Truind Trek – All You Need To Know

Triund Peak is the easiest and hassle-free trekking to do on your own in the Himalayas located near Dharamshala, Himachal Pradesh, India. The trek is short but steep. It is very refreshing hike amongst rhododendron, oak trees and bird sounds.

Happenstance….

When I was planning my 11 days Himachal Pradesh trip, the main purpose for Dharamshala trip was to visit Dalai Lama monastery as I am very much attracted to Buddhist teachings. I also love trekking and hence I made it 2 days plan to include Truind Peak trekking. I was not sure if I am fit enough to do it but I decided that I will do whatever I can.

Universe works in very strange ways as the Hotel I was staying, I met a kindred soul; a new lifetime friend. He made it possible for me to have lunch/dinner with Dalai Lama’s chief disciple where I got to ask deeper questions about life in general. Anyhow I just wanted to tell about this new friend because we did the trekking together and he is part of this story. 🙂

And the trekking begins…

It is very hot and sunny in Dharamshala in mid-April and hence I decided to start the trekking early morning around 6:00am. We had to start at 5:30am from the hotel as it is about 25-30 mins to Dharamkot from the hotel. We had booked a cab the day before to reach the base camp from hotel for Rs. 2500 for the roundtrip. We reached our destination on time as planned. Our cab driver couldn’t take us to the actual trailhead due to rough roads and we walked additional 2 kms to get to the temple from where the actual trailhead starts.

I want to give photo credit to my friend for the last 2 photos. He sacrificed at least 12 of his photos for my blog (and I shamelessly took his offer). 😀

It was a beautiful day. We were carrying a backpack with some snack items, energy bars, water and a light jacket. However in retrospect, I don’t think we needed anything apart from water as there were food tents available at different points in the trek. Even the jacket was not used if I remember correctly (just because it is summer).

Taken on the way to Dharamkot

This is not the temple for the start of the trek

Our first rest stop

The rocky incline is all the way through

 

The Trek…

Once we were at the trailhead, we found a nice breakfast place where we ate delicious toast and omelet. Weather at this early morning is very pleasant and the sight before us is very enticing. We can look down at the deep valleys covered with greenery, the beautiful sky and feel the wind caressing our faces. When you have a laughing buddy to give you company…what more can you ask? I cannot say enough as to how beautiful this trekking trail is. We took lots of breaks in between for sure as it is moderate level trek for us….the most arduous thing being; climbing the thigh high rock steps.

The brave trekker

The unique view of the trek

Loved this click by my friend

View from the trail to far below in the valley

Another view of steps in the valley far below

A beautiful capture by my friend

Life sprouts despite odds

View of beautiful trail

The canopy

The blue tent visible is nothing but much awaited food place

Carrying water and supplies

Most difficult part of this trekking is those thigh high steps

 

The thing to know about this trek is that it is not an easy trek for normal fit person. It is very strenuous due to the rocky path and big steps for almost 60% of the way. The good thing about this trail is that it is very shaded for 80% and very beautiful trail. The view from the top is worth all the effort.

Reaching the summit…

Throughout the trek, we never felt that we cannot do it. We just knew that it would take us longer than anticipated and we will need lots of breaks. I always believe that the fun is in the journey and it is not a race to reach the destination. So, enjoying the views and spending time in nature is our thing and we were doing that to the fullest.

We arrived the top point after 6 hrs. trekking that had lots of photography and rest breaks. It is very windy and sunny at the top. I am very tired and hungry for sure. However, we still spent sometime exploring the summit. It is little foggy that day and hence couldn’t get very clear photo of the Dhauladhar mountains but you know foggy look has its own beauty. My new friend is seasoned meditator and we meditated for 15-20 mins at the summit. I couldn’t do it well due to the sun, tiredness and being hungry but I did honor his request. ;P

So after 30mins exploration/rest, we are ready to go down. Here, we see a food tent at the summit and decided to see what we can get there as we both are hungry. We are pleasantly surprised that we are getting freshly prepared hot stuff and we ordered fried rice and ate it all; internally giving blessings to the chef. By the time, we finished eating, it is 1:55PM when we started our descent.

The snow-capped peaks… by my friend

Closeup of the beautiful peaks

exploring the summit

 

The Arduous But Still Fun Descent…

I would like to highlight that the descent for me is very arduous due to the rocky steps. While climbing, the steps are thigh high but while descent, it felt like jumping onto those rocky steps and it is lots of strain on the knees. I didn’t have knee braces but I would strongly recommend it. Again we are taking breaks at the food tents but did move faster on the descent as there were no photography breaks while coming down.

We did meet a young kid during our descent at a food camp about halfway where we stopped to have tea/coffee. It was a school excursion group from McLeodganj and this particular kid felt altitude sickness and couldn’t go all the way up. He was resting at the same food place and waiting on other kids and a teacher to go down. We chatted up the kid and some other girls who later joined. It was a welcome distraction from our tiredness to interact with their innocence and loveliness.

One thing I will certainly mention that people of any age in Himachal Pradesh are very kind and loving. They have an aura around them that you automatically could trust them and they always have smile on their faces.

We were down around 6:00 pm and hence it took us 4 hrs. to come down with all the breaks…though you do have to add that extra 2 kms we had to walk to reach our cab pickup point. My knees were hurting but it was not that bad. All I wanted to do was go back to hotel and sleep after taking a shower. However, I ended up just taking shower as couldn’t sleep.

I could sum up my experience in those words:

“When everything feels like an uphill struggle, think about the view from the top.”