Gr8 Lakes of Kashmir----My encounter with Beauty Bliss and Nirvana----Day 6 : Satsar (12000 feet) to Nandkul and Gangbal Twin Lakes (11500 ft) via Jazz Pass (13500 ft)

AGAR FIRDAUS BAR RU-E-ZAMIN AST, HAMI AST O- HAMI AST O- HAMI AST.   

              IF THERE IS HEAVEN ON EARTH, IT IS HERE, IT IS HERE IT IS HERE.

Heart Shaped Nandkol.... Looking from top

Nandkol on the left and Gangbal on right

Five days in wilderness and surely the fatigue was setting in.. After a while on a day's trek, the vast meadows,un-ending valleys, wild flowers, streams were slowly losing their value....We needed something different

We were told that the major climbing was over but while briefing yesterday night about todays trek, Suman dropped a bombshell...Today again we will need to go through the rigors of climbing to 13500 feet for Jazz Pass and then descend to 11500 feet to reach the campsite of  Twin Lakes Nankol and Gangbal . The only incentive ( if one can call it that) was that tomorrow would be a rest day as Weather God had been extremely kind to us , providing tailor made weather all throughout..

To start our days trek , we needed to cross the stream  and circumnavigate the mountain directly in front of us . What made it interesting for me  was that the path consisted of rocks, boulders etc.. A terrain we were more comfortable with than Zig Zags and Switch Backs.

I managed to click  early morning hues of sunrays ...

The weather surprisingly was cloudy and foggy.Looked like in all probability we would be running out of  luck and we would be required to use that poncho we had been so religiously carrying throughout...

We started  after the usual routine of 0530-0630-0700......Surprisingly Santosh, me and the Bangaluru gang of Chinmaya, Parikshita and Rajesh move ahead. Its back to what we have been doing for last five days ....Go up and down till we reach the next set of lakes.

Immediately after the mild n gentle climb to reach the top of a hillock we see the trail full of boulders...actually you can't call it a trail ...its boulder hopping and each one makes his own route...the biggest advantage is that you gain height quickly. 

Also , your attention is on the next boulder and in general continuously in finding the shortest and easiest route which keeps your mind off the strain of climbing...The downside is that the boulder jumping is a bit harsh on the knees....

It was fun finding our way through.... We were taking usual breaks for clicking photoes ,admring the view, soaking in the excellent cloudy ,misty cool weather which was sheltering from the sun while we were ascending...

We reached the top of first ridge fairly quickly and  had one more break cum photo session at a  stone structure resembling an entrance....All of us had goo modelling time... the bengaluru trio for some reason were very much attracted towards my old n out of fashion Ray Ban shades and had their photos clicked with it.....I was wondering..."what's with today's generation...You cannot fathom what will interest them...

By the time we completed the photo shoot others had reached the spot one by one and we dutifully vacated the narrow space for them to rest and moved on.  The Pattern was still the same for one more ridge and we continued gaining altitude quickly.....

At this point only we were joined by one of the guides who for some reason deviated us from the boulders and got us on a pony trail....the moment  realized where we have landed and what laid  ahead of us, I frantically shouted at the gang below in general and Aashish in particular to go up as much as possible before joining the trail, knowing fully wel how much boring and tiring those Zig Zags were going to be...

The view of the valley and the tree line was magnificent from here with,mist coming up from below reminding me of Mahabaleshwar or Harisshchandra Gad or for that matter any Sahyadri trek in monsoon...

So it was back to boring switch backs till we completed ascend to the second ridge...by now the mules n horses had overtaken us inspite of taking a longer route...

After a rigorous ascent of 45 minutes or so, we hit a small snow line and atop was jazh pass.... We (rather our guide Chauhan) had strict warning  not to start the descent till all were atop and group photo was taken...




This  gave us ample time to


 relax, take a nap, click endless photos ,

try to locate twin lakes and our camp site,

Campsite in Orange alongside the Nandkul LAke

 sing songs, listen to some classics on mobile....though I'm not very amenable to music amidst natural surroundings  while trekking ,we had loads of time to kill
Now this was not the first time we were on the snow this trek but i don't know what triggered it but suddenly most of us were throwing snow at each other just like kids.... age group of 11 to 48 and all were making snow balls and hurling at each other with bare hands not remotely concern about snow bite or catching cold... what an amazing 15 minutes we had... Dr. charu and Dr. rupinder were entrusted with the job of  shooting us.....

The cloud cover on the other side of the pass was pretty thick when we had arrived but as the sun progressed ,it was melting bit by bit , giving us the glimpse of the twin lakes, the Harmukh peak and the steep steep descent awaiting us....The hide and seek game of clouds was a challenge for photographers... testing his patience for the perfect shot.....

