BHPian vijayols recently shared this with other enthusiasts: This wasn’t what I had signed up for.Little did I know that the Pin Bhaba trek that I was stepping into would turn out to be a roller coaster ride lasting for days instead of minutes.The rains were supposed to every year stop post 15th August and it was to be a warm and sunny weather with few rain showers.With cyclone engulfing all of India especially the mountain states of Himachal and Uttarakhand the rains never stopped pouring and we got a glimpse of life in the mountains during a natural calamity both during and after the trek. Photo Courtesy Sayan.Pin Valley. Photo Courtesy Sayan.Pin Valley hues. Photo Courtesy Sayan.Summit Bhaba pass View Photo Courtesy Sayan.Phutsirang view. Photo Courtesy Sayan.Night sky Karah. River Crossing to Mulling. Photo Courtesy Sayan.Random Sighting on the way to Mulling. Pin Bhaba trek is touted by India Hikes with whom I was doing the trek as the grandest cross over trek in the country.One of the twin treks with the other being Pin Parvati,Pin Bhaba trek started from the lush green side of Kinnaur into the Bhaba valley & crossed the Bhaba pass at about 16105 feet culminating in Pin valley based in the vegetation less cold desert of Spiti.The destination was the quaint last village of Mudh from where we were to take the transport back to Manali. Registered for the then last batch of August 25th (later had 2 more added batches of 26th and 30th Aug) and post the trek had biking plans of heading to Gushaini and Jibhi.Just wanted to experience Himachal again in the post monsoon apple season enjoying the hospitality of Raju Bharti Guest house Gushaini and Not on maps in Jibhi. The 25th Batch had a total of 13 trekkers of which 7 were from namma Bengaluru.No prizes for guessing that in my 50’s I was the oldest and definitely not the wisest. Took the 23rd August flight to Chandigarh and despite taxi drivers telling me the contrary found that the Volvo bus to sector 43 where the inter state buses ply actually has a pick up from the airport.A comfortable drive through the traffic less well planned city of Chandigarh with the broad roads and cycling lanes reached sector 43 ISBT bus stop.Here I hopped on to a HSRTC bus to Shimla.The 100 odd kms journey takes about 4 hours. Though the weather was dry in chandigarh by the time the bus had travelled to Himachal the rains started as a drizzle and became a down pour soon.Been a while since I had travelled in a normal class public transport.High point was seeing the factory of Old Monk Rum at Solan.We reached without much ado to Shimla ISBT bus stand by around 10 pm.The taxi operator quoted more than the bus fare from chandigarh for dropping me at Old bus stand and so along with other co passengers waited and got into the electric bus which took us to old bus stand.Kept calling the reception at Hosteller where I was booked for the night for directions and was eventually guided by a bank manager who stayed nearby uphill behind the church to hosteller.As a quid pro I volunteered to carry his bag too along with my rucksack which half way through I regretted as the climb was steep.The lift which operates to take us close to the mall road was closed at this time of the night.I trudged along to the pretty comfortable 4 sharing room in the hosteller and had a decent sleep in the bunk bed.Next morning met a couple of my co trekkers from Gurgaon Vittal and Akshay.We planned to explore Shimla and nearby -places.My friend Amit had suggested a few local places in Shimla such as The church/The Ridge/Jakoo Temple/Mall Road/Vice Regal Lodge/Summer Hill/Chadwick Falls and Tara temple.Other drivable places suggested were Mashobra/Kufri/Naldhera/Chail/Solan/Tattapani and Narkhanda. The Church on the way to Hosteller Shimla. Dining Room Hosteller Shimla. Beautiful Golf Course Naldhera. Shimla Country side view. Dip at Hot water Spring Tattapani. We randomly picked Naldhera which had a lovely Golf Course walk and Tattapani which had a hot water spring. Day started bright and sunny and we travelled in two gearless scooters.Started Drizzling a bit as we reached Naldhera.We refused the pony ride and walked to the golf course paying a small forest entrance fee.The vast greens of the course against the back drop of the mountains was beautiful and we had a cup of hot Ginger chai and pakoras at the club. It was already past noon but still we decided to go ahead with the plan to drive to Tattapani.The route no doubt was beautiful but the distance was long and by the time we reached Tattapani it was around 4ish and after a hot meal we decide dto check the hot spring. Disappointingly the two sources were a hotel where they had a pool with continuous supply of hot sulphur water from a pipe 150 feet deep and a small pipe in a small restaurant.The hotel charged Rs 400 for a 30 minute dip marketed as Rejuvenative skin therapy and I was the only person to opt for it.To be fair the hot sulphur water was very comforting in the cold wet weather.By the time we left Tattapani it was pouring and getting dark.All of us were soaked to the bone and the younger guys followed me in the engulfing darkness as we negotiated poor visibility due to the fog and rains till we managed to reach back safely to Shimla.On the way relief and warmth was in the form of a hot plate of maggi and chai. It was too late to explore anything in Shimla or try out some cafes on mall road as we had an early morning start to the pick point near old bus stand for the TT drive to Yangpa our base camp. Morning too it was raining as we also met up with Maunika and Chinmoy our co trekkers also staying in Hosteller.We decided to hire a car for the drop of about 2 kms to the pick up point where we met the rest of the 13 trekkers.Not really as five of the team had opted for the bolero and the rest of the 8 proceeded by TT. The journey was about 210 kms and would take about 8 to 9 hours.The route vis Narkhanda was the Spiti route via Kalpa/Nako and Tabo but we would be taking a detour through Wangtoo.It was beautiful with the ferocious Sutlej along side us all along.We had yummy breakfast and lunch and the first of may hot Aloo parathas and chai.