First Trekking Experience

Traveling and going on treks on vacation is one of the must-have plans for most of us. Going to the mountains where the weather is fantastic and all your tension and stress leaves your body and that too with the company of your friends or family, that's a different kind of life experience. I had one such experience with my family. After graduation, I went on a trip with my family to Tungnath Temple and Chadrashila.

It is one of the most memorable trips for me in my whole life. Usually, before going on the Tungnath Trek, people go to one more place which is Deoria Tal, an angelic lake at the height of 2438 meters above sea level. One of the mind-blowing facts about this lake is that in winter the snowfall around the lake is usually about 6 feet on average yet the lake water never freezes. As I investigated it more, I got to know that there are three different openings at the bottom of the lake and the water never settles in this lake, rather it is continuously flowing. Moreover, the view around the lake was simply breathtaking. We could witness huge Himalayan mountains right in front of us. Some of the peaks are the great Chaukhamba, Neelkanth, and Kedar Range.

After visiting Deoria Tal next on our list was Tunganath but for that, we had some other plans for our trekking journey. People usually prefer to start their trek from Chopta, but we started our trek from a place that is around 3-4 km ahead of Chopta. This is because from Chopta the whole way to the Tungnath temple is constructed and feels like going to a usual mountain top temple in the hilly region of Uttarakhand. That's why we had some other plans to do something extraordinary.

We stayed a night there, then early in the morning we started our journey from there to Ranganath temple but we got an uninvited guide for our way to the top of the mountain, a dog whom we named 'Kaalu', who guided our way through the dense forest but we were assured that Kaalu will notify us of any danger which can be any wild animal like a bear or tiger. But in the process, he scared the shit out of me when I saw a couple of wild deer running towards me that too of a height of approx. 10 feet., which was enough to scare me when I was leading the way for my family in the middle of a dense forest, which truly scared the shit out of me.



That was one of the most memorable parts of the trek, as after that the whole trek was an easy and simple way that just needed some endurance as the path was on a steep hilly way. The rest of the way was quite a fun part as I had a great experience. My family and I saw the helicopter coming back from Kedarnath, which was at a much lower altitude compared to the altitude from which we saw it flying below our level. Which was also one of the fascinating moments of our journey.

Chandrashila Peak

Rest all of the ways to Tunganath and Chardashila was easy for me but my family took way too many breaks for rest on the way as they were not as young and healthy as I was. This was still one of the most memorable memories for me as it was the first trekking experience of my life.

Written By:-

Sachin Rawat