Jammu and Kahsmir || August 2023
One of the most beautiful treks to do in monsoon weather, the trek route is laid down in laps of paradise – Kashmir !! This trek is a package of about 5 nights and 6 days plus an additional buffer day. I personally did this trek through the trekking company “Trek up India “, but one can do it from many other private companies that organise the same trek, each of them have just have some slight variations.
This heavenly trek takes you through 7 lakes and 2 pass, with maximum elevation of about 13,750 ft above the sea level which you attain on day-3 when climbing the Gadsar pass. Camping started itself from the reporting day with us setting up our tents at Sonmarg our base camp, since the first day only we had no access to electricity and power! The next day started with the real trek, at around 7 am we packed our bags and moved for our first camp site which was Nichanai, we had to trek for about 11kms, for around 7-11 hrs crossing 1 army check point. The 1st day route was a little hard as it started off with approx 6 km ascent, for the first day itself everyone was a bit doubtful about their choice of enrolling for this course .. but yes of course after completing that ascent the route gets so much prettier. All through the trail you would get some small dhabas so if you are hungry on the trail and are not satisfied with campsite food, you are most welcomed to spend some bucks on these dhabas . The trail passes through meadow field and maples forest with a long break for our packed lunch near a water stream. Sindh river passes by use throughout the major part of this trek. The trail then descends and climbs back up into a river valley. This is Nichanai’s beginning. Now, the trail runs along the right bank of Nichanai’s river as it goes upstream. To the left, you will see Sonamarg valley’s snow-clad peaks. After an hour, the river valley is green and has no rocks. As the river valley narrows, you can see the green meadow expanding between the mountain ranges. You can pitch your tents on a flat surface and finish the first day of trekking. And with this on our first day we gain the height of 11,150 ft above sea level . On our first day of trek we didn’t came across any lakes though, but the beauty of the land could be seen all around us.
We had quite floggy/cloudy weather since evening that day. White out to be precised, and a white out while we are on a trek isn’t something good ..
Next day we started of again at 5am for morning warm-up followed by medical check-up and tea , and then our breakfast was served after which we were given the command to move towards our next camp location. As we walked by ,the weather started acting up and it started to drizzle , everyone on the trek took out their rain covers and because of all this the initial moving pace also slowed down . But thankfully it didn’t rain much. So today’s route was a 12km trek which included patches of moraine area and then a full valley of flowers and meadows . After only crossing a little incline and the rocky area, was the real ascent of the trail for today. But we all together successfully completed the ascent with bright smile having achieved a sense of accomplishment . The trail now takes you though the most beautiful meadows and valleys. This day we reach our first lake of the trek i.e. the “Vishansar lake”. After reaching the campsite we need to walk a little for a short while to visit our first lake. From the campsite today we can see our next days climb and the maximum height that we will obtain in the trek. The Gadsar pass.
Next day starts off with a mood and energy boosting instruction and speech by all the guides of this trek because this way was going to be pretty hard and long. This day we have to gain an elevation of 13,750ft from straight 12,000ft above sea level. As we started our trek only a few miles away it was the destination for our second lake – the “Krishansar Lake”. Giving our full mental and physical patients and strength we reached at the top of the pass, and we could see both the twin lakes, the Vishansar and Krishnasar lake together. The view was worth watching.
With that finally the descent for today’s trail started and we head down for our trek till our lunch point. The decent was also pretty steep for today. But toady’s lunch point was the most satisfying and peaceful lunch venue anyone could ever have. Having lunch in front of a lake which is formed from the mini glacier melting in front of us!!! A scene to never miss.. After that we started our trek back and crossed another army check point before reaching the campsite today. The campsite was also situated in a very pretty location, in a valley surrounded by mountains on all sides.. star gazing was a sport that day !! Most beautiful, one could see as many as 12-15 shooting starts that night.
But for the next campsite we were told to leave early from the tents and start early from this location as it was situated in a moraine covered area and it pretty much a competitions for the trekking companies to establish their tents at the perfect location. Today’s trek started of with us walking on small patch of glacier and then through the beautiful meadows with flowers blooming on both the sides. Today the trails was short, beautiful, peaceful and we had lunch at our campsites only, NO packed lunch today. And yes today was also the day when we passed our last dhaba for the trek. After some little ascent, descents and mostly long patches of meadows we reached our campsite that was situated in Satsar. After reaching the campsite the lakes were a few miles away, so a walk till the lakes was set to happen after our hot lunch.
The next day came as a total surprise as we were walking on a mountain of rock.. Big fat moraine area. It was pretty scary and difficult for each and everyone of us but yes we all together did it! But the only thing that gave us the real motivation was that today was the last day we had to climb up an ascent.. The last ascent till Zaj pass. reaching the top the scenery was mouth dropping, such a beautiful place to be. These view made all the climb truly with it , we could see the Gangabal twin lake and Mt. Harmukh with it’s glacier. Spending some time their and clicking the most iconic pictures to capture this beautiful moment, we had to start our trek back on the route to our last lunch location which was the most relaxing of all. Sitting together and having our lunch on the big field of Gadsar, sharing our stories laughing and enjoying every moment of it. On our way back to our last campsite we passed the twin lakes one by one. Here we probably spent like an hour to enjoy the view and get that peace and calmness in our mind and body. Truly enjoyed this day of trek.
And within just 5 days with the more than 10 unknown people who started the feel like a family, we finally came to the very last day of the trek. Today we had a straight up decent till the end destination of our trek Narang. A 15km walk which started from taking us through beautiful meadows and via some parts of forest between the pine trees, ending with the shittiest decent of the trek which made almost all the trekkers lost their temper, it was a test of our mental strength more than our physical strength. After the meadow we crossed our last army check-point also.. From the trail that took us between long pine trees we could start see cars and the roads.. But the decent somewhere made us feel that this was the longest patch that we would never want to do again, as we could hear the cars honk, guides saying that it’s just 30 mins away, but that 30 mins took forever to complete. We dropped to almost 3000ft on the last 4km of this trek, which was insane. As soon as we saw the finishing board and our trek guide waiting for us at the finish point, we all just forgot about everything and walked as fast as we could with a big smile and sense of achievement. The happiness and sense of accomplishment everyone had could be seen by their smiles. Finally we took our booked taxis and had moved off to the last part of this trek which was a drive from Narang till Srinagar, it took us about 2-3 hours. With this our trek of “The Kashmir Great Lakes” was officially completed.