(I guess by the end of the trip we have exhausted our life time quota of aloo parathas or at least till our next visit to the hills!).Rain continued to ply throughout the journey and we encountered the first (of may more to come)landslide just after Rampur.There was a policeman on either of the landslide with a whistle blowing to allow one vehicle at a time to pass through quickly with a whistle blown to signify stopping or proceeding at full speed avoiding potential rocks falling.With a minor stopover there we took the left at Wangtoo to climb up rapidly towards Yangpa.The scenery was breathtaking to say the least as the green Kinnaur region looked even more beautiful in the rains with small waterfalls visible at virtually every 100 meres and the mighty Sutlej always besides us. Siddu a local delicacy. Tried Jeera Bhang roasted at a hotel. Walking to Yangpa Base Camp through apple orchards. Apple trees full of juicy red and green fruits dotted the entire landscape as we reached Yangpa by around 4.We met our trek lead Charan Reddy there who was ready to welcome us to the short trek uphill to our stay place.To phrase him while we were expecting a tall well- built Arjun Reddy type hero to meet us we were a tad disappointed to meet a scrawny thin bespectacled Charan Reddy.Almost an anti thesis to our expectation.But boy were we to have a rip roaring time with him with his stand up comedie humor later. But first appearances can be so deceptive. We were accorded a traditional welcome with an aarti and Tikka by the team including our trek guides Happy and Honey.Little did we know that the motley group of 16 were to have an adventure we are likely not to forget for a long time. Traditional Welcome by the IH team at Yangpa. The usual drill of collecting our rentals followed by mandatory health check and collection of our documents followed.Chai and hot popcorn were the feel good snacks.This was followed by our briefing session where Charan ran us through the plan for day 1 and the rest of the days.The slope manager Manoj was also around to serve us dinner as we settled in to enjoy our last proper sleep in a comfortable mattress/a western toilet and mobile signal for the next few days of our trek. The Dorm Room at Yangpa. The timing for day 1 was to be 6-7-8 ie 6 am wake up followed by a health check and breakfast by 7 am and then packing and be trek ready to leave by 8 am. The Briefing Room at Yangpa. The vitals for the entire team of 13 was within acceptable parameters. A few of us had opted to go on a preventive course of Diamox with a tablet in the morning and the other half 12 hours later. Month’s of strength and endurance training in AOS gym Whitefield made me feel comfortable to carry the 13 odd kg of weight on my back pack for the trek. Among the few who had opted to carry the same throughout the trek.Since the trek this time had a different start and end point I had to carry the extra set of clothes needed for the post trek trip even though I had optimised the packing and actually by the end of the trip barely had anything extra which I had carried except for some spare unused dry socks and of course the extra battery pack. A good night sleep later with a palpable excitement in the air we were awake at the crack of dawn ready with our vital checks and a cuppa hot black chai.Weighed in the ruck sack bag using the scale used to check if the offloading bag did not exceed 10 kg.Found my ruck sack a tad over 13 kg with 2 litres of water and packed lunch. Day 1 Trek: The destination was Mulling and the walk would be through the village and into the forest and finally the meadows.We would cross streams enroute.The distance to be covered was appx 15 kms or so.Elevation gain was about 2600 feet with Mulling at about 10820 feet.As we trekked updates from the earlier batches kept streaming in as there were reports of flooding in karah and perhaps one of the teams would head to Karah while the other would stay put at Mulling.If that was the case our team would have to head back to Yangpa and spend the acclimatization day at the base camp.We did stop for some time as news trickled in.It was good news the trek was on as the team ahead had managed to plough ahead. The rains continued to trickle down and all of us had our rain gear on.We crossed the first of many streams as the cold clear water below our feet energised us.Soon we left the homes and apple orchards behind as we ascended quickly and entered vast green grasslands with the mountains in the background and the stream below us. Yangpa Monastery. Local apple orchards Yangpa Village. Smiling Local Woman.Sport enough to pose. As we take a hydro break.Waiting for news whether we return or proceed. First of the stream crossing. Continue reading on BHPian vijayols’ trek adventure for BHPian comments, insights and more information.
