Through The Scenic Route, In My Hiking Boots. Brahmatal Trek

How about a hot cup of coffee and maggi high up at 12000Ft., with a view of sun’s first rays falling on the Snow-capped Himalayas, sleeping under the blanket of stars at -10 degrees in a cute camp tent ? Sounds beautiful right. That’s exactly what I experienced in my Himalayan trek to Brahmatal peak

About the trek: One of the popular winter treks, the trek has been named after the Brahmatal lake, located in Uttarakhand. Even though the trail doesn’t climb to the highest of altitudes, yet it is known to offer views of some high peaks. A small lake and a few forests act as the bonus offerings in this trek.

The magical journey starts on day 1 itself.

So here I started my journey to the Himalayas, it was 4th of Jan 2018, with a girl gang of 4 we were all set to experience the trip. With all the excitement, we flew from all the way from Bangalore to Delhi. From Delhi we had a train in the night to kathgodam. Since it was Winter, usually the delhi trains gets delayed and ours was delayed by 4 hours and at night 1:30 AM we got into the train.

Kathgodam – Lohajung

Early in the morning we reached Kathgodam to start our awaited journey of 5 days with the mountains. We were doing this trek with group called “Trek the Himalayas”. As we reached kathgodam, a mini bus with our other trek mates was waiting at the station. So now from 4 we were 11 to start off the trek. From kathgodam to Lohajung where our base camp was it was a 12 hours journey a little tiring but the view over the journey is beautiful where you get to see the lake of Nainital and few other beautiful places of Uttarakhand covered in between the mountains. We reached Lohajung in the evening at around 8 PM. we met our guide and coordinators there. At the dinner table we were given instructions and a brief and a walk through our itinerary for the entire trek which we were to start the next morning. By the end of our dinner we realised that the temp had dipped and we went to our respective rooms and got into those thick blankets. It was -6 degrees and first time ever we experienced how the – degree feels like.

Lohajung to Bekaltal

This morning we woke up early by 6:30 and sipped on some lemon honey tea. Discussing about the previous night when the temperature dipped to almost -8 we realised that we didn’t have proper warm clothes to stay in the tents for next 3 nights. Rushed to the local market which was walkable from our basecamp we bought ourselves few extra warm clothes and not to mention about the local markets there , there are hardly few shops but it’s an end stop for everything you need for a trek. And now we were all excited to start the trek. We had to cover 7 Kms for the day. We started walking through the village and after an hour we were walking through the forests. Every stop had a beautiful scenic view. When we were 300 mtrs away from our camp site we saw the snow covered path and for me being the first time ever to witness snow it was an amazing view. After the not so easy trek day we all were tired. We reached the camp, took rest for few hours and then I joined the local people there and played cricket with them. Just imagine how much fun can it be playing cricket at a 9600ft high up there. Then we had our dinner and went to our respective tents. This night we were all shivering since it was extremely cold, our clothes or even the cover ups provided by the trek didn’t help us one bit. We barely slept for half hour through the entire night.

Bekaltal – Brahmatal

The next morning when we woke up, we were happy to see the bright hot sun, which gave us a little warmth. There was ice on our tents and even on our hand gloves. We started off with our step to reach the brahmatal which was 8 km at a height of 10450 ft. Today’s walk was more beautiful and the view was on the open landscapes of the mountains. Our trek guides kept us motivated all our way. We finally managed to reach our stunning basecamp in Brahmatal. I took a stroll around the campsite. The atmosphere was wonderful. Today I played Volley ball with the pahadi people up there, and it was never so much fun in playing this old school sport.

Brahmatal – Summit – Brahmatal

Today was our summit day. There was so much excitement in my head today. This was going to be our last great ascent in the entire trekking itinerary and I really wanted to reach the summit now. Fortunately, the beauty of the route was enough to keep me going. Although the ascent was really tough, the trek was a forced climb, the last 1 kilometre was like fighting a war, between the brain and the heart. It was going to be a wonderful feeling to reach the top which was going to leave an indelible impression on me and I had realised that if I was mentally prepared for it, I wouldn't give up. And I didn't. We had started earlier on that day and hence by noon we had reached the summit. The sense of achievement had surpassed the feeling of happiness by a mile

Brahmatal – Lohajung

Today we started to descent down to our base camp where we had started the trek from. It was some 10 Kms. We started the early morning, since it was mostly downhill, the knees were punished. Finally, after continuously struggling with my limbs for half a day, I got a whiff of the basecamp from where we originally started the trek. Even though there was still over an hour to the destination, just a sight of it was comforting enough to bring a sigh of relief. My feet surprisingly started moving faster and I was at the basecamp in no time thence. I had never been happier at having achieved something in my uneventful life than I was at Lohajung that evening. Next day TTH arranged for a transport from Lohajung to Kathgodam. After a group dinner in a hotel in Kathgodam everyone parted their ways.

The experience

This trek gave me an experience to realize that there is no definition for the nature’s beauty, No pictures could capture what my eyes had seen. The mountains are huge, we feel so little in front of it. For once I thought I wish I could stay back in the woods, far away from the city life.

I miss the mesmerizing beauty of the sunsets and sunrise and those tranquil trails, still hallucinated with the layers of clouds and mountains. Taking back home the confidence of trying beyond the comforts and experiencing the best out of everything.

A special thanks to the TREK THE HIMALAYAS for helping us do this trek.