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Travel & Adventure

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A Moonlight Trek On The Inca Trail

The final destination: Peru's Machu Picchu.

Soon I arrived at the first major ruins (forgot the name) and that’s where my trouble started. The main trail vanished into thin air and all of a sudden there were at least half a dozen trails, with no clue as to which was the correct one to take.

By Citizen Correspondent Jurgen Ankenbrand

Date Posted: 03/06/08

Reader Rating:

Twenty five years of adventure travel have presented me with many challenges, including some rather unusual ones, but being prepared and never at a loss is a prerequisite to be an adventurer. No prearranged trips for me, and I always travel solo, to see what I want to see, do what I want to do and when I want to do all that. It may not be everyone's way to travel but it works well for me.

Planning is always important for anything in life, especially for any adventure travel trip. But then no one can plan for every eventuality and so mishaps do occur. Like an unplanned climb and night walk/hike on the Inca Trail in Peru.

I said to a running friend that there should be an adventure trail run on the Inca Trail in Peru. My friend told me he just read something about that and gave me a phone number in Los Angeles of the guy who apparently was planning just such a run.

To make a long story short, I contacted the guy, signed up for the trip and so joined a group of 12 adventure long distance runners in Lima, Peru. From there we did a 100 mile surrounding of Mount Assangate, a massive mountain in Peru.

The real crazy happening, however, occurred on what was to be the actual Inca Trail one-day marathon run. Being the official designated photographer for the group, I said I’d go ahead of the group to scout out a great shot where I can take pictures of all the runners on the trail. No problem, my friend said; just watch at the Y-junction and go RIGHT, after that you are on the Inca Trail and can’t get lost any more. Yeah, right, apparently he never had run with me.

Well, the next morning I left the campground at 4 a.m. with my camera and a medium sized fanny pack with two water bottles, a few power bars, some money and a flash light with a spare set of batteries. All set, I thought and went off into the dark.