Day 2
Monday 1 May 2017
Yuksom (5650 ft) to Sachen (7120 ft)
Distance: 7.6 kms Time: 3 hrs 33 mins (without break)
Actual start of the trek. Everybody got up early and were ready with their bags. We had a good breakfast and also got our packed lunch. There is a shop nearby for last minute shopping. Everyone bought a plastic paper (2 m in length) to protect their mule bags from rain.
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| Team together for the tea |
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| Subba's shop for last minute purchase |
The call for the day was 7-8-9: tea at 7, breakfast at 8 and trekking start at 9 pm. However due to some reasons, we kicked off at 9:40 am. Garminers (Atul, Viraj and I) had already saved the location and started the hike simultaneously! Initial enthu was very good, everybody were walking almost together with same tempo.
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| @ first iron bridge |
The trail from Yuksom to Sachen goes through the dense forest known as Kanchenjunga National Forest. Initial 30 minutes were descent walk with first height gain of 150 ft followed by descent of 180 ft. Here we came across the first bridge followed by entrance of the national park. We spent a good amount of time here capturing the nature (and our moods too) in the camera!!
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| Kanchenjunga National Park Entrance |
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| Dense forest walk |
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| Babu and MP |
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| Stop at one stream for fresh water!! |
From here, the distance between individuals started increasing a little. The trail became slight steep till Sachen with overall ascent of 1380 ft. Walk through the forest was mesmerizing. River Rothang Chu was always on our left hand side giving her presence with the beautiful music of water and appeared couple of times as well. Close to 2 hrs of walking and we reached the second bridge of the day. Weather, which was good (bright and sunny) till this time, slowly started changing. Rain started with few drops for almost 10 minutes before turning into a big one. Everyone were happy with their 2 decisions: getting the poncho in the day pack and covering the mule bag with plastic!!
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| Second iron bridge |
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| Team wearing ponchos... |
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| Sachen campsite |
Again a steep walk of 1.5 hrs and we crossed the third and final bridge for the day. From here, Sachen was hardly 20 minutes away.
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| (L2R) Mohan, Sheetal, Sushma, Shital |
During briefing the earlier day, Prateek told us that we can do a small hike every day after reaching the destination which will be helpful for acclimatization! Hence we 4, Viraj, Vinit, Atul and I, hiked further for 35 mins and height of 350 ft. Till the time we came back, our group had reached Sachen and were enjoying the hot tea provided.
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| Advait and Ishani |
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| Babu and Atul |
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| Viraj and Mahesh |
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| (L) Bharati, Amit (R) Samip |
Sachen camp is in deep forest, stay in tents is mandatory. There is a small kitchen hut for cooking and another open hut as dining area. Atul, Viraj and I helped the team putting up the tents. Initially tents were less in no, hence we planned to stay 3 person in a tent. We reserved 2 tents only to keep our bags. We quickly settled in the tents, kept our bags outside and came outside. We had a wonderful stretching session followed by oxy-game and chit chatting.
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| Stretching session |
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| Sachen campsite |
At 7, we got a call from the kitchen for soup followed by dinner. There was another group from Indiahiking staying next to our camp, however sharing the single kitchen and dining facility. Couple of difference between these 2 groups: Indiahikes neither provides dining cutlery nor sweets during dinner!!
Post dinner, we quickly went to bed as next days call was 6-7-8!
My stats for the day: HR - 75 ; O2 - 95 ; Breathing rate: 25
Garmin map details:
Yaksum to Sachen trail
Sachen Acclimatization walk
#मम
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