Experiencing Himalayan Autumn. Trek to Chikka Campsite (Part-2).

Namaste 🙏

Hope you all are doing good!!!

Welcome to part-2 of the Chikka Campsite trek. In part-1 we collected firewood from the jungle and we were looking for the main trail of the trek as we were a little off trek.

Please find the link to part-1 below and give it a read if you haven’t already.

@parvkhuller/exploring-the-colours-of-fall-above-sethan-village-trek-to-chikka-campsite-part-1

Finding the main trail—

We came out of the jungle with our backs loaded up with firewood. We saved a little time by doing that as we were already running out of time. We needed to get to the Chikka Campsite before sunset so that we can get things done there comfortably.

We found the main trail that leads to the campsite. We were now very near to the stream of water along which we needed to hike. We needed to cross this stream of water with the help of a wooden bridge that’s constructed on it.

This glacial stream of water had the clearest water you can imagine. It came all the way from the untouched glaciers from Inderkila national park that constantly fed it no matter what season it is. The tress and the mountain made it look like it’s coming directly from the heaven.

Just moving a little further, I realised that what we thought of main stream was just a tributary of the main stream that was in the middle of this little valley. I wondered how good will that be looking.

We crossed this beautiful tributary through the delicate wooden bridge. Everything looked so magical. I was afraid of taking out my camera on the bridge and so I didn’t take any photos on it. However I thought to myself that I’ll surely take photos when crossing other bridges.

The wooden bridge over glacial stream of water

Another thing that I noticed was the different varieties of trees that grew alongside the stream. They looked so colourful as every tree was in a different stage of shedding and some of them were evergreen too. This phenomenon made the scenery more beautiful and colourful.

Different varieties of trees on the bank of the stream

1st short break –

Sun was about to set in less than an hour and we were halfway through. In spite of having heavy loads on our backs, we were making good progress. We were tired and decided to take a short break of a few minutes at a abandoned cafe that was made for trekkers in the trekking season.

There were wood logs there on which we could sit. We could also see the mountain near Chikka campsite in the background. We needed to reach near that mountain.

Me with my cousin

We also met a couple of local women sitting there. We asked them that how long it’s gonna take us to reach to the campsite? Their answer after looking at the loads on our back was more than an hour. After hearing this response, we got up to continue as we only had an hour of daylight with us. We needed to get there before an hour so that we could comfortably pitch our camps there.

The hike continues…

We could also see the impact of autumn on all the things. Grass was also getting washed off of fall colours. It looked phenomenal. It looked like nature had put on a autumn filter.

There was another jungle that we needed to cross now but in this one the trees were a little scattered. We were trying to be as close to each other to avoid any dangers and be safe.

Entering the woods felt like we were entering heaven. The tall mountains around added to the overall vibe.

We were having the time of our lives while walking there. It was really a much needed trip for us cousins to get together. We all were meeting after a long time and we were having fun together. Everyone is so busy nowadays that trips like this are really hard to execute where you’ll be out of network for a couple days. We’ve planned trips like this before but they never got executed because it’s really hard for everyone to be free at same time and there are endless other reasons too due to which trips like this gets cancelled.

There were a couple of other streams that ran through the woods. It was fun to cross them as there was not much water flowing in them.

Our backs started to hurt now. The terrain got a little harder and we were now gaining elevation. In spite of that we needed to keep moving forward until we reach at the campsite.

There were many clearings in between the forest that dramatically affected the ambience. Sometimes it was dark and sometimes we were in sunlight. It was a fun hike.

The mountain in the photo below is the mountain on top of which Bhrigu Lake is situated. I was there last month. I never imagined that it would look this dangerous from the other side. I couldn’t believe that I summited that mountain before. It was quite easy from the other side of the mountain. From this side it is looking impossible!!!

The mountain on which Bhrigu Lake is situated

As I was the only one who did Bhrigu Lake trek before, going to Bhrigu from this route was also one of our plan. The route was from a ridge from Chikka and it was difficult as far I got to know from the locals. But when we saw where we needed to go, we dropped that plan.

It was only a few minutes to sunset and we still had a km to walk. We stood there for a while to catch our breaths and stated to move again.

I’ll take this journey further in part-3 now.

Thanks for your time.

Peace ☮️