Dodi Tal Trek, Uttaranchal, India

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Dodi Tal, considered the birthplace of Lord Ganesh, is a lake in Garhwal, western Uttaranchal. We hiked 44 km in 3 days, going up and down from about 5,000 ft to 11,000 ft., where we camped near the lake. Unfortunately, it was drizzly or overcast the whole time, so we couldn't view the snowy peaks all around. Still, the walk was incredibly beautiful, through the luminously green, high mountain woodlands of the early rainy-season, the cliffs punctuated by streams of clear water gushing from the rocks, with breathtaking drops falling away on one side of the path. We had asked for two people to accompany us: a guide/cook and a porter, but when they turned up on the first morning, there were five of them! It seemed like overkill for only the two of us, but they all had large packs stuffed with provisions for our trip and we figured we couldn't turn any of them away, denying them their day's wages [Rs 225/$5]. So, we hiked up with an entourage of five men—a bit silly, but we had fun; and, as it turned out, their knowledge and assistance was invaluable to us lowlanders. The cook made hot breakfast and dinner each day; lunch was cobbled together in sporadic and makeshift chai stalls; one night they cooked a local wild veggie that tasted like asparagus.

They were all friendly, kind men, aged 15 to 55, all refugees/illegal workers who had crossed the border from Nepal years ago. All but the kid were incredibly competent guides with years of experience leading trekkers through the perilous high Himalayas for their livelihood (the kid was on summer vacation, working for the summer with his dad so he could earn some money to finish his education in Nepal; a sharp kid from a dirt poor family, he dreams of being a doctor; this was his first time trekking). The men told us all kinds of chilling stories of their glacier crossings with tourists, of deaths they had witnessed, of people trapped in crevasses, frozen in icy waters. eesh! And they themselves can rarely afford anything but the shoddiest of equipment, footwear, and woolens, risking their lives much more than the tourists. Fortunately, we weren't crossing any glaciers. Instead, we walked through tiny little mountain villages; lower down, they grow wheat; higher up, they are shepherds, living in very basic wooden and piled-stone houses.

We met Bachendri Pal, the first Indian woman to climb Mt. Everest (1984) and something of an Indian cultural icon; she just happened to be staying at the same campground as us that day, leading a group of young men on a trek arranged annually by the TATA Adventure Foundation, where she works (she said she was happy with her job and her employer, who had created a whole new department for her to lead). She seemed like a very sweet and gentle woman, also a native Garhwali who grew up in a village not far from here.

The people of Garhwal are an interesting ethnic blend. They speak Garhwali, closely related to Hindi (Nepali is also a dialect of Garhwali); their religion is Hinduism. In appearance, they cover the map, ranging from light-skinned, brown haired (I even saw a couple of redheads), with European features (Eastern Europeans, in particular) to light-skinned, brown-haired, with more Tibetan/East Asian features, to "red" skinned, to brown-skinned, and black haired, with or without varying degrees of the epicanthic fold. And all these different looks, that in the US might pass for different "races," were intermixed as the same people, in the same communities. We saw a demonstration of traditional Garhwali folk dance and I was surprised to see that it was nearly identical to Eastern European folk dance, and distinctly different from folk dance styles from other parts of India. It made me wonder about the population migrations and mixtures across the region in the centuries past. But so far, I haven't found anything informative on the subject.

[—Usha Alexander, May 06; Comment ?]

A 22 km hike from here	Initial ascent from Uttarkashi	Walking through	Landscape
Hike path			A wild, edible veggie
Strange lizard (name anyone?)			Wild raspberries
Green walnut	Terrace farms	Agora village (map)	Threshing wheat (more)
Wild veggie (like asparagus)	Landscape	Landscape	Hiker
Campsite			Local kids (more)
Garhwal folk dance (1, 2)			Leech territory
Bachendri Pal (her story)	Hike path	Vegetation	Evergreens (more)
Resting crew	Mountain sheep	Hiker	Hiker (more)
Waterfall	Landscape	Hike path	One of many streams
Crew resting at chai stall	Hike path	Mountain view	Landscape
Hiker	Waterfall	Mountain sheep	Chai stall (more)
Wild strawberries	Local veggie	Wildflowers	Lush green
Dodi Tal ...	... at 3307 m (?)	Dodi Tal with wildflowers	Mythical birthplace of Ganesh
Ganesh temple	Hotel and restaurant	Hot dinner	Making chapatis
Campsite	Rainy morning	Stream with mountain trout	Sheep crossing a stream
Mountain sheep	Landscape	The way home	Crew resting at chai stall