Kumaun Trekking map

..Sair kar duniya ke gafil … zindagani phir kahan …. zindagani gar rahi to …naujawani phir kahan !!

It all started just before the end of 1st semester at college. We all were excited about our holiday plans...
Then I came up with an idea to go for a trekking trip to some place.Hence I decided to go to a trekking trip to Pindari Glacier.

Finally 11 of us agreed for this trip (Though one of them was unable to come as he missed his train). Then after the holz began, the localites and the nearbies went home with a promise to meet us at Haldwani after 3 days.

Now we were only 6 ,we booked our tickets in a summer special from Varanasi to Bareilly, that is biggest flaw that one can have in ones travel plan.(Please never book a ticket in any holiday specials,if you feel that your time is precious).When we reached railway station we were told that our train is late for a non fixed period of time.

Then since we had no hurry we camped in the railway waiting room ,played CS(Since I am in college it seems CS is the as imp as food,water and air). We were grounded in that corner of waiting room for more than 12 hours and finally our train came. After reaching bareilly we took a bus to haldwani and camped in Kritarth's (one of us) home for a night.

We did some necessary shopping and then left for Bageshwar next day by taxi.

Day 1 : Trekking is not a child's Play

22 May 2008:

We were joined by rest of our 4 friends that went home in the morning then after taking breakfast, we reserved a taxi (a Mahindra MaXX) to take us to the base camp from where we will start climbing.

According to our plan we we decided to camp at base for that night and start walking from next day. But our driver told me that if we walk for 3 KM than we can reach another camp that has a greater possibility of having accommodation. Since we didn't booked any place to stay in advance, we wanted to be on safe side for getting accommodation. Since 3 KM was not a big deal we decided to move further. When we got off the taxi at loharkhet, the weather was a bit rainy.We pulled out our raincoats that we bought at Haldwani, and started walking(rather we must call it climbing).



We enjoyed the initial 1 hour ,the view was nice all around, though the path was a bit rough with lots of pieces of stones. But we were fresh and energetic. We started our trekking at about 3:30 in afternoon, and after about an hour we started getting a bit tired as the the path was steep.
We took some short breaks stopped for a minute or two drank water ,ate our chocolates and moved further,this continued for about 2 hours. Since few of us walked a bit swiftly so it always happens that they are a bit ahead... or the slow ones are bit behind.

We were just enjoying climbing,taking shortcuts,taking snapshots at every step..
At a point we decided to take a shortcut and left the pathway and moved between the bushes and trees. After climbing a bit we were stuck at the point where we realized that we made a bad decision and hence we moved back.

By the time 2 of our team mates (Kritarth and Nikhil) who didn't took the shortcut got ahead. So we were only 8.

Now after making a resolution that we will never take a shortcut we moved further.And after an hour of walking we reached a temple,the place was beautifully.We took a halt of few minutes as we were exhausted by now and then we continued our journey ...

After walking a few meters we realized that the path which we were following came to a dead end.Confused and exhausted we interpreted that we took a wrong turn in our path. Worried for the 2 that were not with us (the biggest point for worry was that they had the lunch that we brought with us).

Everyone was hungry and retraced the path that we came from and finally came to the point where we made the mistake. After some time we met a group of local workers who were carrying a big Iron pole to some nearby village.They told that for next camp we have to walk at least 7 KM...............

This was the next big shock of the day. We were stuck in between forest with the nearest place to get shelter at distance of 4 KM(Loharkhet,from where we started our journey).

We decided to move further as we didn't knew that where the other two were(please note thatMobile networks left us way before in our journey).

Cursing the driver of our taxi we walked for an hour and reached a tea stall that brought a long smile on every one's face.We took a bit refreshment and then continued walking..The one great news that we got here was that Nikhil and Kritarth crossed this tea stall about an hour ago,this relieved us that they are on right path (actually more correct than we were...).

By this time I was completely exhausted and after climbing about 2 KM on steep mountains,I started to surrender my self. Thanks to glucose and fruit juice brought by Divakar, it gave us little energy and an excuse to stop for a while...

After walking some more distance I was so tired that I sat on pathway saying I cant walk more. At that time we were split into 2 groups,I was in a group of 4,and we lagged about half KM from other 4.Now the other three with me tried to boost me up,and to walk. We walked slowly, making quick halts. Then Abhisar suggested that they will carry my bag so that we can increase our speed. As the darkness was approaching we were frightened that whether we can reach the camp before its dark..In spite of my denial Shailendra and Abhisar carried my bag,this relieved me a lot,and truly increased our speed. but i was concerned about the 2 who carried my bag. At the moment when everyone is completely tired and unable to carry his own bag gages they were carrying the extra burden of my bag..

Till dusk we were about 3 Km from camp. At that time we saw an amazing event :

THE SPIRIT OF MOUNTAINS
In the loneliness of this himalayan forest where cant see a human for kilometers, we were folllowed by dog which seems to be pet. It remained with us for about 1 km till we met our other friends. He walked with us, showed the coreect path in darkness and best of all gave a feeling that we are not alone.We had heard a lots of stories of the spirits of mountains helping the lost ones and we thought that this was the one to help us. This blew an amazing energised feeling into us and we walked with more confidence. Abhisar,Shailendra and Divakar still carrying my bag.

the most amazing thing : Abhinav told he took a pic of that dog, but when we searched for it in camera at camp then we found taht all the images taken before that dog's no longer existed in camera... it was truly spirit of mountains..

