19th October – Trek from Chopta to Tungnath Mahadev temple & back to Chopta

 

Before starting the trek, I remember going through some websites related to the Panch Kedar trek—websites and blogs of trekking companies, tourism companies, the government of Uttarakhand websites, etc. I got to read differing views regarding the difficulty and the distance to be covered for each of these five temples. Some of these labeled Rudranath as the toughest, some mentioned Kedarnath to be toughest, and some mentioned Madhmaheshwar to be the longest and toughest.

After starting the trek, even as we were discussing this among ourselves, except for Vishagan, who had visited Kedarnath in 2023, everyone else seemed to be talking based on theoretical knowledge. So, I decided to take these one at a time, rather than approach with a preconceived notion. For me, the criteria were: four out of five were proper treks, and at the end of the ascent, we get to have darshan of Mahadev in one form or the other.

After setting the alarm for 5:45 AM the earlier night, I went off to sleep with the conviction that M.S. Subbulakshmi's voice would wake me up at this time. However, I had to get up around 2:30 AM to visit the washroom. I took this opportunity to sip half a glass of water before lying back on the bed and getting into the cozy comforter. But I couldn't resume my sleep from where I had left it. I was tossing and turning in my bed for quite some time; I don't remember how much time, but finally, when I did doze off, I felt the alarm going off immediately.

Since Kanni Swami had set us the target to start by 7:30 AM, we woke up each other and did our morning chores. Needless to mention, it was quite cold, and with a proper bathroom not being available, I decided to skip bathing.

Having a peep outside in the lawns, I saw that the sun had risen and was drenching the surroundings in its golden hues. Decked up in our multiple layers, we tried to have a morning walk, but after a couple of selfies, we rushed to the canteen, where the warm atmosphere was welcoming.

Breakfast comprised cooked black chana, toast bread, and porridge. Winding up this tasty breakfast, a hot cup of tea ensured that we filled up our water bottles/flasks with hot water from the canteen and boarded the bus with our backpacks.

 

Uday dropped us at the entrance of the temple, and we started the trek with a prayer on our lips at 8:15 AM.

The ascent was a nice, long, steady climb. The surrounding was foggy. But whenever the sun shone through, we found that the scenery around us was picturesque. The usual liquid intake from our water bottles was supplemented with lemon juice/buransh juice.

The trail had more devotees/trekkers, probably because today was a Saturday, and this was one trek that one could do on a standalone basis. Groups of school and college students, office colleagues' groups, families, and trekkers like us...

 

Also, the number of devotees riding horses was more compared to Rudranath. Probably this was a sign of things to come in the later two treks.

We reached the temple around 11 AM. A few hundred meters before the temple, there was an open space where horses had to stop, and devotees had to walk the remaining distance to the temple. By the time we reached the final set of steps to enter the temple premises, the climate had turned very cold.

 

Removing our shoes outside, with our socks as the only protection between our bodies and the ice-cold stone ground, we had to wait for over half an hour in a queue before we could enter the sanctum sanctorum to have the darshan of Tungnath Mahadev. In this temple, Mahadev gives darshan in the form of arms/hands.

After having an excellent darshan of Tungnath Mahadev, we visited the smaller temples of Parvati Devi and Bhairav Dev.

Getting down from the stage-like pedestal on which the main temple was constructed, we started looking out for a suitable spot where we could start our Rudram recitation. The entire surrounding was freezing cold, had lots of devotees – some waiting for darshan, many having completed darshan taking selfies, a few just roaming around to keep themselves warm, etc  and for a moment, we were at a loss to find a good place where we could sit and start our prayers.

At this point in time, Mahadev directed us to a newly constructed, empty cabin. This looked like a cabin constructed for security personnel. Pushing open the door, we found that it was a small cabin, with a solid wooden bench laid on one corner.

Without second thought, we settled ourselves, closed the door, and in the comfortable confines of this cabin, we opened the Rudram book and started our recitation. Twenty-five minutes later, thanking Him for providing us with this opportunity, we exited from this spot and hurried towards the place where we had left behind our shoes. Putting on our shoes, we returned to this place for some photos and started our descent. Since the mobile network was good, I decided to do a video call back home to show family members the serene surroundings.

Seeing a cozy eatery, we (Ramesh, Vaidy, Vishagan, and myself) opted to have our lunch and a hot tea here. Invigorated with the food, we started our descent. It was totally foggy, and the general visibility was poor. Most of us, therefore, decided to drop visiting Chandrashila, the peak. Dada preferred to take a chance and went ahead with further ascent towards Chandrashila.

The descent was uneventful—the usual water sipping, juice consumption, and the occasional tea. The weather kept changing from foggy to clear skies. During those moments when I got to see clear skies, I wondered at nature's creations. These moments also gave us several photography opportunities.

We reached the point from where we started the trek and got into the bus, waiting for the others to join us. Back at the tent/camp at Chopta, pakoras with hot tea awaited us. After lazing around for some time, dinner was served around 7 PM. Today, Dada had arranged for a sealed pack of gulab jamuns. After a hard day's trek, each of us felt we deserved this sweet and gorged on a couple of jamuns each.

Kanni Swami instructed us to keep our bags packed overnight as we had to leave early morning for Ransi village. With satisfaction of having completed another trek/temple darshan, we retired to bed with a mixed feeling of satisfaction and looking forward to the next.

Click here to continue