RFI: Dayara Bugyal trek

eeNgue2o

Hi.

A friend and I are going to Dayara Bugyal this November (on a shoestring budget). I have a few questions about the trek, and would be grateful for any advice.

1. Is there anywhere in Barsu where I can pitch a tent and spend the night?
2. Is the route from Barsu to Dayara Bugyal obvious, or would I need to hire a guide? (I don't know this area, but I do have a fair bit of trekking experience.)
3. Is it practical to arrive at Barsu in the afternoon and start hiking straightaway? Is there any place en route where it would be sensible to pitch a tent for the night?
4. What are the water sources like, and where should I plan to camp?
5. Is it likely to be raining in the third week of November?
6. (Any specific birding spots/tips for this trek?)

I would also like to know about the Dayara-Gidara trek. I have not been able to find any real details about the latter. Is it a bugyal, a hilltop, or a valley, or all three? How far is it, and what's the route like? What altitude is it at? Is it practical to attempt it in November? If not, are there any other one- or two-day treks I can undertake from Dayara Bugyal?

Thanks in advance.

k subhash

Hi, we just returned from Barsu-dayara-Namidhar-dodital-sangamchatti trek. We stayed in the tourist house at Barsu but you will find places to pitch a tent near the guest house on the camping ground. You do not need a guide for barsu-dayara as the trek is on a well laid path. I am not sure about dayara-Gidara trek. (We had a guide throughout)
The first suitable place where one can camp is Barnala Bugiyal which is abot 4 km steep trek ( 2-3 hours). At Barnal you will find water source, a gujjar hut and camping ground.
The water source at barnal and dayara are running water streams and small ponds at barnal. (The pond at Dayara had dried up.)
It is not likely to rain in the third week of Nov but every likelyhood of snowfall. Better chech weather forecast ( 10 day forecast for uttarhkashi is available on the net.)
Dayara altitude is about 11000-12000 ft and Gidar will be higher bya couple of thousand feet.
Happy trekking

kartikiyer

Hi Subhash, are you aware about any organized operator who arranges treks to Dodital and Dayara Bugyal.

chits007

Can you post more details of your trek i.e. itinerary , guide details and his charges. Dayara/Gidara is a good green trek..

kartikiyer

I had trekked Dodital Darwa Pass with Tata Steel Adventure Foundation. While at Dodital we met a few Brtishers who had pitched their igloo tents and there were a few guides with them. They informed that their trek was organized by some agents. There were guides and cooks alongwith them.

A friend of mine had suggested that with family we can trek to Dodital and Dayara Bugyal but was not aware about who organizes this trek.

I would want to know if GMVN or any other body organizes for this trek. No idea of what would be the cost for guides etc.

livinhimalayas

There are quite a few trekking operations working out of Uttarkashi, you can ask the GMVN people to help you organize everything.

__________________
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nyraghu

Yes, both Dodital and Dayara Bugiyal are straightforward treks. I had done them both in 2006 with my family including my daughter who was 11-years-old then. The coordinates of the trek operator we used are in another posting. The thread containing that posting has more info on the Dayara trek.

Raghu.

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chits007

Thanks Raghu..
If one needs to do both Dodital and Dyara/Gidara in one trek on need to cross Bamsarukhal ..Ashu's report has detail on it.
http://snowscapes.blogspot.com/2008/...rukhal_09.html

nyraghu

We did the the Dodital and Dayara Bugiyal treks separately: Uttarkash-Sangam Chatti-Dodital-Sangam Chatti-Uttarkashi, a break of one day in Uttarkashi, and then Uttarkash-Raithal-Dayara Bugiyal-Barsu-Uttarkashi.

Raghu.

k subhash

Hi!,
Our itinerary was : Day 1 : Barsu to Dayara, camp at Dayara; Day 2: From Dayara we trekked over a ridge called Namidhar ( lambi dhar(?) probably meaning long ridge) edging by Bakaria top to the end of another ridge where we rested at a gujjar hut for a while and began to descend in to valley of dodigad river and camped at a small clearing in the forest half way to the bottom of the valley; Day 3; further descent in to the valley where we crossed the dodigad river and ascended to Manjhi , a village on Sangamchatti – dodital route, camp at a Dhaba at Manjhi; Day 4 Manjhi to Dodital and trek back to Bebra village about 8 kM from Sangamchatti. Jeeps to Uttarkashi are available at Sangamchatti. We feel a guide is necessary for Dayara to Manjhi segment as the trek is really a narrow goat track through thick forest and a little tricky to negotiate at a few places.
We contacted Mr Govind who is a trek operator. He has an office near Himanshu Hotel at Uttarkashi. His contact details: 01374-223600, mobile 09411330524. There are other operators as well operating from Uttarkashi. He arranged for guide, porter, cooking stove and utensils and can arrange for sleeping bags, tents , mattresses and everything else that you may need. His charges ; guide-cum-cook-porter; Rs 700/ day, extra porter: Rs 400/day, tents: Rs 200 / day, Utensils/ sleeping bag Rs : 100 / day. Our guide cum porter cum cook was Karan, a nice and knowledgeable chap and one could possibly contact him directly. His mobile is 09410721789.

