Trip to Triund May 25
Triund is in the mountains above Mcleod Ganj. You can go up and come back in a day or opt to overnight. Longer treks are based out of there but we only have 2 day weekends with our teaching schedule, so the overnight option was our choice.
We tried to do it with our friends John and Nataya but I got sick just before we were supposed to leave and so it didn't happen. We had already booked our tent, which was only a $10 per person loss. We had heard that the rental sleeping bags were dirty and so the head of LHA, Dorji, who lives in our building, offered us some sleeping bags that she had in storage for a group coming over the summer.
We held onto these and went the next weekend, after our American friends had departed for France. We booked a cab to take us as far as the road could go and had to take our tall backpacks in order to accommodate the sleeping bags.
The morning was sunny and the 30 minute cab ride got us up to the trailhead. This was along a very narrow road that kept getting rougher and rougher, more suited to a fully loaded Jeep than the little Suzuki cab. We jostled over bumps, skidded our tires a few times and shut our eyes as the narrow, guard-rail-less road skirted the edge of steep drops.
We got there and headed onto the trail, which continued as a rough road and then became a well-blazed path with many stone steps and fortifications. This was even busier that the W trek in Patagonia as many families from Delhi and the Punjab come up for the weekend. People were coming and going both ways, but the annoying thing were the groups of young hikers carting Bluetooth speakers. We didn't go hiking to hear music varying from hiphop to Hindi Bollywood classics to Roy Orbison. We tried to let them pass so that they could fade off into the distance but they invariably stopped for a tea break and then passed us again.
The trek was lined with shops and tea houses which were usually lean-tos with tarps overhead selling a surprising variety of drinks and snacks. Every once in awhile we have to step off the path as a mule train came along, the only source of supplies for the many establishments along the trail. We stopped at the Magic View teahouse at the halfway point of the trail, which lived up to its name, actually had a partial stone structure and did a proper masala chai, although after watching them wash up we were glad that the tea was served boiling hot.
The hike itself was a little over 3 hours of constant elevating, with the trail getting rougher and rockier as we went along it. Of course, as the we got higher the views back into town and up to the mountains kept getting better and better.
We arrived at Triund around 1 pm, which is on a plateau which usually has a great view of the surrounding mountains. Unfortunately, we had been hiking through a slight mist for most of the last two hours and it was thick at the top. Sometimes visibility was down to almost nothing and certainly the mountains, which we knew were there, were not making an appearance.
We found our tent, dropped off our bags and looked for lunch as the rain started. Our campground had an unattractive kitchen where we could have dahl or boiled noodles so we went elsewhere. We found the largest place, Suneil's Teahouse which had a varied menu. Once we ordered we were invited to the back where there were two blanket covered bunks to recline on. The place was made of woven blankets covered in tarps but was quite cosy. We had tea and stuffed parathas, which were tasty. We ordered an extra roti as we heard heavy rain and hail bounce off the tarp above us. The couple across from us were a French/Spanish mix and the employees let us lounge there and wait out the storm.
We came out into sunshine and finally saw the mountains, which were very impressive. Meg preened the inside of the tent and had a nap while I read my book and enjoyed the scenery. The campground was starting to fill up and groups of young men spent the entire afternoon posing and taking picture sof each other.
After Meg got up we decided to try making it to the snowline before it got dark. This trail got a little rougher and had many narrow spots with steep drops off to one side. We leaned into the mountains and saw mist coming up from the river below. Soon we had no view and it was getting much darker so we turned back early, as there would be nothing to see at snowline anyway. We planned to try again in the morning.
Back at camp it was a little clearer and we could see that the mist we had been experiencing was really clouds which we were high enough to be inside of. We went back to Suneil's to get some of the delicious bean curry we had smelled at lunch and met a fellow Canadian from Vancouver, Eunice. We talked and made plans to hit snowline the next morning.
Once the sun set we went into our tent and tried to sleep, but the weekenders would have nothing of it. The group around us had selected a bonfire site close to our tent and were yelling, shouting and playing Bluetooth tunes all evening. At 11, when everyone else had retired to their tents and quieted down a bit, a group of young boys came back from where they had been either drinking or doing drugs and started screaming, giggling and tripping over tent poles. We had heard groups howling in the distance but now the boys had returned. They kept this up until 1 in the morning or so and sleep was impossible.
During the night, Meg heard strange grunting and crunching noises and ended up having a close encounter with a grazing horse. Cattle were all over the campsite and a large herd of goats went back and forth several times, so the ground was actively fertilized. There was no washroom for campers, so human stuff was on the ground as well. There were little holes in the ground full of soggy toilet paper and you didn't want to look in any cracks in the rocks. Some tents clusters had toilet tents, but these were a minority. It was kind of gross.
Litter was less of a problem here than in McLeod Ganj. There were anti-littering signs all along the trail and some was visible, but not like other places we have been. The noisy people next to us left some cups and bottles on the ground but the site was less littery than we were expecting.
