Day – 2 – 30th March
Lohajung – -Kulling – WAN – Gharoli Pataal
The Jeep was hired over phone by Mohit last night, curtsey the GMVN caretaker for Rs.600.Rates may vary depending upon season and how well you negotiate. The Jeep was there to pick us up by 0900 hrs. We dumped all UN-necessary things into Black bull and took only one rucksack with few essential things.
Lohajung to WAN is 15 kms , but due to ongoing road widening construction activities it takes almost 2 hrs to reach WAN. We stopped quite a few times for road to be cleared but we were good as weather has cleared up the surroundings were getting better.
Worker enjoying his break 
We stopped for a bit long at village Kulling as there was a truck standing in the middle of road with no sign of the driver. Someone had to go down to the village and find the driver before we could proceed further.
Village Kulling 
A typical House in the Kuling village 
The road is bumby and in the end it proved to be a wise decision to give Black Bull a break at Lohajung and not carry on till WAN. Some sections were scary others required high ground clearance.
Lohajung to WAN road 
We met Padam singh in Kulling as he was there for some work and proceeded to WAN to reach at 1100 hrs .We stopped at the shop nearby the bridge in WAN for some breakfast and get sleeping bags and other ration for the trek from the shop.
The colors of village WAN 
Some more colors of WAN 
After having breakfast and getting all the required ration we met Hira Singh Bisth (Porter and cook) , who will be accompanying us for the rest of journey. Padam singh took short cut to his home as he will get his stuff and meet us midway of trek and we continued further with Hira in the Jeep further uphill into the village. We reached the dead end of road in about another 20 mins. So from here we start our trek. Hira took the rucksack and told us that we will be visiting the local temple on the way to his home and then meet Padam Singh to go further. It was 1200 hrs when we started the steep uphill path towards the temple. Just before the temple there are 2 guest houses.
GMVN WAN 
FRH WAN 
After paying the visit to the temple we started our journey on the way we stopped at Hira Singh’s house for a water break.By this time rain gods have decided that they are not gonna make our journey that easy.
A lady of the House 
The scenes on the way 
Some familiar sights in the villages 
At a place called Rann ka dhar Padam Singh Joined us with his stuff.
Padam Singh (Left) and Hira Singh (Right) 
Padam singh had already told us that it may not be possible to trek till Beedni today as he is not sure about how much snow is there and also that rain gods may play spoil sport. So in that case we will be staing at Gehroli Pataal and then carry on tomorrow for Beedni. We where mentally prepared even if we could not reach Beedni at all.
Snowline – That’s where we are going 
So we start off on the trek , for initial 1 km or so the trek is at level and then it steeps down gradually to cross Neelganga river. From here it starts there is steep ascend and there is no respite from this ascend. Thankfully the patch is paved one and it goes thru dense jungle , so we have shade and shade of beautiful rhododendron it is.
Rhododendron 
A speaking Tree 
It’s a steep ascend and rest is important – (Mohit taking a break) 
The paths are beautiful with rhododendron flowers all over the place 
The trekkers enjoying the all round scenes 
Slowly but steadily we kept moving while rain gods started with mild hailstorm. Thankfully it was only mild and continued for an hour or so but we were in dense jungle so not much impact on us. By 1500 hrs we saw the first glimpse of Gehroli Pataal.Gehroli Pataal is situated @ 2326 mtrs and 7 kms from WAN.Beedni Bugyaal is 3 kms from here.
Gehroli pataal fibre huts 
Views from Gehroli Pataal 
We took some rest and had tea as it was getting colder as the day passed. We had enough time in hand to reach Beedni but decided against it as the rain gods were in full mood of a bigger hailstorm , and there was eventually an hailstorm and bigger one around 1800 hrs. As the solaris went down to bed we spent time chatting and sharing old stories of travel. Raaj Jaat yatra (Happens once in 12 years) will happen this year in September hence so much work is being done on road widening and stuff. It is expected that around 2 lakh people will go thru this route in just 4 days during Raaj Jaat yatra in September. It was getting really cold sitting in the temp. kitchen so Padam sigh took everything to fiber hut and then we had our dinner around 2000 hrs we slept around 2200 hrs.
Tomorrow we will go to Beedni Bugyaal.
