Trekking to Bhrigu Lake – Day 1

May 25th, 2011

Pascal and I signed up for a three day trek to go to nearby Bhrigu Lake. Raj, the super friendly guy at the travel agent, showed us a map and it sure didn’t look like a long trek...I figured maybe 7-8 kilometres. How can that take 3 days? Well sure, there’s a bit of uphill and downhill as we would be going up to 4250 meters, starting at around 3200 and ending around 2500.

We walked over to the agency a bit after our scheduled 9 o’clock thanks to the fact that I was watching the Vancouver Canucks in an exciting playoff hockey game via the web...gotta love technology sometimes! The game actually went into overtime with the Canucks tying it up with only 14 seconds left in the game. Thankfully I was able to watch some of the overtime from the agency but never did see the Canucks’ winning goal (and had to wait until returning after the trek to find out my team’s fate). It’s only the third time in forty years that they have made it to the final and they have never won it so it’s exciting stuff!

Okay, back to the trek...our chariot, a beat up white SUV, showed up about a half an hour late. Inside were the three Nepalese porters and our guide Ronny who is a local. We headed out of Manali and up towards Snow Point, where Pascal, Charlotte and I had gone motor biking a week or so ago. Our driver had a habit, as many in this country do, of snorting up a big loogy and spitting it out his window. Pascal prudently rolled up his window as he’s actually been hit before from a driver doing just such a thing!

Our departure point happened to be the same spot where Pascal, Charlotte and I stopped when riding motorcycles a week before. Ronny, Pascal and I started hiking up the hill with our relatively small backpacks, definitely small compared to what our three porters were carrying. Two of them carried large metal boxes; one was mostly full of food while the other was the kitchenware and other camping supplies. The third guy, Jidesh, was the strongest of the three (although you’d never know this man’s strength by looking at him) and had the heaviest load of the tents, sleeping bags and blankets. Meanwhile the guide had the smallest bag, even smaller than Pascal and me.

Unpacking the jeep:

The drop off point:

The porters getting ready:

Pascal and our guide Ronny starting the trek:

The initial hiking, although all uphill, was fairly easy in that we were walking up grassy slopes. It didn’t take long before we reached patches of snow in and amongst the trees in areas where the sun doesn’t often penetrate. A few drops of rain began to fall so Ronny had us take a break and wait for the porters to catch up...no sense in getting far ahead of our shelter should the skies really open up. Slowly but surely the guys caught up to us and it was the first glimpse for Pascal and I of the porters carrying the bulky loads. The youngest guy, Bopinder, was just wearing plastic sandals...unreal. I hope he’s got better footwear for the snow! The next day we found out he did, sort of; he had rubber boots but no socks to go with them!

Nice views:

Pascal and Ronny hiking up the mountain:

Sitting waiting for the porters:

Ronny and me on a break:

The porters catch up in the rain:

The rain sprinkled on us intermittently as we climbed above the tree line and the patches of snow grew larger and more frequent. We passed a few groups of day hikers and the odd porter coming down the mountain and Ronny spoke to them to see if he could glean any information about our intended camping spot. We learned that there was already a group there with their tents pitched...so the conditions couldn’t be too bad.

Big snow fields (you can just see Ronny in the bottom left):

Above the treeline:

The clouds are getting darker...

My assessment of the clouds:

Arriving at the campsite, really just a flat piece of ground nestled between the mountainside on three sides with a river running along one side, I was impressed by the row of four dome tents (not the usual kind of quality that you find on tourist treks in this region of the world). There were two other larger canvas tents and all of them were situated on the snow and later I saw that they had dug down to make benches and tables out of the snow. More than a dozen snowboards lined up on their sides were nearby. We introduced ourselves to the boarders and it turns out there was just a young English pair of cousins, Cerise and River, as the paying clients. I guess the guides will be up here for a while hoping more clients to arrive over the coming weeks.

Ronny happy that we are almost at the campsite:

Arriving at our first campsite:


The snowboard group's camp:

We set about setting up our camp, but not on the snow, on the slightly sloped muddy grass patches. Probably a good call as we only had thin camping pads to sleep on. Unlike a small trek I took in Nepal four years ago, the porters and guide didn’t do absolutely everything for us. Pascal and I were responsible for pitching our own tent (hey, no innuendos please) which I didn’t mind as I like that task while camping back in Canada (almost as good as setting up tarps).

Me, chai, and the matching but said looking tent:

Now Pascal matches our tent:

The snowboarders coming down:

Looks balmy doesn't it?

The camp was situated somewhere around 3800 meters, definitely the highest that I’ve camped at (yes, a dangling participle Auntie Shirley...but I like them!). Pascal had developed a headache, a common symptom of altitude sickness, and I could tell I was a bit light headed and breathing faster than normal as well as a raised heartbeat. My body was trying to suck up what oxygen it could.

We nestled in our tent as the rain began to fall. Soon one of the porters poked his head in and passed some chai and a plate of...get ready for this: popcorn! How strange?...but good in the end. Yummy soup soon followed that warmed the belly.

Snug in the tent:

Popcorn?!? Surprisingly really good!

The porters' tent...four guys sleep in there!

The rain subsided although the wind had picked up, funnelling down the mountain. I ventured outside while Pascal tried to sleep off his headache. I explored the area around our camp a little, snapping some pics. There were two dogs with the other group and I found the little white one, Julie, curled up under the leeside of our tent fly. She came to see me and was shivering from the cold. I tried to warm her up as best I could but eventually I took her to the other group’s kitchen tent. There Cerise took her on her lap and soon the dog was in happy land again. I had a nice conversation with Cerise and River. Both in their early 20s, she about to do her master’s in English Literature and he studying photography. It sounded like they had done a fair amount of traveling together which I thought was cool for cousins to do.

Returning to our tent, Pascal and I were served a delicious dinner. The wind had really picked up and my side of the tent was bowing in quite a bit. I actually couldn’t sit up properly thanks to the buffeting tent. I felt like I was giving my back quite a workout, but not the workout it requires (after my paragliding crash in March).

Our windy tent:


Pascal and I laughed about the situation...as there’s nothing you can do about it but ride it out...so ride it out we did...