Trek day 6: ABC!!!

More up today, practically all up when it wasn't flat.  We had about two hours to climb up to MBC (where we sleep tonight) and then two more hours up to ABC. Lucky for our porter he only had to carry our bag up to MBC and then got to call it a day!  We still had two more hours left and that last hour climb to the "top" was defiantly getting to me, the thin air making my breath come quicker and there was a chilled wind that swept through the valley.  The views up were even more amazing then the past days!  The valley we had been climbing up northward since Sinwa had narrowed from the start of our trek today to only about 50meters across and we were now looking straight up at the mountains looming above!  Fishtale was to our right most of the day till we got to MBC and then after that point we turned west into the ABC area others came into view!  What continues to amaze me is that most of our journey today was spent about the elevation of Mt. Hood and yet there were still mountains covered in green trees all around us, which then had the much larger snow covered mountains above those!  As we made our last trudge from MBC to ABC we began to become surrounded but those giant mountains in all directions!  It was an incredible sight to behold but none so amazing as finally making it to base camp!  Annapurna base camp is located smack dab in the middle of the Annapurna mountain range with a good 5 snow caped monsters towering over head and fishtale looming in the distance back through the valley we hiked up through.  I'm not sure if it was the altitude, finally being at the top, or the breath taking view, I found myself nearly laughing with joy at reaching the top!  While everest may be the tallest mountain in the world I'm not sure it can top the since of wonder at being in the midst of so many giants!  We climb up to a good viewing point, snapped our pictures, and settled in for a while to just gape in awe!!  Not too long after we arrived the clouds rolled in with full force and socked in the mountain ranges leaving nothing but a white blanketed sky above us...at this point we decided to walk back down the the base camp proper and get some lunch...maybe the clouds would clear up and we'd get one last view!?  They didn't...but we were quite content with seeing it in the first place!!! 13,550 ft was the max elevation we made (highest I've ever been, heh) and from here it would all be down hill!  Relatively.  We walked back Down to MBC firths night (a shame we couldn't stay up at ABC, but we have a long day tomorrow so it's better to be lower I guess!). The walk down only took half as long as the walk up and we even ran into some more Americans (one an Oregonian who lives in Eugene!!). We chatted for a bit and then wished them well on their climb to the top!!  Its nice to be a little lower in elevation now...and tomorrow we start our journey back towards Kathmandu (maybe a bot shower in 3 days too!)