Triund is in the mountains above Mcleod Ganj. You can go up and come back in a day or opt to overnight. Longer treks are based out of there but we only have 2 day weekends with our teaching schedule, so the overnight option was our choice.
We tried to do it with our friends John and Nataya but I got sick just before we were supposed to leave and so it didn't happen. We had already booked our tent, which was only a $10 per person loss. We had heard that the rental sleeping bags were dirty and so the head of LHA, Dorji, who lives in our building, offered us some sleeping bags that she had in storage for a group coming over the summer.
We held onto these and went the next weekend, after our American friends had departed for France. We booked a cab to take us as far as the road could go and had to take our tall backpacks in order to accommodate the sleeping bags.
The morning was sunny and the 30 minute cab ride got us up to the trailhead. This was along a very narrow road that kept getting rougher and rougher, more suited to a fully loaded Jeep than the little Suzuki cab. We jostled over bumps, skidded our tires a few times and shut our eyes as the narrow, guard-rail-less road skirted the edge of steep drops.
We got there and headed onto the trail, which continued as a rough road and then became a well-blazed path with many stone steps and fortifications. This was even busier that the W trek in Patagonia as many families from Delhi and the Punjab come up for the weekend. People were coming and going both ways, but the annoying thing were the groups of young hikers carting Bluetooth speakers. We didn't go hiking to hear music varying from hiphop to Hindi Bollywood classics to Roy Orbison. We tried to let them pass so that they could fade off into the distance but they invariably stopped for a tea break and then passed us again.
The trek was lined with shops and tea houses which were usually lean-tos with tarps overhead selling a surprising variety of drinks and snacks. Every once in awhile we have to step off the path as a mule train came along, the only source of supplies for the many establishments along the trail. We stopped at the Magic View teahouse at the halfway point of the trail, which lived up to its name, actually had a partial stone structure and did a proper masala chai, although after watching them wash up we were glad that the tea was served boiling hot.
The hike itself was a little over 3 hours of constant elevating, with the trail getting rougher and rockier as we went along it. Of course, as the we got higher the views back into town and up to the mountains kept getting better and better.
We arrived at Triund around 1 pm, which is on a plateau which usually has a great view of the surrounding mountains. Unfortunately, we had been hiking through a slight mist for most of the last two hours and it was thick at the top. Sometimes visibility was down to almost nothing and certainly the mountains, which we knew were there, were not making an appearance.
We found our tent, dropped off our bags and looked for lunch as the rain started. Our campground had an unattractive kitchen where we could have dahl or boiled noodles so we went elsewhere. We found the largest place, Suneil's Teahouse which had a varied menu. Once we ordered we were invited to the back where there were two blanket covered bunks to recline on. The place was made of woven blankets covered in tarps but was quite cosy. We had tea and stuffed parathas, which were tasty. We ordered an extra roti as we heard heavy rain and hail bounce off the tarp above us. The couple across from us were a French/Spanish mix and the employees let us lounge there and wait out the storm.
We came out into sunshine and finally saw the mountains, which were very impressive. Meg preened the inside of the tent and had a nap while I read my book and enjoyed the scenery. The campground was starting to fill up and groups of young men spent the entire afternoon posing and taking picture sof each other.
After Meg got up we decided to try making it to the snowline before it got dark. This trail got a little rougher and had many narrow spots with steep drops off to one side. We leaned into the mountains and saw mist coming up from the river below. Soon we had no view and it was getting much darker so we turned back early, as there would be nothing to see at snowline anyway. We planned to try again in the morning.
Back at camp it was a little clearer and we could see that the mist we had been experiencing was really clouds which we were high enough to be inside of. We went back to Suneil's to get some of the delicious bean curry we had smelled at lunch and met a fellow Canadian from Vancouver, Eunice. We talked and made plans to hit snowline the next morning.
Once the sun set we went into our tent and tried to sleep, but the weekenders would have nothing of it. The group around us had selected a bonfire site close to our tent and were yelling, shouting and playing Bluetooth tunes all evening. At 11, when everyone else had retired to their tents and quieted down a bit, a group of young boys came back from where they had been either drinking or doing drugs and started screaming, giggling and tripping over tent poles. We had heard groups howling in the distance but now the boys had returned. They kept this up until 1 in the morning or so and sleep was impossible.
During the night, Meg heard strange grunting and crunching noises and ended up having a close encounter with a grazing horse. Cattle were all over the campsite and a large herd of goats went back and forth several times, so the ground was actively fertilized. There was no washroom for campers, so human stuff was on the ground as well. There were little holes in the ground full of soggy toilet paper and you didn't want to look in any cracks in the rocks. Some tents clusters had toilet tents, but these were a minority. It was kind of gross.
Litter was less of a problem here than in McLeod Ganj. There were anti-littering signs all along the trail and some was visible, but not like other places we have been. The noisy people next to us left some cups and bottles on the ground but the site was less littery than we were expecting.
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| Meg at the top once the mist lifted. |
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| The campsite, many more tents would be added before nightfall. |
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| The Magic View Teahouse about 20 minutes before we arrived there. |
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