After an eternity and Chauhan getting extremely restless, we finally had all 32 on top at Jazh Pass .... A good group photo in the form of souvenir later we started our descent.... 

We had absolutely no clue about the distance and the campsite from top was looking deceptively close....The trail  was narrow initially with full of loose rocks n scree.We heard Chauhan grumbling to Suman about how difficult it would have been to take everyone down if it would have rained.....but the weather was near perfect...unbelievably perfect rather with clear sunshine the moment we started descending ....

The twin lAKES WERE STILL NOT CLEARLY VISIBLE..

Nandkol Lake

Gangabal Lake

This trail must be in use very frequently... there are so many vantage points for clicking pictures....Descent was getting a bit boring inspite of the fact that we were taking as many shortcuts and straight line descents as possible...even the heat started getting to us as we were loosing altitude very fast....


After descending for god only knows how many feet, we came across a small stream.....what a relief it was....the water was refreshingly cold and me santosh aashish who were not too far from each other decided to have our packed lunch there itself... we were joind by Aparna mam...When you are with Aashish photo shoot cannot be too far behind...so we had our group click....After filling our water bottles and washing our hands n face as much as possible we hit the dirt trail once again....



After a descent of 15-20 minutes we landed on a small valley and to our utter shock our campsite was on the other side of the small hillock... Enough was enough and we just collapsed on the soft lush green earth ... even with blazing sun on top and no tree to cover us , I had a good power nap with my rucksack as a pillow....what a great feeling it was....नीचे जमिन और उपर आसमान …लहराति हवा और थका भागासा मैं

Campsite

After a nice power nap and realizing that we have to reach the campsite, me n santosh started to climb the last hill for the day and probably the entire trek....


The campsite from top of the hill looked beautiful besides the lake....our fellow trekkers from earlier batch had their rest day today and we shall have ours the next day....

Gr8 Lakes of Kashmir----My encounter with Beauty Bliss and Nirvana----Day 5: Gadsar (12000 feet) to Satsar (12000 feet)

AGAR FIRDAUS BAR RU-E-ZAMIN AST, HAMI AST O- HAMI AST O- HAMI AST.  

             IF THERE IS HEAVEN ON EARTH, IT IS HERE, IT IS HERE IT IS HERE.

Today's trek was supposed to be the most picturesque among all days.... The timings were  again 0530-0600 and then 0730. We were told by Suman that to get best place at the Satsar camp site our horses need to start early ahead of other groups. Also today we shall meet the second Army camp and again teh identification and documents check will happen. To  let go the Horses we needed to unpitch the tents even if our rucksacks were not packed and as can be seen in the photo,all of us were packing in open reminding me of the scene immediately after the Muncipal corporation raid evicting illegal hutments in any major city.

सर के उपर छत  नहीं …सब बेघर 

Just above the trail we were suppose to follow, I found a very beautiful snow formation 

Todays trail was supposed to be a mild ascent and then looooong walk through meadows covering a distance of 12 kms with no net altitude gain but we would be ascending 1500 feet before descending again.

As usual we needed to start the trek by crossing the stream and then climbing a snow bridge to reach the trail traversing the mountain. From our interaction with army jawans yesterday, I recollected that we will be going to the opposite side of Gadsar lake. The jawans also told us that they simply climb the mountain to reach the other side where they have a camp and the place where we headed,only difference being that we would be taking a long circuitous route.Immediately after hitting the trail,we were spoilt for choices as to which side and where and what to click. So many different varieties of wild flowers at our disposal.

Its extremely lush green carpet covered by yellow and purple wild flowers 

The stream and the snow bridges from the mountains

After a walk of 45 minutes we encountered now infamous Switch Backs or Zig Zags again... I tried to take shortcuts as much as possible ...

Its nice to see down below...

but then you look up and see how much more you need to climb 

We were walking just above the treeline and after a while we did see a ONE TREE HILL...Its the first tree after three four days ...

The sheep of different types, colour and breed were our constant companions.They were extremely shy n afraid of the presence of unknown human beings.

We continued traversing the mountain and wild flower beds, keeping the river stream to our right for some time more. 

Afterwards the trail moved left leaving the stream n valley. Down below far off we could see the tree line again.

The landscape ahead was captivating. Isolated mountains stand in front. Towards the right was a small ridge. In between was a flat green bed with a stream flowing in between.

Once we turned left , the valley opens up and its a vast meadows we needed to pass trough covering more than what we did on the other side of mountain.The good thing till now was that everyone was in good spirits, one because the climb was mild and second because of the flowers. We started walking as fast as we could on flatlands to cover the maximum distance. Now the Sun was getting  a bit too harsh and all our winter gear was now redundant.... we continued  spotting different flowers , crossing streams in between,helping each other, puling legs, chit chatting etc.....

on the way We met one shepherd who was carrying this cute little baby lamb ...He told us that she was just 3-4 days old....Almost everyone from our group could not help but take her in arms and seeing this her mother who was a bit far away started wailing... Mother Child bonding on display...

