From Dehradun’s Chaos to the Calm of the Himalayas : A Soulful Kedarkantha Trek Story (Part-01)

I've sat down to write after a long time. Volunteering at two events in a row doesn't feel like writing. On top of that, I've injured both my shoulders, so now I go to the hospital for physiotherapy, then I do shoulder exercises twice a day. Life has become a bit fast and boring. Anyway, today I'm going to tell you about a trek I took in December. Three friends and I went on a trek in December, so let's go on this memorable journey.

Kedarkantha is located in the Uttarkashi district of Uttarakhand state in northern India. Speaking of location, this trek is located at an altitude of 3800 meters in the Govind Wildlife Sanctuary. The trek begins in the small village of Sankari, at an altitude of 1950 meters. This trek is one of the few winter treks that remains open even after snowfall.

So we leave Dehradun to reach Sankari. At the bus stand, I inquire about the bus to Sankari village. Only one bus leaves Sankari all day, and that too at 8 a.m. Even my angels don't wake up at 8 a.m. We pack minimally, but still end up with three bags. We arrive by cab at the Dehradun bus stand at 7 a.m., where I see a long line at the bus ticket window. My mood is dampened by the fact that I had to get up so early, and the cold wind hitting my ears is making me shiver.

I put my friend in line for me and go to inquire about the taxis parked nearby, hoping the taxi driver will say, "Come on, sir, we'll take you there for free." Hearing that it costs 7,000 rupees, I'm shocked. Sankari village is just 185 km from here, and the taxi drivers are charging 7,000 rupees. After a little bargaining, we got a taxi for 6500 rupees.

Of course, the taxi driver was drunk, and the entire way I was worried he would drive the car down the hill, but that didn't happen. After crossing Mussoorie and stopping for lunch, the driver drove so fast that I was truly terrified. At times, I thought the car would actually fall. I scolded him and told him to stop. People here have no respect for other people's lives, which is why so many accidents happen here.

We arrived in Sankari village at 6:30 pm, booked a room, had dinner, and I spoke with a trekking agency there, saying we would stay at the base camp the day after, summit the day after, and then descend directly. We paid 2500 rupees per person for this package, which included a guide for two days, our rucksacks on horseback, breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and a tent and sleeping bag. I paid the money and went to sleep.

We woke up at 7 a.m., freshened up, and waited for our guide for about an hour and a half. His name was Raju. He took us to his trekking company's base camp, which was 700 meters away. We had breakfast there and began our trekking journey at exactly 9 a.m., taking us to the base camp of Kedarkantha Peak.

Today, we didn't have a very long trek; the distance from Sankari to Kedarkantha Base Camp was only 6.1 km, and the distance from Base Camp to the summit was 3.3 km. Although, leaving early in the morning, Kedarkantha Summit could easily be reached in a day. We only had to trek 6 km, so we went very slowly. The lack of luggage made it even more enjoyable. It's hard to find a spot on the trail where we didn't take photos.

Screenshots from my strava account

After trekking 3 km, we reached a small lake on the route called "Juda Ka Talab." The elevation here is 3168 meters, and we stop here for lunch. Base camp is just 2 kilometers from here, which doesn't take long. We cover this distance in 5 hours, gaining 1182 meters of elevation. At base camp, we sit with a cup of hot tea, gaze at the mountains, and bid the day goodbye, promising to meet the setting sun tomorrow.

Disclaimer: This post is originally written in Hindi and I have used Google Translator to translate the Hindi text in English. All the photos have been clicked by me from One Plus 13R, and post thumbnail created in adobe photoshop.

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[//]:# (!worldmappin 31.02428 lat 78.17074 long From Dehradun’s Chaos to the Calm of the Himalayas – A Soulful Kedarkantha Trek Story (Part-01) d3scr)