Bhrigu Lake Trek — Day One
(Next day story link at the bottom)
Finally I was called on counter and asked to fill a form which asks for your personal details and also, if you need accessories on rent like hiking shoes, pole, raincoat, jacket etc. I opted for hiking shoes which costed me INR 600 for entire trek (not a bad deal) & got the shoes from next counter. There was a store room where I submitted my personal shoes and I could recollect it back after trip by returning the rented shoes, straight.
After all the formalities, we were informed that in this batch there are total 11 trekkers and Tarun will be your guide. A tempo traveller will take you to starting point of trek which is known as 14 mod (14th turn) in Gulaba. We were briefed about Dos & Don’ts on the trek and then we all settled in the traveller to start our journey.
As soon as the traveller started moving towards Gulaba from club house road apple orchids started appearing both sides of the road. Apples are always a curiosity for all of us, possible because they are very costly and are found only in coldest parts like Kashmir and Himachal and are not found elsewhere.
After around 2 hours, we reached our destination and were all set to start the trek. My last trek was Hampta Pass which I did in 2018 (4 years back) so I was very excited for this trek. To add, this was the first time when I was going for a trek without any friend so this trek was going to be special for me. Thoughts of how the fellow trekkers would be in nature, will we make friends or not, etc kept going on in mind. There was 2 groups of trekkers in our batch, all boys were of age 20–23 and most of them were in their graduation final year. 1 group had 6 boys and they all were school friends, other group was of 4 people who were colleagues in job and friends. Last left was me without any group or friend & I was eldest amongst all. So this was the data analytics that I just explained, let's get back to nature.
Usually beginning of any trek is steep ascent and this was not an exception either. Started climbing the trail and it looked like never ending ascent .. I started feeling tired in the beginning itself .. faster heartbeat .. excess sweating. All of these symptoms starts making a newbie trekker fearful that he/she will not be able to complete the trek and it was a wrong decision. Since I have completed approx 5 treks in the past, I knew that I have to ignore these signals and keep going ahead with short breaks to keep the body comfortable. Drinking water and eating dry fruits/chocolates for instant energy is the key.
I was probably the slowest guy and I realized it’s getting difficult for me in this trek and probably this should be my last trek, I had promised myself the same in last trek (Hampta Pass). Finally there was some plain after steep ascent and there was a small tea shop .. You get few such shops on the hills in each trek, These guys stay there throughout the hiking season and come down to their homes usually during the peak winter as it gets snow everywhere and they will have no jobs there plus survival becomes challenging.
We had a short stay here and we grabbed tea & water bottle. Shopkeeper was also having wooden hiking pole and he offered me to get it for just INR 50 (as opposed to HimTrek camp charged INR 100 for the rent) for entire trek. I was the only one who was not carrying the stick (probably over confident) and here also I decided that its not required. Meanwhile boys kept clicking in groups and I clicked landscape and portraits ( Not a selfie fan). Meanwhile boys from groups of 6 people offered me to get clicked by them ..
Although not a selfie fan but this was good point to start the interaction and so I said yes. So after 15–20 minutes break we resumed the hiking and further it was steep ascent for next couple of hours.
After approx 4 hours of hike we finally reached to our day-1 camp site where we were going to spend the night. The sight of different colored tents always give a relief as you know that you don’t have to climb further for the day.
What a tough and tiring day it was!!
Mostly all Hiking companies which organize hikes, have permanent tents fixed at different points of hiking routes and permanent employees resides on those locations throughout the trekking seasons. We were told in one tent 3 boys has to sleep which honestly was very uncomfortable in such small tent. This is the time when I badly missed famous trek organizers who ensure your comfort. It was decided that since there are 11 trekkers, I will be sharing tent with one guy only and rest all will be 3 per tent, I was little relaxed hearing this. But later a guy requested that he needs to be with someone in tent so if I could share tent with other 2 guys, to which I agreed. This was around 4–5 PM in evening, temperature got down to approx 7 degree and it was suddenly very cold .. We added extra layer of clothes and came out of tents to witness dense mist/fog .. randomly visibility was getting zero after every 5–10 minutes and then back to normal. This gave an amazing feeling as I was coming here from Delhi where temperature was 42–43 degree Celsius.
In a while we were served with tea and pakodee (Veg dumplings made of gram flour). There was no limit on the tea quantity so you could have it as much as you want (till it lasts) but dumplings were served in limited quantity ( Just to be precise in details :D) and this is justified as we were on 12000 Ft height and getting anything at this place is really difficult. So one should feel happy about whatever he/she gets here for survival, this was kind of luxury.
At this time there were many batches from different trek organizers who either arrived from the starting point and few batched who came back from final summit. I guess there might be 50–70 hikers around in different tents nearby and everyone was either having snacks or roaming around.
We got to know that nearby there was a particular area where we can get full strength mobile signal and if we wish we can go there for internet or phone conversation. Along with other hikers, I also took a walk there (100 meters) but as expected there was no signal for Vodafone but JIO and Airtel signals were perfect. Somehow I managed to send SMS to inform my wife that I am good and safe. Dinner was ready at around 8 PM and we were served with delicious Rajma Rice and Chapati. We did the dinner together with other in large tent which was fixed by HimTrek for this purpose only. In this tent in the corner they store milk, grains, floor and other ingredients required for preparing food and they use this same place for serving food. After delicious food we were served with sewaiyan (Indian dessert). I will definitely rate 10/10 on the food quality, quantity and taste. I forgot to add, after every breakfast/lunch/dinner you have to wash your used utensils in the flowing river which is very chilled water as its coming from top of the hills (snow water) and many boys were trying to share the plates so that they don’t have to wash it. initially it was painful but once you get used to of it, you won’t feel pain .. for me it was very normal as I am a winter guy ❤. A pleasant evening well spent. Finally we tried to sleep in the tent as decided, each of us were given sleeping bags and we had to sleep in it .. this is something is not very comfortable but you can’t have the luxury of bed at this height with no roads so you make yourself ready for these things. We were 3 guys in this tent and each of us tried hard to sleep .. After 15 minutes one of the guy noticed some big fly was inside our tent and he got up saying I can’t sleep here with these insects .. He called up trek guide Tarun who came and said your tent is not properly chained and hence the fly came inside. The guy insisted that he can not sleep here with the fly inside and he requested to sleep in the tent where we were served food to which guide agreed. Although before he left the tent I caught the insect and there it out and asked the guy to sleep here itself but he was afraid and denied staying. I said its good that now we will have more space in tent so it's up to you if you want to leave, we have no issue :)
Now we were 2 guys in tent and we tried sleeping again .. I could here conversations coming from nearby tents till late night .. I somehow felt that something is touching me from outside the tent .. I rolled towards the middle of tent fearing it might be some animal or God knows .. I kept hearing some breathing noise .. movement and tent side was shaking continuously. I was in fear now and I shout few times thinking it might be some animal and will go away but it kept going on .. I could not sleep entire night properly and kept feeling this .. meanwhile I heard similar issue faced by other hikers in nearby tents. In the morning all were discussing this and said it was mule grazing the grass between the tents. So this was the Day-1 night .. Pleasant food and bad sleep .. but trust me, everything feels awesome on a trek :-)