 These flowers were growing near the stream but on a very very thin soil...

After crossing the stream and walking a distance of maybe two kms, we reached our second army Camp on a small hillock. We were clever now with previous experience ,but this was a bit larger camp.The third in line of defense against the infiltrators ....We had to wait for Suman to get the documents ,who had been left too far behind. We strted interacting with Army Personnel. Again they were more than happy to meet us One Soldier offered us Chocolate,one welcomed us with warm water . I guess they just wanted to talk about something different ... and we were in awe of them which was anyways ego boosting for them.... I must mention one incident here which defines what predicament these Armymen are facing... It so happened that while we were at the camp three people approached the  camp with some ID papers with them... One of the person's documents had some issues....I happened to sneak a peek in one of the ID papers and it was pretty elaborate giving details about where they entered, which area they will be going and how many days the permit is valid etc... Now this guy claiming to be a shepherd had made entry in one of the checkposts yesterday but the permission was only for a day. He had overstayed because his herd got dispersed and few sheep were missing . Now he was too far away from a area he was suppose to be and  his papers were clearly showing that he is at wrong place. The other two shepherds  in Kashmiri were trying to explain and convince the Armyman about his innocence.....It was a clear cut situation of "Damn if you Do and Damn If you Don't"....You have to be extremely delicate ... To add to the situation, we learned that just yesterday there was an attempted infiltration and 17 people were caught  .....While you don't want to harass an innocent shepherd, there is know way of knowing that he is not the one infiltrating... They all look same... There were frantic calls on wireless to other camps to check the veracity of his claims.......Just one very very small incident but We knew the difficulties faced by these Armymen... Of course its only one side of the story about whats happening there...

Anyways, after identification was done we moved on....Today I was not feeling like eating packed lunch so had not taken any... Aashish and Santosh also decided to have the lunch at campsite only which supposedly was two-three kms ahead. From the Army Camp as we moved downwards the terrain suddenly changed ...It was rocky ,bare and devoid of any greenery....

SatSar as the name suggests  are 7 lakes. We did not know that these lakes were in between the camp and our camp site....We did spot 3-4 small and big lakes but did not pay much attention... As always we were now more focused on reaching the campsite.

One of the Lake

After jumping over many rocks , we finally saw our camp  and unlike what we were told in the morning, there was absolutely no space crunch  and surprise surprise ...there was no lake at the campsite...though as was the norm,it was besides a stream...

We saw a Horse sleeping...New revelation for me

At the campsite, apart from usual Tang, our cooking staff also offered us pahadi variant of  Kashmir tea...it was salty but good...suppose to be helping in removing the pain and tiredness ...

Our Staff who served us extremely well...in the relaxed moments

The temperature was moderate here and all of us decided to have lunch by the stream. Chinmaya ,who was walking with us was also carrying the lunch for the three mates, rajesh and Parikshit. They reached early but had to wait to have lunch till Chinmaya reached the camp. Though I did not take any lunch at the start, like a true trekker I did shared whatever Aashish and Santosh had bought for them ....

First time during the entire trek we saw some cloud formation ..but it was not to rain....

The army Jawans had said that their boss will be camping with us to give additional protection... and we saw them erecting a tent on the other bank of the stream....The Major and Captain had a very good interaction with all of us and other groups...

We had a lot of time to kill and hence chatting with different groups enjoying the sun or just sitting on stones with legs in icy cold stream water which after a while felt pleasant....The mere thought that we are able to idle away  totally cut off from civilization  while our colleagues in office must be slogging like mad was enough to give us a HIGH....

I saw santosh offering "Arghya" to sun and clicked a photo...

While a little distance away, one of our staff was offering a Namaz... Dr. Parminder spotted this and I tried to get both of them in one frame......Different religions , different means but same goal

Our disappointment of  not having a lake was short lived  as we savored the landscape, played antakshari, I even learned a new game as wel. 

Santosh alongwith the Banglore team went  exploring the camp site while myself and Aashish stayed back in tent.

A view from our tent..

While in the evening , when we were having Soup , we saw one foreign couple approaching the site....They were welcomed by the Major and asked to present the identification....After the process these guys crossed the stream and within moments they had there tent pitched ,and both vanished inside....We were speechless....An American couple in Kashmir , on an unknown path ,trekking alone....Gr8...Though we accepted that the modern gadgetry didn't make  you feel alone the contrast was very stark between them and us...We with all the support staff, mules and what not while they were only a couple all independent...


To be continued...