Goech La Trek: Day 9

Day 9

Monday 8 May 2017

Thansing to Tsoka (9685 ft) via Kokachurang and Phedang

Distance travelled: 15.6 kms

All together

Today we planned to leave Thansing by 7:30. Weather was good and I decided to take photograph with our kitchen staff and trek leads. We had photography session with Mt. Kanchenjunga and Mt. Pandim as backdrops. We started our return journey at 7:45 am. Thansing to Kokachurang was now a descent, however we took more than 1 hr due to frequent stops for photography.

Nerba, Vinit, Napula, Sajan & Mahesh

My saviour, Nerba

Entire support crew

With Tashi, our cook

With Prateek, Team leader

Mt. Kanchenjunga & Mt. Pandim

 

Mt. Pandim and I

With Thansing Chowkidar @ Kokachurang

With Napula

Kokachurang - the haunted place !!

@ Phedang

        The trail from Kokachurang to Phedang was a long walk through dense forest of rhododendrons. It was almost a flat walk without any height gain or loss. We got seperated in 3-4 groups in this journey. It was so pleasant walking in the lonely path and I chose the same to walk alone for some time. We reached Phedang at 12:30 pm and finished our pack lunch.

Lonely walk

 

 

        
   
  
     The jungle walk photos

 From Phedang, trail till Tsoka was steep descent again in the dense forest. We covered the same in 2 hours. Here too I chose to remain alone for majority of the time. At one point, air breeze was cool and birds were singing. I slept for 20-30 mins in this heavenly atmosphere.

        








          At Tsoka, we had to change our earlier campsite as it was occupied by HMI participants. Everyone was too tired (or relaxed) since yesterday to do stretching after reaching the destination. Instead we all were busy searching for cellular network!
After connecting with our families, we were back to discussions about the mountains and the peaks we sighted. Everyone had different opinions about the peaks, hence we met the HMI instructor as well. However did not get any satisfying answer. We tried to check with Pratik, however he was too busy in reading to come out of the tent. Based on the consensus, we labeled the peaks finally (Which got changed after Tashi's clarification next morning!!!).
        Our evening was very much beautiful. Tashi made a beautiful dinner. Everyone was eager to finish the dinner due to the next program. We all gave our introduction and then started our cultural activities, singing Nepali and Marathi songs. We thoroughly enjoyed this lively session.

Decorated pulao for dinner

Dinner menu

Dance & Song program

        At 10:30 pm (this was very late considering our earlier 7 days experience. Might be a sign of return to civilized world!!), we went to bed to get ready for last leg of our trek.

My stats for the day:
Pulse: 77.  O2: 97.  Breathing rate: 15 (good sign as coming back to normal at lower altitude)

Garmin details:
Thansing to Tsok

#मम

Goech La Trek: Day 6

Day 6

Friday 5 May 2017

Dzongri (12947 ft) to Thansing (12900 ft)

Distance: 7.2 kms  Time: 5 hrs 20 mins 

Some fun with the snow :)

Yaks who carried our bags

Call for the day was 6-7-8. This was relatively easy day of the trek as there was no relative height gain between the 2 campsites. However the heavy snowfall last evening left all of us in doubt. It helped too as we were extra cautious while walking. We climbed the small hill (~425 ft) behind our campsite and stopped for others to join. Here we heard the bad news, first setback for our team...Ishani was not comfortable while walking and hence not feeling well. Prateek spoke to Tashi, and understood the situation. Advait, Ishani and Tashi had discussion and then it was decided that Ishani would go back to Yuksom and rest.

 

The trail from here was easy, walking on the platue with small ups and downs. It was slippery at few places due to melting of the snow (and turning it into ice). After 2 hours of walking, we started heading down towards Kokachurang (12100 ft). It was a steep descent of ~1000 ft in the dense forest.

Pratik, Vinit, Mahesh,  Viraj & Atul

Kokachurang campsite location is simply superb. Prek Chu river was gushing downwards with a force with water making a sweet noise. Complete tranquility!! We spent good amount of time here capturing the nature (and us too) in the lenses. 

Kokachurang to Thansing was little more than 1 hour walk with height gain of 900 ft. With previous night experience (and comfort) at Dzongri, team decided to stay in wooden hut instead of tents here. After some rest, team enjoyed the hot lunch and tea. We also interacted with the earlier batch who were planning to march towards the view point that night. View of Pandim and Thansinkhay was awesome from here.

Team busy in stretching exercise

After our regular routine of soup followed by dinner, everybody went to their rooms. Tomorrow would be the easiest day as we have to walk only for 2 hrs and 4 kms. Hence tomorrows call was 9-10-11.

My stats for the day:
Pulse: 85.  O2:  87.  Breathing rate: 18

Garmin details:
Dzongri to Thansing Trail

#मम