Himalayas 2021: Har Ki Dun trek

 A trip to Himalayas was always in mind after the previous treks cancellations. It was only a matter of time until the trip got materialized.

It so happened that in the month of September, I checked the Har Ki Dun – Ruinsara Tal trek in Uttarakhand. And after discussing with my friend, Sheela, who was also keen in joining and part of previous trek disappointments, we concluded on the Oct’24^th date. The trek, flights and accommodations were all booked quickly in following days. As we made our plans open to our close friends, few showed interest and eventually booked for the same, including my friend Rashmi.

It was a 8 days trek including 2 travel days to/from base camp, Kotgaon from Dehradun, starting from Oct 24^th to Oct 31^st.

It all seemed a good and safe plan until the heavy rains caused havoc in Uttarakhand and neighboring regions during mid-October, causing some jitters among friends & their parents. The fact that the district we were gonna trek was not greatly impacted brought some cheer and made me hopeful of a successful trek this time.

I reached Dehradun on 23rd morning. On the way to hotel from Airport, I was supposed to meet and tag along with Deepa, one of the trek member from Mumbai who landed almost at the same time. Few of us later found ourselves walking in the Tibetan community in search of Buddha temple and also relishing some nice dishes.

We were already here and the drama, the uncertainty didn’t end yet. At night, we all got a text from the organizers that there is some permit issue going on with district magistrate and forest department. It was due to some unfortunate trek accidents that had happened in other district in the region. However, we were asked to travel to base camp as planned and were assured that all the efforts were being made to resolve it and they were hopeful of a trek without any hiccups.

Day 1: Taxis were arranged and we reached Kotgaon (basecamp for 4 different treks) on 24^th evening after ~9 hours journey from Dehradun (breakfast at Mussoorie & lunch at Mori). And on reaching we were informed that the permit is not yet provided by the government officials and we will have an update the following morning. The uncertainty continued.

The weather was colder than what I was expecting. The organizer has some nice cottages leased out in the vicinity for multiple batches to stay and we were asked to settle in one which wasn’t the main camp.

Day 2: Next day morning, we were told we still don’t have the permission to start our trek. So they decided to take us to a small hike nearby in the village and they would continue to work it out for following day. The plan was to cover the same route despite losing a day.

The hike through the village, passing a bridge and later by a water stream was a good warm up for the group. We had a nice time walking around clicking photos.

We were supposed to get ready the next morning and wait for the update.

Day 3: Unfortunately, the update wasn’t good and we were asked to continue to be at base camp for yet another day.

The camp leader took us to another hike nearby which was little longer than the previous one. We maneuvered through forest area, passing through some apple farms and nearby remote houses to reach a viewpoint. We all took some rest and clicks before returning to camp.

Despite all these uncertainties, I was strangely at ease. It was mainly because I was in the mountains enjoying good weather, having fun with good company.

In the evening we were informed of possible 2 options; they might take us to an altogether different trek (Kedarkanta) or reduce our existing trek’s itinerary to compensate the lost 2 days.

Day 4: Early morning they decided to take the second option as they finally got the permission to take us to Har Ki Dun. That means, the Ruinsara Tal part is removed from the itinerary.

I guess, we were happy considering we finally are walking towards higher camps.

Vehicles were arranged to take us to the Taluka village from where we were starting our trekking. As we were enjoying the ride sitting on top of the vehicles, we stopped. This time, due to road construction. We were blocked for about an hour during which we just passed time by clicking photos with the cattle around if not with other trek members 😊

Once the road was ready enough for our vehicles to pass, we resumed our journey. On reaching Taluka, we immediately started our ascend towards Gangaad village, our next campsite. For next few hours, for about 14 kms, we had some serious ascend in the woods. The river was close enough to provide us the coolness in breeze and the water gushing music.

This was again a cottage accommodation and the temperature was further down. We all spent great time star gazing at night in that cold.

Day 5: The plan was to reach Boslow by evening. Again it was about 13 kms strenuous walk. We encountered some great views of the mountains as we walked through the valley. On reaching the campsite, we were welcomed by the sight of tents. It was colder and at night, the temperature seemed to be less than 5’C. We had some nice fun playing games in the common tent and later star gazing again.

Day 6: Apparently the important day as we walked towards Har Ki Dun which was about 3 kms. Har Ki Dun valley provided us with some amazing views consisting of Jaundhar Glacier, Swargarohini peak (It is believed that Yudhisthir of the Mahabharata was sent to heaven with the dog from this place), Hata Peak and nearby snow covered unnamed peaks. I felt so miniscule standing at that point with all great peaks covering the 3 sides and the remaining being the way in and out.

After spending an hours’ time there, we started our descend towards the Osla village, our next campsite. It was the same route back but a diversion at the end towards the village. It was again a cottage accommodation.

Day 7: Final stretch was walking towards Taluka village from which vehicles were arranged to take us back to the basecamp, Kotgaon. The descend was long but since we were going back, we walked faster. On reaching Taluka, we immediately started only to be stopped again due to the road construction. This time, we were asked to cross the debris to the other side and wait for other set of vehicles to carry us to basecamp. After waiting patiently for about half an hour, vehicles were arranged and we were finally taken to basecamp. The tea and dinner were waiting for us.

There was a small all-hands arranged at night where the organizers presented us with a memento of Har Ki Dun titled fridge magnet.

Day 8: Taxis were arranged to take us back to Dehradun. We started our journey back with some wonderful memories of mountains, people and the satisfaction of having some peaceful time.

On reaching Dehradun, few of us planned to visit a nice restaurant for the dinner together.

Next morning before proceeding to airport, few of us headed towards Robber's Cave, which proved to be an excellent use of our time.

This trek provided me an opportunity to go to great places and meet awesome people with whom I had some quality time discussing varied topics and understanding different perspectives. After all, a trip like this is all about that, isn’t it?!