[Tim Hagan]

This is the last of five reports describing some hikes I made during a month-long trip to the Garhwal Himalayas of Uttarakhand state in northern India: 1. Valley of Flowers and Hem Kund 9/22-9/25/08 2. Badrinath, Vasundhara Falls and Auli 9/25-9/26/08 3. Kedarnath and Tungnath 9/27-9/29/08 4. Gangotri and the Source of the Ganges 10/3-10/6/08 5. Yamunotri and Mussoorie 10/7-10/9/08

The Perfect Plan

10/7/08 – Uttarkashi to Rana Chatti We left our hotel near Uttarkashi at 7:45 a.m. for the drive to Yamunotri, our fourth and last temple of the Char Dham pilgrimage. A few miles south of Uttarkashi we passed through the small village of Nakuri, the birthplace of Bachendri Pal, who in 1984 became the first Indian woman to climb Mount Everest. There is a roadside monument commemorating her achievement. We turned off at Dharasu Bend and headed west towards Barkot. The road climbed and twisted through beautiful pine-clad countryside. We stopped about noon at the Krish Hotel and Restaurant for a lunch of delicious aloo paranthas laced with homegrown chili peppers. While we were sitting outside enjoying our meal, a rat ran past my feet into the restaurant! We arrived in Rana Chatti about 1:30, where Sameer, our driver, booked us into a zero-star hotel. From my Journal: "Got a room at the Hotel Chaukan Tourist Lodge – 'Paradise of Yamuna Valley'. Very basic, with the usual grubby interior and poorly installed electrical and plumbing fixtures. The bathroom floor is awash. The bedding is so questionable that Kim is going to sleep in his bivy sack. We are spending two nights here (Rs 400 per night). It is quite a dump. We had dinner at 7 at a hole-in-the-wall place across the street that the Department of Health would condemn in a minute. We had the standard 'mountain' meal of dal, veg, chapatti and rice. Sameer disappeared and came back with butter, huge dollops of which he put in our bowls of dal. Yikes! Well, we ate it.... When we got back to our room, Kim and I shared a packet of sugar biscuits (cookies) to (hopefully) counteract the heaps of butter we had at dinner. Then to bed.... A tourist bus full of people arrived at the hotel, so there was much noise from people talking. Then a terrible racket started up outside. It sounded like a cement mixer to me. I wasn't far off. When I got out of bed to see what the hell was going on I found a guy outside our room with an electric food processor. By the sound of it, he was mixing nails and ball bearings. Maybe one of these days I will get a good night's sleep."

Pine trees along the road to Barkot

Chir pine

View from the road to Barkot

Yamuna River near Barkot

Kim sealed up inside his bivy sack in our hotel room in Rana Chatti

10/8/08 – Yamunotri We got up at 5:15 a.m. and went downstairs at 6 to find Sameer haggling with the jeep-wallahs. Last night we had arranged for one of them to drive us up the extremely bad road to Janki Chatti for Rs 200 ($4), but now they were demanding Rs 1000. Finally, Sameer said, "Sir, my vehicle!" So in we got and off we went. It took us an hour to drive the 8 kilometers from Hanuman Chatti to Janki Chatti. That's roughly 5 mph. And it was very rough indeed but Sameer's little diesel-powered two-wheel-drive Indica sedan somehow made it. The trail to Yamunotri is very easy as it is paved the whole way. It hugs the cliff as it switchbacks steadily upwards, climbing 535m/1755ft in 5 kilometers (3 miles). It took us about two hours to reach the temple, tucked in the shadows of the gorge. We took our shoes off and went up to have a look inside, passing the natural hot baths on the way. The old priest, a happy, smiling soul, mimed us through a Hindu ceremony and gave us packets of rice wrapped in ribbon from the temple itself. Then we circled the temple three times and left. It was very strange but it seemed like a fitting end to our Char Dham. Yamunotri (3185m/10,450ft) lies near the source of the Yamuna, India's second most sacred river, hence the name. The Yamuna (or Jamuna or Jumna) flows south through Delhi, Mathura (birthplace of Krishna) and Agra (Taj Mahal), and joins the Ganges at Allahabad. We headed down the trail at 9:30 and reached the car an hour later. Rather than spending another night in Rana Chatti, Sameer offered to drive the extra six hours to Mussoorie, putting us there a day earlier than we had originally planned. We packed up and left at noon. Somewhere south of Barkot we stopped at a wayside Travel Lodge for lunch and toasted a successful trip. As George Peppard of the A-Team used to say: "I love it when a plan comes together!"

