From Dehradun to Sankri – The Journey Begins (Part 1)

On 21st December, we started our journey at 6:30 am for the Kedarkantha peak summit. This time, our (Hive account@himalayanwomb and I) trekking and summiting peak was unique as my son, aged 17, and my niece, aged 18, also went with us. This was the first experience of both of them to summit the peak. We had done all the packing a day before. We had taken just one rucksack bag and one backpack for clothes and essential stuff for all four of us, since we were aware that it would take two days maximum to summit the peak.

Dehradun Hills Bus Terminal

Since Hive account@himalayanwomb had trekked here some 15 years ago, we estimated it to be a one to two-day trek based on his experience. We decided to take a bus from Dehradun's Hill Bus Terminal on December 21st. Dehradun has two bus terminals; one is mostly for interstate travel, and the other, the Hill Bus Terminal, provides buses to local areas of Uttarakhand. Hill Bus Terminal in Dehradun is very near to Dehradun train station.

prepaid taxi booth is near to bus terminal

Reaching the bus terminal, we tried to get a bus ticket by standing in the queue, which we had to take either to Purola (Part of Tihri Garhwal Lok Sabha Constituency) or Sankari village (basecamp village for Kedarkantha peak). Sankari was our first choice, but we were ready for the second plan as well. After standing in the queue for bus tickets for 45 minutes, we discovered that only the bus conductor issues the tickets for the Sankari bus. We boarded all four buses and got seats. Now we were waiting for the driver to know when he would start the bus. The entire process took us from 6:30 to 8:00. We learned from the locals on the bus that the bus would only take us to Sankari after 7:00 PM. So we decided to book a taxi and go. The taxi cost us 6000 indian rupees.

New members in trekking - Big Toddlers :) This is a famous viewpoint that leads towards Mussoorie, from where Dehradun city is visible.

We started our journey to Kedarkantha around 8:30 AM via taxi. Today we were planning to just reach to Sankari village, which is about 200 kilometres. 200 kilometres wouldn't take that long if there were a straight road in the plains. Since we were travelling in the mountains, we were mentally prepared for a slightly longer journey. Our estimate was to reach Sankari around 5 PM. We would then hire a guide there, make a few inquiries, and relax.

Purola

Our route started from the Dehradun Hill Bus Terminal and went towards Mussoorie. Work is going on to widen this road to four lanes, so there was work going on at many places on the way, due to which we slowed down several times and got stuck in traffic. This rainy time, the rains caused a lot of damage in Uttarakhand, and we also encountered landslides at many places. There was a point on the way where the entire road was broken due to landslides. A dirt road was made from the bottom of that hill and joined the road from where we joined the road.

We reached Sankri around 7 pm. Sankri is a remote village that is the main basecamp in the Uttarkashi district of Uttarakhand, from where the Kedarkantha Peak, Rupin Pass and Har Ki Doon summit begin. It’s a very remote place with limited facilities. We got a hotel room for four of us together in just 1200 indian rupees per night. One can get everything related to the Kedarkantha trek, from trekking shoes to jackets, tents, etc, on rent. In this small market, you can get 4 to 5 decent restaurants for food at a decent rate. People are very helpful and approachable. To reach Sankari village basecamp from Dehradun, people may can travel by Bus, Taxi and tempo travellers.

Sankari Village market

We reached Sankari and hired a guide. Normally, travel agencies have made Kedarkantha a four-day trek. Since Kedarkantha Summit is only 10 kilometres from Sankari (around 20 kilometres back and forth), we didn't realise it was a four-day trek. We told the travel agency that we would finish it in two days, as our children were also with us, who were experiencing this for the first time. While we had to pay for the full four days, we summited the Kedarkantha Peak as per our plan. I'll tell you about the journey from Sankari to Base Camp in tomorrow's post.

Disclaimer: All the photos were clicked on my one plus phone, and I translated from Hindi to English for the blog. Collage I have created on the Canva app.
[//]:# (!worldmappin 31.07705 lat 78.18200 long From Dehradun to Sankri (Part 1)– The Journey Begins d3scr)