Rangthar Meadow trek

Day 0 - Delhi to Aut

My last trek was Brahmatal in November, I suppose. I had been thinking about finally hiking in Nepal for some time but planning often does not culminate into execution. Especially when it comes to traveling. I suppose that's organic.

For me it was due to leave limitations. I'm after all, a rat in a cage with the delusions of purpose.
No more! This rat had had enough!

Tirthan valley is home to a lot of beginner level treks which can be easily done from April onwards. I have been in touch with a local who informed me of the adverse conditions in the past few weeks. But I just wanted to try my luck nevertheless.

I planned to hike Marahni peak which is at a moderate altitude of 3600m. A lot of trekkers judge a trek by it's altitude. I knew enough to avoid doing that.
Although, I did study the altitude profile and it didn't seem to be much.

The bus left at 9 pm from ISBT. I planned to deboard at Aut, take a shared cab to Tourist information centre, GHNP which is in Banjar.The last road head is a village called Pekhri, which is from where the trek begins.

Day 1 Aut to Banjar to Prabhat homestay

I slept like I'm unconscious for about 10 hrs in the bus. Consequently, I missed that beautiful twilight glow in the mountains but it's okay. I think I'll have better views in Tirthan valley.

At the time of writing this note, I'm stuck in Aut. The bus to Banjar is taking forever to arrive and the cab is asking for 1200 INR. Its just too much and I think I'm better off waiting for the state/private bus.

Also, I think I take pride in doing super economical trips. Roopkund for 3500 Rupees sits at the top of my achievement list.

As I sit here in this bus stand dhaba, I have time to reminisce and draw parallels. Have I waited for a bus before? Umpteen times.
Have I faced uncertainty if I'll get conveyance? Attargu pul, Spiti.

The thing with experience is, that it changes what's normal. It extends it. At this point, there has to be a shit hailstorm for me to actually be bothered. Everything else is within my tolerance.

I'm not looking for something new here, I'll have to try harder and farther for that. I'm just looking for that odd home away from home feeling.

To peace!

The bus for Banjar finally arrived and took around an hour to reach Aut. From thereon, I decide to take a cab since the next bus was in an hour's time. I wanted to start hiking today itself or at least give myself the best shot to do that.

I reached Prabhat homestay at around 2 pm, after which it became impractical to proceed further. Tired as I was, I decided to rest and eat. Eat first, rest later. And ate a lot I did. Also, the weather was quite hot. Cold air but harsh sun.

The homestay was beautiful and they offered the room to me for a very decent budget. I slept a lot in the day, woke up, took a walk outside, ate dinner and called it a day.

Prabhat Homestay

Gushaini Village

Day 2 Gushaini to Pekhri to Rangthar

The guide arrived very late, by that time I had had breakfast and gotten ready.

After arranging a little bit of ration, we took a cab to Pekhri, which is the last motorable road.

The climb from Pekhri is relentless. The heat was also killing my momentum. I had to take a few breathers in between, grabbed a protein bar, drank lots of water. Good thing I mixed ORS, felt much better after hydrating. I could sense a headache around the corner though.

The winding roads to Pekhri

Hot barren trail towards Lakcha

Beautiful flower in the valley

After about a couple of hours, we reached Lakcha village. It consists of around 8-9 houses. Also, the last water source. The climb continued and after an hour more, we reached Rangthar.

Lakcha

Rangthar is an open meadow with great camp spots. We pitched the tent here and decided against moving forward since we were late (It was 2 pm). I could see snow laden peaks on the other side of the valley but the place is surrounded with low altitude mountains. I reckon around 4000m, this I also corroborated with google terrain maps. Nevertheless, since there has been much more snow this year, I witnessed a great spectacle. No complaints!

I had a nice long afternoon nap which recharged me to an extent. Thereafter, the guide heated some water for Maggi and then soup.

The lone camper in the meadow

Nice view from the tent

Low altitude snow capped peaks

The weather was unbearably hot and I could feel a certain burning sensation, even inside the tent but then came the clouds.

Weather started deteriorating and soon it started hailing. There was a lot of wind and thunder too. I took refuge in the tent hoping it all goes away.

And.. it did. But not before it showcased a certain natural light show. I saw all sorts of illusory effects which I promptly captured with my camera. The sky was yellow, half yellow. There was sun on one side and a storm on the other. I was smack in the middle of it. What timing, what luck!

This is why I love being in the mountains, the elements are raw and you feel really close to the elements.

Yes.. Half sun light sky

Scattered sun rays coming from behind the camera

Hail!

As the sun set, I was in for another treat. I just remembered it's new moon day. I had the full star lit sky in front of me. So I took my bridge camera out and tried clicking the stars but to no avail.

Disappointed, I tried clicking with my phone. And guess what... Mind boggling pictures! I could see everything.. stars, constellations, Mars, nebula clouds, Venus.. I was in a celestial overdrive.

I clicked as many pictures as I could, ate dinner by the fire and called it a day. For city folks like me, this was indeed really special and rare. I spent a long time gazing at the stars and even longer trying to tweak my cell phone to take good night sky pictures.

Day 3 Rangthar to Gushaini

We decided against going to Marahni due to excessive snow as per shepherds in the area. You have to listen to the locals.
Maybe I was also content with the astronomical spectacle yesterday.

It's okay, I told myself. April is too early to be going at any decent altitude anyway. We had oats for breakfast, I ate an additional breakfast bar. Drank some ORS too.

We started descending to Pekhri by 9:45 am. The sun was unbearably hot today as well. After a continuous descent of an hour and half, we reached Pekhri. From there, a cab brought us back to Prabhat homestay in Gushaini.

Wrapped up!

Lakcha from above

Traffic jam in the mountains!

The weather started to deteriorate after I reached Gushaini, good that I chose to descend timely.


The previous night was so marvelous, I couldn't stop thinking about it all day.
However, all that's left now is to go back to routine life, resume the hustle. It is sad indeed that a star studded sky is an event of rarity for most city folks, something so basic yet elusive.
It is something I pondered upon while on my journey back to Delhi.

I also got to take my new trekking boots to test. I still feel I need to break them in properly.
Last but not least, my wanderlust is satisfied to an extent. How long this lasts is something that remains to be seen.

A subtle end to a subtle trip.