Back from the snow in three days
Mcleodganj is a unique town in many respects. And, no, I am not talking about the Dalai Lama, or rather his Holiness, the Dalai Lama, if you are the respectful type, making it his residence in exile. Nor I am talking about the famed pastries of all hues and colors, which I agree is of the most scrumptious type. Both of these make Mcleodganj perfectly unique in their own sense but, for a trekker type, the USP of Mcleodganj lies in the fact that the snow line is just one long day's walk away; translated it means the snow line is just a weekend break or at max a long weekend break away.
But, first lets get the boring facts out of the way. Mcleodganj is the base for the trek to Indrahar Pass. Enroute lies the picturesque meadow of Triund, hardly 10 km away. A little further lies the camping ground of Ilaqa, and perched at the top of a rocky outcrop jutting over a massive snowfield is the Lahesh Cave, just 6kms from Triund. From Lahesh cave, Indrahar pass is just one climb away, albeit a long, and slightly treacherous climb and it was to Lahesh Cave that we were headed to. The 'We' in question was a rather large and diverse group, especially considering that it was a trek, even if a soft trek. Goldie, of the golden locks fame, is somebody we have known for quite a long time now; Purohit is somebody about whom, as I remarked in the chopta log, we will talk about for a long time; and Rahul has just made the cut to be included in the regulars list. The debutants were Dipanjan and Deepa, with Vibhuti making his second appearance in these tales of the travelogue kind.
This trek had many firsts to its credit; just like any other trek, but the most notable one was that there were no dropouts. Do I hear a round of applause. Thanks, it was well deserved. And, so on a sultry Friday morning, we found ourselves dumped by an HPTDC bus in Kotwali Bazar, dharamshala with all shutters down. The shutters that we were especially interested in were the HPTDC office and the Divisional Forest Officer's ( DFO) office. The first held the tickets to our way back and the second to our way ahead. There is a Forest Rest House in triund with no toilets, no beddings, and no water. But, we were still very much interested in booking it because it had a kitchen, a caretaker who could cook, a roof and four walls. The first two saved us the pain of buying/borrowing stuff of the cooker, stove and kerosene kind and the second saved us the pain of hiring tents; together they further saved us a couple of porters and probably an equal amount of time.
And so, we used the time thus saved for the breakfast and bath combo at Dharamshala; (yeah, I can make out that smirk) and reached Bhagsunag, the trekhead, before it was noon. The upshot of Mcleodganj is that the snow line is a long day's walk away; the downshot of it is that it is a fairly uphill climb most of the time. The trail from Bhagsu to Triund is a steady uphill climb for more than 2 kms before settling to a gentler slope; finally climaxing in a steep-er climb of another 2 kms (or more). The first 2 kms took a sweaty toll on the first-timers with Dipanjan particularly not quite relishing this game of 'catching up' with the leading group. It was only a gentle elucidation of the More now means less later theory that prompted the lagging group (which included Dipanjan, Deepa, and of course me with Purohit giving us company once in a while) to go on. Now, the More now means less later theory is fairly straightforward to grasp if one is in an AC room reading a travelogue in luxury. If the total altitude gain is a constant and the inclination is more now, it has to be less later on. Elementary, my dear. But, when you are sweating from head to toe, when every step is a torture, and the heads and shoulders are bowed down, such things as simple logic is not so commonplace anymore.
The lack of any other choice made everybody go on and soon the simple theory started to prove itself. With a certain rhythm being built up on the gentler slopes, the last hurrah to triund was no big deal and we reached Triund well in time for a grand sunset; only that there was no sunset. < /p>
The next day was the big day; the walk to the snow line with packed lunch. After a suitable delay, the equilibrium was maintained with the leading and lagging group falling in their appropriate place. Incidents like losing their way, once in a while, did not help matters much for the lagging group, and it was with a good 20 minutes delay that the lagging group reached the snowline. The gap could have been more, if it was not for my 'well thought out decision' to entrust myself with the safe-keeping of the Aloo paranthas, our lunch.
Lahesh Cave is a rock that is slanted on a angle of 30 degrees from the horizontal, kept in its place by other rocks and can accommodate more than 10 ppl for a nighthalt. It also provides a nice place to have a lunch and an interesting walk to a water source. When Goldie, Kewal (oh, I forgot to introduce him earlier. He is our guide-cum-porter), and me went to fetch water, the walk was probably not so interesting. It was only when some kids from another group got into the act that the walk became interesting. The trail goes through a narrow ledge with an overhanging rock jutting out and one has to cross the ledge to get to the other side. Not a awfully difficult thing to do, one might say; but, as we all know, logic has scarce role to play in a game of nerves. And, so a kid had to be literally roped up and down through the ledge with jagged nerves flaying all around.
And then, we decided to make things interesting in our own way. The walk to Lahesh Cave entails crossing a wide snowfield that descends down from the dhauladhar range (pics are there at my webshots album and make for some pretty nice viewing). On our way back, we decided to make it through the snowfield in double quick time, holding hands and running as if the 'big bear' of the Khatling fame was on our back. The feeling is akin to hand-gliding, especially if one is of a short stature like me; and nervous that I am about things of the gliding type, I disengaged myself from this speeding train and was a witness to the rumble-tumble of the train's bogeys spraying themselves in sundry directions with Rahul, the engine, going in a head-first tumble followed by a leg-first, finally ending it with a sideways tumble. All in all, a delightful sight; for everybody else other than the engine.
We made it to Triund with ample time to wait for the sunset, which never came. The next day was the long walk back. Stuff that merit a certain amount of space in this travelogue did happen on this last day, but in the interest of your time, and mine, I would just add that it was a tale that moved along questions of the 'kab pahunchenge Mcleodganj' type to the 'kab milega hotel' type to the 'yeah bus delhi kab pahunchega type'. The questions took their time to answer, but finally the answers did come, and Delhi welcomed us with a gentle shower on 8:30 a.m. of a Monday morning.