After a warm night in a cosy bedroom and late night blogging at Salma 1600m our host woke us up with sunshine and hot chai at 6:30am. The cold rains of the previous day made way for blue skies. After packing up our host treated us on rottis, veggie sabji and cucumber raita. The team was powered up to start another full day of hiking.
The cobbled path went up through beautiful lush green forest. Mules loaded with goods were descending from the hamlets above. Here and there views opened up on surrounding hamlets surrounded by terrace farms below the snow covered peaks. Below the village of Urgam at the end of the side valley opposite Helong.
From Urgam 2000m the path was hair pinning up through forest towards Palla 2550m just across the ridge. Along the way two shepherds were descending with hundreds of sheep.
Once we reached Palla the path followed the contours high above the Alknanda river valley. Both sides of the valley was dotted with picturesque hamlets seperated by forest. We had an early Maggie lunch at the Kimana shop cum post office.
We continued along the contouring path which took us through the hamlets Uchwan, Kujani, Kalgod and Jokuda. After that we descended and crossed a side valley on the way to Dumak 2400m where the village kids playfully welcomed us.
A nice lady offered us tea, rottis and yummy spinach egg sabji dinner at her home without expecting anything in return. Remote hospitality! We packed up Maggie, veggies and oil in a small shop for the next day Naola pass 3800m crossing not expecting any shops along the way. From Dumak we dropped down 300m to the stream and climbed up a few hundred meters through the forest setting up camp in a nice bugyal on the way to Toli Taal.
We slept off deeply after another long 12 hour day of hiking. Shortly after midnight a sharp squeeling sound woke us up. Some animal nearby probably sensed our presence and alerted the herd. Next morning we woke up to a cold breeze and resumed our climb to beautiful Toli Taal in a large open bugyal.
After a few nice drone shots of snow peak reflections in the lake we walked up to a small dhaba cum rest house and had our breakfast. A nice young chap here makes a couple of thousands each month serving food and night rest to hikers and gaddis.
From Toli Taal 2630m a clear trail climbs up gradually towards the meadow ridge Panaar Bugyal 3460m where the frequented Rudranath pilgrim trail joins. Here we met many hikers along the way and regular dhabas and rest houses. The nice path offers beautiful views on 180 degrees of surrounding snow peaks.
We crossed the ridge at the Pitradhar pass 3760m. We had lunch at one of the dhabas and climbed up the Naola pass 3800m where we took a few nice drone shots running on the snow clad ridges before descending steeply through a hair pin trail on the other side. Except for a few small snow sections the trail was mostly clear.
It’s a solid 2300m descend towards Mondal 1500m which was felt in the knees. This trail appears less used but is quite clear to follow. Countless hairpin bends descend from golden meadows into beautiful green forest. On the way there are two open shelters in two bugyals. We finally hit the Amrit Ganga stream at 2000m making its way through a gorge like valley.
From here the trail continues on the right side (downstream) climbing up slightly to the Anusuya Devi Temple, a frequented pilgrim destination. We meet many devotees to walk up till here from Mondal 1500m. From the temple we take in a beautiful open view on the Naola ridge from where we descended 2+ hours ago.
From the temple a wide concrete path hair pins 300m down into the valley till a bridge after which it continues on the left side till the hamlet of Siroli. From here it’s another 1km to Mondal the end of our journey from Joshimath. As there were no share taxi’s till Sonyaprag available in the evening we just settled for aloo parotta and pitched up in the farmlands around Mondal below the starred dubbed skies.
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