Janki Chatti, start of the trek to Yamunotri

Horses at Janki Chatti

Trail up the Yamuna gorge

Yamunotri trail

View down the switchbacks of the Yamunotri trail

Yamunotri trail

Yamunotri trail

Yamunotri trail

Yamunotri trail

Yamunotri trail

Small temple on the Yamunotri trail

Small temple on the Yamunotri trail

Waterfall near Yamunotri

Yamuntori (temple in center of photo)

Yamuntori temple from the Yamuna River

Yamuntori temple

Yamuntori temple

Dhaba in Yamuntori

Waterfall at Yamunotri

Yamunotri trail

View up the Yamuna gorge

Sameer, our driver, who made our trip such a success

10/9/08 – Mussoorie and Sir George Everest's House We spent three days in Mussoorie, enjoying the pleasant atmosphere of this former British hill station. At 2005m/6578ft, Mussoorie is called "The Queen of the Hills". The adjacent town of Landour, where my grandparents lived in the 1920s, is known as "The Crown of the Queen". Our final trek of the trip was a short pilgrimage to Sir George Everest's House near Mussoorie. Everest was the Surveyor-General of India 1830-1843. Our driver took us through shady lanes the 8 kilometers (5 miles) to the ruined house. Or tried to, anyway. When the steep, rocky road got too rough even for him and his road-weary car, Kim and I got out and walked the final mile. There are no signs pointing to the place, so we had to ask the locals how to get there. The house sits in a beautiful park-like setting on a ridge-top about three miles due west of Mussoorie. It is called Hathipaon ("Elephant’s Foot") for some unknown reason. The building is gutted and covered in graffiti, but it is still an interesting old place. At one time, there was rumored to be another building on the estate that housed a harem, a common custom in Everest's day. On a small knob to the west is a square tower that was supposedly an observatory. Perhaps Sir George used it to survey the lay of the land. Next to the observatory is the "Everest Survey Point", a concrete block commemorating the bicentennial of the Great Trigonometric Survey of India. (According to my GPS, its precise location is N30°27'32.4" E078°01'20.3" Elevation 6713 feet.) On the ridge to the west of Everest's house was an colorful array of hundreds of prayer flags flapping in the stiff breeze blowing up the hillside from the south. The sound was so amazing that it was difficult to drag ourselves away from this incredible spot. As Kim remarked, "This is so ----ing cool!"

Sir George Everest's House near Mussoorie

Sir George Everest's House

Sir George Everest's House

Me on the porch of Everest's House

Sir George Everest's House

Interior of Everest's House

Interior of Everest's House

Observatory near Everest's House (Everest Survey Point at left)

Everest Survey Point

Sir George Everest's House from the Observatory

Prayer flags near Everest's House

Prayer flags near Everest's House

Sir George Everest's House

Prayer flags near Everest's House

Prayer flags near Everest's House

Prayer flags near Everest's House

Walking-tour of Sir George Everest's House near Mussoorie The trip ended with a bang. We were in Mussoorie during Dashera, a Hindu festival in which an effigy of Ravana is burned, representing the defeat of Ravana by Rama (with help from Hanuman), whose wife, Sita, had been kidnapped by Ravana. (It's a complicated story.) Kim and I simply called it "Burning Man". Dashera celebration in Mussoorie Conclusion After spending a few days in Mussoorie, we visited Dehra Dun, then continued south to Delhi and flew home.

[fh]

Great photos coupled with an informative and entertaining narrative. Thanks for putting together a great series of trip reports.

[Tim Hagan]

[BirdDog]

Always nice to see somethng a different. Great report and pictures. Thanks for sharing.