Hell to Heaven and back!

With 8 days of term break, the initial plan was to go to the Pindari glacier near Gwaldham. Thanks to heavy rains and landslides, we made our way to a relatively easier trek: The valley of flowers and Hemkund sahib! Valley of flowers is a fairly easy trek that does not need any preparation except for some warm clothes. We  ultimately ended up walking about 70 kms in 4 days and traveled the other 4. Scenic. Simple. Beautiful.

1st Sep: Train from Lucknow to Haldwani / Kathgodam. Highly uneventful except for the 2.5 wait at the railway station :P

2nd Sep: Train arrived at 10:30 at Haldwani. Had a good lunch and then booked a cab from Haldwani  to Joshimath and back for 8 days at a stretch. For seven of us, this was a far more economic option as compared to using public transport. By the day end we could reach only till Ranikhet due to a couple of bridges that collapsed on the main road. So a detour was required. Ranikhet was a quaint little town and more so in the off season.

3rd Sep: Most of the day was spent in traveling again and we reached from Ranikhet to Joshimath by 4 in the evening. The drive was amidst scenic hill stations and curvy roads. An early break at Joshimath meant roaming around the locale. This being the off season, hotels were easily available and at a good price too.

4th Sep: We started for Govind ghat, the starting point of the trek for Valley of flowers and Hemkund. Govind ghat was about 18 kms from Joshimath and took us about an hour to reach. We could see huge stones that just fell off the mountain on the roads and the beauty of the mountains was breath taking. The target for the day was to reach Ghangariya which was 13 kms from Govindghat and took us close to 5.5 hrs for completion. This being a very popular trek, especially with the Sikhs who make the trip every year to visit the Gurudwara, there were plenty of dhabas on the way which served various items ranging from Paranthas to dry fruits, cool drinks, water and a lot more. One can also hire mules to get to either Ghangariya or all the way till Hemkund for a cost of around 500. The journey upto Ghangariya base is mostly uphill where we gain close to 1200 mts in altitude. One can witness the mighty mountains, never ending series of waterfalls while the white waters from the glacier melted peaks flows at a furious pace. We reached Ghangariya by 1:30 and 2 of us decided to rush to get a glimpse of the valley of flowers. At this time of the year, hotels are abundant. Food and stay should not typically be a owing to the continuous traffic this place sees due to the pilgrims headed to Hemkund.

5th Sep: Valley of flowers opens at 6 in the morning and is closed by 5 in the evening. However one has to enter before 2 PM after the the entrance gets closed for the day. Valley of flowers is 3 kms from the Ghangariya base. We found huge mountains with vertical faces adjoining the stream that flows by the side. On a clear day, one can see the ice capped Gauri parvat and colorful flowers blossoming all around. The valley is known to produce over 50 varieties of flora with most flowers having specific periods when they appear. The best time to see the valley of flowers in the first week of June when the valley officially get opened for the public. By September, there are far few flowers and you can expect the whole valley to be covered in fog most part of the day. From the start of the valley, one can go as deep as 8 kms into the valley which takes us very close to the glaciers nearby. We stayed in the valley almost till 3 in the afternoon after walking a total of close to 22 kms. Expect a continuous downpour starting at 12 noon.

6th Sep: Early in the morning we started for Hemkund, which was a 6 km trek uphill all the way. A lot of them hire mules to do this journey. This route is again filled with a lot of Dhabas on the way which offer food and water. After about 2.5 hrs of ascent, we reached Hemkund by 9.40 in the morning. Hemkund stands at 4400 mts above sea level and hence is mostly covered in clouds. The weather can get extremely cold in a very short span of time. We were lucky to get 30 mins clear view of the pristine lake. The gurudwara serves hot food and chai to all the pilgrims to Hemkund which was tasted heavenly after the strenuous trek. This natural lake is formed by the water that comes from adjacent mountains and is frozen most part of the year.

We reached down to the base again by 2 PM by which time we had done close to 54 kms. The rest of the day was spent playing cards and sleeping.

7th Sep: We started back to Govindghat early in the morning and reached there by 11:30 in the morning. We headed to Auli for lunch and then to Karanprayag for the night. Karanprayag offered splendid views of the sangam from the hotel room.

8th Sep: The whole day went in traveling from Karanprayag to Kathgodam where we caught the train back to lucknow.