Best Foot Forward

A memorable hike.

- Suniti Kharbanda

Some journeys don’t require a road, just a willing heart. That is how this journey began.

A statutory warning, “All those who plan to stay away from addiction, read the article with caution. It is likely to cause a craving and may ultimately lead to addiction!”

My co-sister Malavika and I are of nearly the same age. As we both entered the fifth decade of life, some inner compass shifted. The unfulfilled dreams kept popping in our heads more frequently. We decided to live life a little more adventurously, before it became too late. Our decision was to do a trek in beautiful mountainous surroundings. We started scouting around for information and managed to find a reputed trekking company. The next task was to narrow down the choice of trek based on the difficulty level. We decided on the Kareri Lake trek.

This lake is nestled approximately 10,000 feet above sea level in the Dhauladhar range of mountains in Kangra District. The trekking period was scheduled for three days and associated with a difficulty level of Easy without snow and Medium if snow is there. We agreed on a schedule in April and started getting ready for it. Our husbands were unable to join us because of their work commitments, but they really motivated us to live our dreams. Secretly we were happy about going ahead without our spouses.

It gave us more liberty to spread our girly wings! We even contacted a few of our friends whom we thought would be interested in this trip.

Preparation now started at three levels. The first aspect was the logistics of booking the trek, the reservations to reach Dharamshala from where the trek would commence, and the return journey. Since time, effort and money was being spent to reach Dharamshala, we decided to spend a day before the trek enjoying Dharamshala and McLeodganj.