After sometime we saw some torch lights toward us from some height. We realized them to be rest of our group. We covered the distance in a while and sat at the place.

It was an open space with a levelled ground of about 20 sq. feet. And there was a tombstone,which my friends told me is of a German traveller who came here and then remained here for tears. He meditated on that spot and later died here so he was buried at that place. Till now we were so frightened and tired that no one bothere to take a snapshot of such a beautiful scene. Chill wind was blowing,and hitting our bodies that had no wool on them like stones. I took out a Jaipuri that I carry with me always and wrapped myself in it. it gave a huge relief.Then we startted to move further,they told me that they met a shepard a few minutes ago and he told that we have to climb one more KM and than we have to descend for 1.

They also told that Saurabh's condition was similar to that of mine.Me and Saurabh completed rest of our journey without bags on our back,and a person holding each of us. THen at last at 8 PM we reached the camp met Kritarth an d Nkhil. We ate khichdi made by the KMVN employees that stay there. The food seemed so tasty, I ate the food thinking of the tasty food that we brought with us but didnt eat as it was spoiled. Then went to sleep ...... a peaceful and relieved sleep..

Day 2: Journey became a bit tougher !!

We woke up early next morning due to commotion in the camp..still tired had a discussion that whether we must proceed or not.Finally we decided to move further. We left Dhakuri by 8 AM and left few of our luggage that we thought we didnt needed to the employees at camp. Though everyone was a bit energetic ,Abhisar had pain in his knees,which we gave some first aid and walked further.This time we had to pass through some villages.The best part was that we had to walk downhill so I enjoyed it !!! We crossed 2 or three villages .Life is tough in these parts of world and the people here were tougher.

After 3 KM of descending on mountains we reached a small waterfall where we sat and took a brief rest.Everyone enjoyed the cold water.we drank the fruit juice that Dewakar carried...And proceeded. After 3 more KM of walking (This time it was up-hill) we reached Khati ,A base camp of KMVN. We had our lunch there.By the time we ate the weather changed suddenly and it started raining. We pulled out our rain-coats and and continued on our mission to reach dwali by evening. The time was 1 PM and Dwali was 9 KM from here and it was raining,no other camp in the way.So overall a do or die situation.

We walked on slipperry mountains for about an hour the weather was normal but very cold. At about 5 KM from Khati we reached a tea stall,had a tea. I sat near the fire to get some warmth as it was too cold and windy.

In the next part of our trekking we had to move through the bushy and thickly vegitated area. We walked continuasly in groups and by 6 PM we reached Dwali. Tired and exausted again after the 15 KM trekking our problems were not over.

There were no empty rooms at camp and as we had no prior bookings so we were the least preferred ones. But finally the people at camp made our arrangements in a tent.It was very cold outside and so was inside. I had a little fever that night.We ate our dinner,I took it on my bed.Then we slept all stuck together to get warmth. That night was really a tough one.

Day 3: Finally we are there...

After discussing from camp incharges,we decided to return to Dwali the same day after visiting Pindari which made our journey to be of 22 KM on that day.After initial opposition everyone agreed for it. Then we left the camp with very few weght on our backs as we had to return to the same place tonight. Another problem that we faced was that our clothes were not drying.We walked continuoslly for whole day due to which all our clothes drenched in sweat. And by the time we reach a camp the weather is so cold that we cannot dry them.On 3rd day I had to borrow a lower from Diwakar as all of my clothes were wet.

We walked for hours on mountains ,now they were less dense,more beautifull,on the name of life we had only vegitation around us which seem to bloom in the scarce summer of that region. After 7 KM we reached Phurkiya another camp of KMVN,ate Alloo ke parathe and then moved on.

Now the path was even less vegitated,but the beauty of mountains was incomparable.We crossed around 5 to 6 frozen streams ,which I think can fall in the category of small glaciers.Then finally we reached a baba's ashram rather we must say a kutiya(hut). We were delighted to know that he was a graduate from BHU the same university we are enrolled in. He told that zero poin is 1 KM ahead from here. We went to zero point which was after a steep climb of 1 km. It was a narrow pathway which came to dead end with a board "आगे ख़तरा है "(Danger ahead). We had deep valleys on our three sides ,the scene was really breath-taking.We took a lot of snaps and then returned to baba's place.Had a khichdi prepared by him and the returned.

I was impressed by the personality of baba.He was a graduate from BHU,India's oldest residential University. He live at his place at pindari every summers and alternate winters since past 19 years,feeding all the tourists that visit Pindari on his own expense.He showed his concerns about the environment and shrinking of glaciers ,telling increasing number of tourists has posed a great danger to glacier whic has shrunk to about 1 KM since he started livemg there. He was happy that someone from his university visisted that place and told us it was 1st time in 19 years.

We said Good Bye to that great personality and returned with a content heart..We reached Dwali in the evening by 5 PM.Had our supper and went to bed..

Back Home

The next morning we split in two groups one having me and other 5 which was going to return Haldwani and wait for the rest of us.While th other 4 were goin to another glacier Kafni. So we returned Dhakuri that day and next day to bageshwar. Then to haldwani after visiting Almora and Nainital,though nothing fascinated us as we were returning from a place which was incomparable to these. At haldwani we were joined by our Kafni Group.From where we all left to our homes wishing everyone Happy Holidays..though the best part of our holidays were over..