Walking in the clouds

Standing there, at the edge of the narrow, wild grass carpeted pathway, I looked down into the valley. For few seconds I searched for the bottom but could not find anything; a vagabond cloud had thinly veiled the bottom and the valley appeared to be a through gateway to the inner world. More out of habit than necessity, I searched for known words to describe what I felt. Somehow, the words didn’t come; perhaps, the experience was not entirely unoriginal. I took a step backward from the edge and continued upwards. There was more to be experienced on the way.

Uttarkashi: The fabled land

An evening back, we had arrived in Uttarkashi undertaking a bus journey that took us a good seven hours from Rishikesh. Uttarkashi, nestled in the lower Himalayas and resonating of distant faraway land, serves as the stepping stone to reach the awe-inspiring glaciers – Gangotri and Yumnotri. For years, Uttarkashi, enveloped in mysticism similar to that of the fabled Shangri-La, has affected a glamoured pull and thereby time and again stirred the spirit of an aimless traveler in me. Gone by years and a bike journey to that place have done little to fade the charm of the quaint town. And so, when it was decided to take a trek, Uttarkashi, with its rich offerings, was the most natural choice.

On reaching, we decided to rest for an evening and experience the earthiness of the town before heading to the woods. From previous experience and unprejudiced blogs, GMVN guesthouse seemed to be the safest bet for spending a night. At the check-in counter, we realized we were lucky to get a room, since for the traffic heading towards Gangotri, Uttarkashi serves as a much required night halt, and hardly would you find hotels here less crowded at any time of the year.

Bhagirathi: Reminding of what is to become

From our room at the GMVN guesthouse, the sound of the river hardly trickled in. On stepping outside, pulling on the chord to the muffled sound led us to the river that coursed at only a few meters’ distance from the guesthouse. The river, mouthed by the revered and mystical Gangotri glacier, is called Bhagirathi in this part. It blends with Alakhnanda at DevPrayag to form the Ganges. For the next hour we sat on the steps, watching the Bhagirathi, fraught with monsoon water, bump and gasp, slash and turn, and flow past by while engulfing a destructive violence. If there was any dubiety, reckoning lifelike potent vitality of water, it vaporized there at that moment itself.

The same river becomes a vast expanse further down where it ends into a catchment to feed the Tehri Dam. The sluggish pace of river down there, noticed on the way to Uttarkashi, reminded me of the proposed construction of multiple dams further up the Bhagirathi. The numerous anti-Dam protests that I was lucky to witness came back to me. If the river is tinkered with, to accommodate multiple dams, we will surely get enough electricity to feed thousand villages, as proclaimed by the government, but at the same time this play with nature would cause irreparable damage to the habitat of fish and other living beings associated with the river. Hilsa fish has already started migrating upstream, points out G D Agarwal, a professor from IIT Kanpur and a central figure of the anti dam protest. We, of engineering minds, who could see the potential in the vital force of the flowing water and desired to capture it, should now listen to the voice of the earth before toying with the natural eco-system.

Trekking among the clouds

Next morning, we woke up early and took a taxi to Sangam Chatti. Sangam Chatti is ten kilometers from the town and serves as the base for various treks. Our aim was Dhotital that lay at an altitude of 3000 meters and 21 kilometers from Sangam Chatti. There is a tourist information center at Sangam Chatti and also present are various food shops to cumulate last minute food replenishments. The major halts on the route are Agoda at six kilometers, Bebra at eight and a half kilometers and Manjhi at 15 kilometers. Since we were carrying our own tent and sleeping bags, we had decided no fixed destination and kept the option of camping mid-route in the open forest also.

The hike was steep but the route was well-defined and marked, almost throughout, with views of the valley. In the rainy season, the trek was muddy and slippery in few parts; however, it was not as crowded as it usually is in summers, we were told. Soon we were walking among the clouds that came from nowhere and disappeared as soon as they engulfed us, albeit after a mild misty shower. Numerous small waterfalls speckled the mountains on the other side and after climbing some distance, water streams punctuated our walk too. The water was cold and fresh, and commingled further down to form Asi Ganga, another tributary to the Ganges.

Our stop for the night was some 12.5 kilometers from where we started in the morning, and located in between the on-route villages. After dining on peanuts and chocolates, we put up our tent and spread our sleeping bags in a desolated shade next to the stream. That quiet and subtle night in the woods, away from settlement and with the sound of the flowing water in the backdrop, would be thought back for a long time to come.

Next day we woke up to the sound of the effervescent stream. After washing in the cold clear water, we set out to cover the remaining trek. We reached Manjhi in the afternoon and had lunch with a mountain family in a small hut. As luck would have it, the clouds burst open at that time and we happily slipped in our sleeping bags inside the warm hut to catch some more sleep. After a lazy afternoon, we picked up our bags and continued. The trek was un-pleated and a pleasant walk from there on. The sunlight that had been a rumor so far came out in wisps as we neared Dodital.

Dodital is a natural lake, full of trout fish, among the mountains at the altitude of 3045 meters. Named after Dodi (local name for trout), locals hail it as the birthplace of Lord Ganesh and there is a small temple by its side. The lake gets it clear water from numerous small streams that run down from the mountains nearby. Its beauty is an apt end to the trek that one takes to reach there. We camped besides the graceful lake and savored the fleeting moments of the evening.

To those with time and energy at hand, the mountains offer a further trek to Hanuman Chatti. We had the spirit but no time and hence decided to head back. In last few days, we had submitted ourselves to the mountains: we had walked, sweated, soaked in rain, and shivered in cold water. What we got in return was a lesson in patience, unparallel views of the Himalayas and a realization of our accountability to the nature.

FACT FILE

Distance: Uttarkashi is 168 Kilometers from Rishikesh and connecting busses/shared taxis are available from Rishikesh. The last bus from Uttarkashi to Rishikesh leaves at 2 PM.
Staying options: GMVN in Uttarkashi (advanced booking suggested); on the trek, log huts are available at Agoda, Bebra, and Manjhi. A Government Rest House provides accommodation at Dodital (Rs 500 per night for Indians and Rs 1500 for foreigners).

Author: Nitin Chaudhary