25 September 2023
While working last night, I didn't realize when it was 12 o'clock. Yesterday, I had come on time after marking but one of our team had gone for Bhrigu Lake marking, it took a lot of time to get down, due to which it became dark and both of them got lost in the forest. Both of them showed wisdom and enabled track back on their smart watches, due to which both of them came back on the right track. So in this way we kept waiting for them till 11 pm, because of this we also had dinner late and slept very late.
This morning, due to sleeping late, I woke up at 08:30, freshened up, had breakfast and prepared my bag for marking. At 10 o'clock one of our companions dropped me and Ankur at Kothi Road from where we had to mark the route. By the time the runner reaches here, it will be 50 km and it will be dark by the time the runner reaches here, so today we had to do night marking also. For night marking, we installed reflectors and pasted glowing ribbons on the route.
10:45 We started marking, the mountain of Bhrigu Lake was visible behind us and below this mountain Kothi village, this village is at an altitude of 2500 meters and this village is situated on a part of the mountain, hence this village is like a land slide. Absolutely safe from natural disasters. After one km we cross a water stream, Manali Valley is visible from here, all the small ajar houses in the valley look very beautiful.
If you go a little above the water stream, you can see a herd of sheep and goats. I try to talk to the sheep but they don't want to talk to me and go away showing attitude, anyway I succeed in clicking their photo. There is grass here and bright sunshine...I feel a little tired so I want to sleep on the green grass here. But today's marking also has to be finished so I start walking again.
After about 2 km we reach Kothi Top, the altitude here is 3200 meters, there are shepherds' huts here. There is an aunty who invites us for tea, we happily accept but don't know where the aunty goes so we leave for our work. After leaving here, we enter the forest where we see a herd of sheep and goats. The herd is accompanied by dogs that protect the sheep and goats from wild animals.
At 4 o'clock we reach Khobi, the altitude here is 3400 meters and Khobi is the base camp of Mount Patalsu Peak. The view looks very beautiful from here. While Solang Valley is visible on one side, Mount Hanuman Tibba Peak is shining on the other side. Ankur and I rest for 15 minutes and start walking again. Today our work ends here. From Khobi, we run at a little speed towards Solang valley and reach Solang at 5 pm.
After reaching the hotel we have sandwiches and tea. Then I take a bath and get straight into the quilt. I am so busy with marking work that I was not able to talk at home, so today I talked to my mother on phone. So this was today's day in which we trekked 11km with an elevation gain of 1035m. Tomorrow I will probably rest and not go anywhere. I hope you enjoyed my day spent in the mountains.
