Brahmatal Trek on New year Eve 2023

Since my last trek of Bedni Bugyal, I wanted to go for Brahmatal Trek. From Bedni Bugyal, one can see Brahmatal summit on the opposite direction. A brief info about Brahmatal: It's a high altitude alpine lake in the higher Himalayan region. Standing at the altitude of around 3600 meters, it lies just at the base of Trishul and Chaukhamba peaks.

The starting point of this trek is Lohajung in Chamoli district. I had to start my journey from Almora. It was the last week of the year 2022. I decided to start my journey on 31st of 2022. I started early around 5 AM from Almora. It was chilling cold. The temperature in Almora at that time was -1 degree celcius. I was travelling by motorcycle so the main concern for me was to keep an eye on black ice on the roads. But Somehow I managed and reached Kausani at around 8 AM. Kausani has always been one of my favourite hill station. It is a comparatively calm place and gives a magnificent 180 degree views of Himalayan peaks. The most obvious peak from Kausani is Trishul. I was also going to the base of that peak only.

From Kausani I had to go till Baijnath on Almora-Bageshwar highway and then leave that road to Karnaprayag. I reached Gwaldam around 9 AM. People coming from Kathgodam/Almora side meet at Tharali with the people coming from Dehradoon side. From Tharali till Lohajung, road conditions are not great. So it took me around 3 hours to reach Lohajung. I was not sure about the food options available at the Brahmatal, So I ate some food in Lohajung and started trekking upwards around 1 PM.

Trek is well marked from Lohajung till Brahmatal. So it is easy for a solo trekker to trek without guide. Total trek length till Brahmatal is around 12 km. The trek can be divided into two parts: Lohajung to Baikaltal (6km) and Baikaltal to Brahmatal (6km). As I was already late from Lohajung, I was going little faster. The trek is very steep till Baikaltal. Baikaltal is another beautiful alpine lake located at an altitude of 2900 meters. I reached Baikaltal around 3 pm. I wanted to go up till Brahmatal on the same day but I could see clouds in the higher areas and I had only 2 more hours and I didn't want to get wet. One more obstacle was my rucksack. I had to trek with my bag of around 20 kg. This time I was trekking with all the camping essentials. I had tent, sleeping bags, blankets, utensils, cloths, food items and many more stuff in my bag. So, I decided to stay near Baikaltal today.

This was the campsite near Baikaltal. There were many trekking groups in the campsite. I was the only trekker who was not from any group and even solo. Everyone was surprised with how I was trekking solo! I found a secluded place to pitch my tent. I collected few dry woods from the jungle and prepared food. One more thing is the cost of food and accomodation is surprisingly high near the campsite. But I was carrying everything this time So I didn't have to be dependent on the outside food or tent. After I had some food, I went to the Baikaltal. Lake was around 200 meters away from the campsite in the middle of the jungle.

It was a beautiful lake in the mid of the jungle. There is Bhaikal Nag Devta temple beside the lake. There were very few people near lake. I found a quiet place near the lake and sat there. By this time every year, it would have received a fair amount of snowfall. But this time there were no snow at all. Half of the lake was frozen but there was no sign of snowfall. And then I took out my flute and started playing few pahadi tunes! The sound of flute was echoing because the lake was in a sort of valley. It was a sort of meditation. Moreover the people around the lake also got entertained!

I came back from the lake to my camp at around 5 PM. It was about to get dark in next 15-20 minutes. This was the last day of the year 2022. this was going to be a memorable evening for me. I was inside my tent beside a high altitude lake on the new year eve. Trekkers in the groups also started coming back to their camps. I was on a little higher grounds than the other camps. I went to one local dhaba for tea. After having tea, I started playing flute in the dim light. I was playing local Kumaoni tunes. Local guides and trekkers familiar with the songs came to me started dancing. They danced on many tunes. Pahadi tunes are catchy and have some amazing effect which makes everyone dance. I can't post those videos of people without their permission on the internet. To reference, I am just posting this small video in which the person is also not identifiable.

Then I came back to my tent started playing few more tunes which are usually played in the evening. Of all the evening and mid night ragas, Shivaranjini is my favorite raga. I always play this raga when it gets dark. It has a soothing effect. Then many more trekkers from other groups also came near to my tent enjoyed the music in the dark. It was definitely 6-7 degrees below zero. I came inside my tent, covered myself with all the blankets, clothes and sleeping bag. Somehow I managed to sleep.

Next morning I woke up around 5 AM. I started trekking to Brahmatal at around 6 AM. The trek was very steep and going through dense Rhododendron jungle till Tilandi Top. At Tilandi top, I crossed the tree line and entered into bugyals (grass meadows). From here, I could get the first view of Mount Trishul. This is the same mountain peak visible from Kausani also.

After Tilandi top, trek crosses the tree line and is on the grass meadows. From tilandi top, there is a steep climb till Jhandi top which is very famous for a big Trishul in front of the Mountain Trishul. Trishul is one of those Himalayan peaks which were trekked very early in the first decade of 2oth century. This peak is very much identifiable as compared to other peaks because of Trident shape.

From Jhandi top, there are two paths: one goes downward to the Brahmatal lake and one goes upward to the Brahmatal summit. I chose the second one to go to summit first and then came down to Brahmatal.

It was around 12 pm when I reached at the summit. I spent half an hour looking at the beauty of bugyals and mountain peaks. Then came down to Brahmatal. Then suddenly clouds started gathering around the meadows and peaks. It could have rained or snowed anytime. I had to go back to Almora on the same day. So I decided to trek down quickly.

At around 1 pm, I started trekking down to Lohajung. Lohajung was around 12 km from here. I had to reach there by 3 pm so that I could cross the bad roads till Tharali in the daylight. I reached Lohajung at 3:30PM and quickly I started riding back to Almora. I reached home around 10 PM.

So that was one of the memorable treks on the new year eve!