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/IMG_0501-e1506519677251-585x385.jpg 585w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:20px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><strong><a href=\"\/adventures\/hiking-advice-machu-picchu\/\">What I wish I knew before hiking to Machu Picchu<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The thought of walking through the Sungate and leaving it behind was enough to make tears appear. The feeling I had was so juxtaposed with the jubilation I was seeing from my fellow hikers at the top. I turned inward toward the mountain and through my misty eyes, I saw there a spider web bedazzled with the morning dew, strung between a mass of orchids. It looked like a bridge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To where?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I slept hard that night and when I woke up it was pouring down rain so much that it was flooding the little courtyard of my hotel. For some reason, I hadn&#8217;t remembered seeing rain, for years. I watched it until it became a drizzle and out into the streets I went.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I sat on a bench in the main square of Cusco. Water was soaking through my clothes, reminding me of the perpetual state of damp I experienced hiking the trail. It comforted me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It had been a very long time since I had felt awake. Every foot fall on that mountain was like a grief detox. I left Krista on the mountain, and my brother Craig, mom, dad, all my loves. I left them in the most beautiful place I could find. I had carried them for far too long.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>My pants were falling down and my T-shirts were twisting around me. I was getting tangled in my own clothes. The weight that I had accumulated around me like a fortress was flowing out through the bottom of my feet and onto the mountain. I felt like a snake shedding its skin. I was, lighter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The trail was like a bridge back to myself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The truth is, I had forgotten about myself for years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Everyone died.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But&nbsp;I did not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The road to Machu Picchu ended at the start.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Visit Machu Picchu with Intrepid Travel. <a data-wpil=\"url\" href=\"\/peru\/machu-picchu\">Check out our range of trips.<\/a><\/strong> <strong>Read Carla&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/books\/literaryprizes\/the-road-to-machu-picchu-starts-at-385-lbs-by-carla-powell-1.4265654\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">original piece<\/a> and check out the <a href=\"\/peru\/explore-peru-bolivia-160245\">Peru and Bolivia trip<\/a> Carla went on.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I laughed like a crazy person, as I stood on top of that pass. The thin air and blustery wind stole my breath, but I continued to giggle and turn in a slow 360, agog at the sight of mountain tops. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15987,"featured_media":25588,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3108],"tags":[5,1183,57,338,456,468,37,38],"class_list":["post-22311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-good-stories","tag-active","tag-active-adventures","tag-inca-trail","tag-intrepid-traveller","tag-intrepid-trip","tag-machu-picchu","tag-peru","tag-south-america","ipf_theme-active-adventures","ipf_region-peru"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.3.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The road to Machu Picchu starts at 385 lbs | The Good Times by Intrepid<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I stood alone at the bottom of a steep incline leading to the Sungate, the entrance to Machu Picchu from the trail. I could see people taking photos.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/machu-picchu-hike-story\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The road to Machu Picchu starts at 385 lbs\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I laughed like a crazy person, as I stood on top of that pass. 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