SANKRI to JUDA TALAO to BUGYAL (Night Camp)

After a goodnight sleep i woke up early at 6.00am. Got done with my daily chores and did my final packing for the trek and was all ready set to go. The guide (Chandan) and poter (Raju) arrived at 7.00am and packed all the ration, tent, sleeping bags... etc etc etc... Paid the GMVN guy and headed down to the market for breakfast. Hot rotis and aloo gobi was served, with a cup of extra sweet chai..I ve started disliking the pahadi tea... its always very sweet!!

That done..we started walking the only flat that I encountered in next 2 days; the walk from tea shop to the starting point of trek.

Once started trekking, it hardly took me few meters to realize.. "Damn its been ages since I last trekked!!!" and the guide says.."Sir ji yeh toh abhi suruwat hai (start)... abhi toh puri khadi chadai hai (steep climb).." I thought to myself.. God helps me and continued trekking. At the back of my mind I was always thinking.. "It cannot be steep climb all the way.. there have to be flats.." and guess WHAT!! I was correct... well partially correct.. It wasnt steep climb all the way.. there were few GENTLE climbs in between... :D..

Trekking up I got my first view of Swargrohini peaks, besides the Harkidun peak!.. Enjoy the pics of the portion of the trek to Juda Talo.. There were many peaks the guide told me about.. dont ask me whats what.. i only remember a few..

The SWARGROHINI PEAKS

Finally after a lot of hardwork... lot of breath gasping and loads of tiny breaks... we reached the Juda Talao. We gain height very quickly in this trek.. so time for acclamatization is minimum. One thing that you gotta watch is your rythm of walking. You break it or stop somewhere for a long time you are in bit of a trouble then. After initial few breath gasping sessions, I caught up a rythm..Small steps, slow walking and stoping for few seconds to ease the breathing. Remember, when climbing/trekking upwards continually always keep your breathing in control..never over do!!

BTW Juda Talo was just another meadow out of few other meadows we passed by on the way.. where groups camp and call it a day. You see the water looks black.. and is actually black. Chandan said its clean..and you can drink it... I doubted that.. but gave it a shot.. Guess what I am still alive. We had our packed lunch for the day here and rested a while. While me and Raju were chattin, Chandan almost fell asleep. We decided to head further.. I took the Juda talao water in bottle, since we were out of water, just to later on realize that, it was stinking. I thought to my self.."What did I drank????" Anyways, just when we started climbing again, I realized how bigger mistake was to rest for that long. Even though the latter part was a gentler climb, I was gettin tired quickly and breaking more often than before.. The result of breaking my rythm...

Enjoy the pictures for the portion of trek from Juda Talao to Bugyal (Night Camp)...

My first clear view of Kedarkantha Peak!!!

and finally the camping ground...

After continuing trekking from Juda Talo.. and passing a few more meadows we finally decided to camp at the next meadow depending on.. 1). Availibility of water 2). Distance to the peak should be do-able in half a day. There were a few shepard houses on the camping ground, which were abandoned for the cold season. Since we were the first ones to trek to Kedarkantha this season and shepards had'nt returned yet, we decided to take refuge in one of the huts. Got settled and enjoyed the view for a while. Warmed up in the sun, while drinking chai and got some stories from Chandan and Raju. By the time sun went down, our dinner was ready; Egg curry and rice. Had a early dinner and it was time for bonfire..

Talking about bonfire..it wasnt just a bonfire...it was a massive bonfire!! I tried the layered clothing funda! Even tough it was cold..I took off my warm clothes and let my body absorb the heat from fire. Once ready to go to bed, I wore my warm clothes again, so the heat gets trapped inside. I was trying this for the first time, since Igot this funda from Team-BHP website. Guess what.. it worked!! My body stayed warm for hours after the bonfire, and actally felt like coming out of my sleeping bag and sleeping in open. But I did'nt!

Around 12.30am the clouds started roaring, screaming and blinking. Followed by heavy rains and hailstorm. Our hut had leaks in the ceiling, so after-all it wasnt the smartest thing to do. Water started pouring in and our sleeping bags got wet. We tried to sop water from coming in and succeded a bit, meanwhile it stopped raining. Relived, we got back into our sleeping bags. I couldnt manage a good sleep until very late and when I woke up, I felt as if I just slept!! Raju told me, apparently there was a mice who was trying to jump on us in the night time! No wonder those noises in the night which kept me disturbing!!! Ah!! now you wonder "How did Raju know there was a mice, trying to jump on us?" Valid question. Answer: He saw him!!! Yes there was fire burning in the kitchen, plus there was candle light too!!!