Memoirs of Gidara Bugyal
- abhisek ghosh
- Aug 7, 2022
- 5 min read
Updated: Sep 20, 2022
Part 1: Dehradun - Bhangeli - Rikoda
My past experience on a monsoon trek in Kashmir last year, had made me wary about choosing a trek in the same season but after a lot of deliberation, I decided to go for the Gidara Bugyal trek in June this year.
Gidara Bugyal is amongst the 20 odd high altitude meadows that are found in India. Located
in the state of Uttarakhand at an altitude of 12,500 ft above sea level, it is one of the largest Bugyals that one can climb to. Bugyal, which means nature's garden in local parlance is certainly a reflection of nature’s work as a gardener. Rolling meadows of undulating grassland, speckled with varieties of flowers is so mesmerising that one can almost lose oneself in its verdant embrace. Although, just as all good views comes only after a hard climb, the route to Gidara does test your endurance and will at every step and some parts of the trail is not for the faint of heart.
Our journey began from the Grand Legacy hotel in Dehradun at 7:00 am. The weather has not been great and the rain in the last few days led to some worry about the weather to expect on our trek. Nine of us loaded ourselves in the tempo traveller and the journey started through the streets of Dehradun and onwards towards Mussoorie. This was the third time that I was passing through these roads. Memories of my college trips to Mussoorie and Dhanaulti rushed passed before my eyes, but in all these years, so much has changed that it was almost impossible to reminisce. The signage for the Mussoorie lake and the newly painted YMCA hostel is all that remains that still has some connection to those wonderful times I had spent with my college buddies. The journey was quite a silent one and to some extent a bit monotonous, till Deepika started playing her awesome list of travel songs, and as if a missing piece of the puzzle was discovered, the journey for me became a lot more enjoyable as I hummed along. We stopped a couple times on the way for meals and to stretch our legs. The journey of 185 kms is not an easy task, especially on winding mountain roads.
The last leg of the journey started as we reached Uttarkashi. The mighty Bhagirathi river flanking us on our right, mighty green mountains on our left, capped with what seemed like rain clouds. As if responding to our apprehensions, the rain gave way about 3 kms from our final destination. Bhangeli village is situated about 2 kms from that final point and as we waited for the guides to come down and show us the route, we prepared ourselves to take on the rain. The road to the village was still under construction, so the only way was to use the steep rudimentary trail which the villagers use on a daily basis. We took our backpacks and started climbing and quite soon had a taste of the trail that is to come on our journey further. The sudden climb with a full load after a long journey where we just sat in comfort, started showing on quite a few of us. I had two backpacks, which made it quite difficult for me to see my steps ahead. Thankfully my nephew Sid, took the smaller pack from me and it got a bit better from there on. Rain was pelting down on us and the village was nowhere to be seen amidst the clouds. We eventually reached the quaint village of Bhangeli, nestled in the mountains with a culture dating back a few centuries.
We met our trek leader Nithyam and eventually disbursed to our home-stays. Four of us were staying at Nathuramji’s place which had a large porch and an unobstructive view of the mountains ahead. We enjoyed a simple yet delicious dinner served by the Indiahikes team, had our briefing and also celebrated the birthday of our fellow trekker Parvesh who would be referred to as Pasha Bhai in our story further.
I woke up at 5:00 am and stepped outside in the verandah; the tall mountains covered in lofty trees greeted me. A gust of cold breeze grazed me by as I looked at the silent valley in front of me. As I turned my gaze upwards to the top of the mountains, the glorious sight of the scattered clouds bathed in the golden rays of the first light left me mesmerised. As if that was not enough to take my breath away, the clouds slowly parted, revealing taller snow clad peaks, emerging like celestial beings in the sky.
The village was slowly waking up amidst the chirping of birds savouring the young apricots hanging from trees; the bells around the neck of the cattle ringing almost in unison in various parts of the village. We changed and got ready to have breakfast and move out. Nithyam, our trek leader was feeling under the weather, so we waited for Areeb, the slope manager to arrive from Raithal and take charge. We were introduced to our guides, Krishna Pratap who was a senior guide from Raithal; Kuldeep and Sailesh were local guides from Bhangeli.
We started after a mandatory group photo in front of the Indiahikes base camp and started climbing up through the village.
The steps were fairly easy to negotiate and it reminded me of the climb from the Jhaubari base camp for the Sandakphu trek. We climbed for about 10 minutes and stopped at clearing from where we had a clear view of the valley below. Behind us was a Lord Shiva temple which was more than 200 years old.
I bowed to the almighty lord and started our journey onwards. Almost half an hour into the climb, the forest section started, marked by a well defined trail, large trees, mainly oak and maple creating a canopy over us. The trail slowly started to get steeper and steeper and the forest around us was so dense that sun rays were hardly penetrating through the foliage.
We observed various trees on the way, especially the silver birch also called Bhoj Patra in Hindi. The sheets of bark from this tree were used in ancient times to write scriptures before
paper was invented. We soon reached a stream and took a break to fill our water bottles and drink from the stream directly.
We climbed on further and eventually stopped under a canopy to have our packed lunch. The climb was quite arduous and it felt good to stop for a while. It started drizzling, which was a bit worrying. The forest trail was loose from past rains and raining then would only make it worse. While it stopped almost as soon as it had started, we decided to start climbing ahead as the sky was overcast and impending rain loomed over our heads.
It started to rain eventually but we pushed on, keeping in our minds that we were to cover almost 3500 ft on that day, which was not an easy task. While I was reminiscing on the heavy rain I faced back in Kashmir last year, the rain started to sting, which was surprising. As I looked down, I found tiny globules of ice was scattered across the forest floor. It was hail!!! Never had I experienced hail in such a tiny form. We had to find shelter under trees as it started to pelt on us really hard. Our hands started to go cold as he moved our fingers to keep the blood flowing.
As the hail subdued, we pushed on further; the trail had already become muddy and we longed to reach our campsite as soon as possible. We climbed on to a clearing where the rain stopped for some time. There was a small pond and through the trees you could see some snow-clad mountains peeking through. We pushed further on for almost an hour and to our relief, finally reached our first campsite, Rikoda.
Stay tuned for the next chapter...
Watch the video journey here: https://youtu.be/pj-Thp6SPic
The Story Teller
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