k subhash

Hi!,
Our itinerary was : Day 1 : Barsu to Dayara, camp at Dayara; Day 2: From Dayara we trekked over a ridge called Namidhar ( lambi dhar(?) probably meaning long ridge) edging by Bakaria top to the end of another ridge where we rested at a gujjar hut for a while and began to descend in to valley of dodigad river and camped at a small clearing in the forest half way to the bottom of the valley; Day 3; further descent in to the valley where we crossed the dodigad river and ascended to Manjhi , a village on Sangamchatti – dodital route, camp at a Dhaba at Manjhi; Day 4 Manjhi to Dodital and trek back to Bebra village about 8 kM from Sangamchatti. Jeeps to Uttarkashi are available at Sangamchatti. We feel a guide is necessary for Dayara to Manjhi segment as the trek is really a narrow goat track through thick forest and a little tricky to negotiate at a few places.
We contacted Mr Govind who is a trek operator. He has an office near Himanshu Hotel at Uttarkashi. His contact details: 01374-223600, mobile 09411330524. There are other operators as well operating from Uttarkashi. He arranged for guide, porter, cooking stove and utensils and can arrange for sleeping bags, tents , mattresses and everything else that you may need. His charges ; guide-cum-cook-porter; Rs 700/ day, extra porter: Rs 400/day, tents: Rs 200 / day, Utensils/ sleeping bag Rs : 100 / day. Our guide cum porter cum cook was Karan, a nice and knowledgeable chap and one could possibly contact him directly. His mobile is 09410721789.

tangents2000

Call Vijay Semwal (1) 9410140922 (2) 9927509839. He runs Tourist Rest House Barsu - an EXCELLENT place to stay. He can also be reached at semwal.vijay@rediffmail.com

You can quote him my reference (Dilpreet / Narender) - he will give you room rates better than you could ever imagine or even published on GMVN website. He will be able to arrange everything and answer all your queries.

My suggestion to your queries
1. There is tenting spot near Barsu School. I would suggest stay at TRH, Barsu
2. It is largely obvious but you can get confused in some areas like one after barnala tal is grasslands for a while before you see the path again. Just before dayara, the mule track splits into three direction. You will not know where to drink water on way. Guides help. I got mine from Mount Support, Uttarkashi but Barsu Manager can also help.
3. Depends on where are you upto - to reach dayara (7 Kms), you need to start latest by 11:30 to be safe and have time and energy to setup tent. To reach barnala bugyal (5 Kms), you need to leave by 1:30 latest. Barnala to Dayara is steep man. And by latest, I mean LATEST.
4. Get a guide, dont attempt this. All running water streams are safe by the way but difficult to locate. In dayara it is obvious but on way would be difficult to locate for you.
5. I dont know.

From internet it seems Gidara is closeby Dayara but while being there I learnt it is not. The 6/7 Kms round trip you get on internet - the locals called it bakariya. That was the highest peak around and indeed 12000ft +.

You can mail me at tangents2000@yahoo.com for any query. I'm not an operator so will not guarantee I have time for a reply but if possible I will. I am just another young trekker like you.

Cheers Man, Happy Trekking.

tangents2000

Decided to write some more info for fellow trekkers on our Dayara Trek, I hope its of good use.

Last Week - Sep 2009 - It could not have been better. We were in touch with High Land Trek & Tour, Uttarkashi (Pitamwar - 9412027961 / 01374222680) for all our arrangements to Dayara Bugyal. Two days prior to start, some foreign party paid a higher amount and this agency refused committed items and left us in lurch – not a very professional thing to do. Within two hours, fixed up with Mount Support, Uttarkashi (Jayendra – 9411370570 / 01374222419 / 01374232269) – and we were back with full enthusiasm. Left Haridwar Railway Station at 5AM, reached Uttarkashi at 1PM stopping for about 1 Hr en Route. Left Uttarkashi with Guides and Porters at 3:45PM for Barsu (40 Kms) and reached in 75 minutes. Going up was not an option, walked up to GMVN TRH Barsu, a beautiful place managed by Vijay Semwal (9410140922 / 9927509839 / semwal.vijay@rediffmail.com). Peculiar guy, loves giving you a lot of unwanted gyaan with his basic English but whatever he said was right, we realized later. He also arranges tours and treks in the region especially in winter with all required gear. We negotiated a good rate and put up in TRH – one of the best decisions we made. The mule owners of Barsu are now pressurizing tourists with a strange rule – minimum 3 mules to be hired!! While it fitted our requirement, it is not entirely followed in spirit but other planners should get it clarified with their tour operators in advance. Next day started hiking at 10AM and reached Barnala Tal at 1:15PM, took a rest for 30 minutes. While the trek gradient was easy to moderate, everybody got exhausted and debated if to camp there or carry on. We trekked about 4.5 Kms in over 3 hours and the guide said next patch was tough. We decided to move on – within 5 minutes of walk, the first glimpse of Barnala Bugyal overwhelmed us – it was cool man, BUT STEEP. I cannot describe next 3 hours – nobody spoke – we covered just 2.5Kms and it was damn steep, a tiring patch to hike. Dayara suddenly opens up to you after a winding patch, it was good feel although the better part of Dayara was explored next day. Important to note here – just 200 meters before Dayara, you get a weak BSNL signal and a fairly good Vodafone signal - Airtel will disappoint you. Night was a bit spooky – apparently some wild boars / hyenas walked around our camps around 2:30AM in night – while they were harmless anyway but snoring folks inside tent would also have spooked the animals. Nobody dared look out - the animals left in about 20 minutes. We hiked next day to Bakariya Top (7 Kms roundtrip) and thoroughly enjoyed beauty of bugyals. Those who did not regularly apply sun cream came burnt. This night was more chilly than previous and near zero degrees. Next day we descended back to TRH Barsu with our legs strained and tired. It was time for another shocker – Suri Tours & Travels, Haridwar (Parag Suri / 9319170030 / 9358546260 / 9760352104) said booking for our Innova, for which advance had been paid before trek, could not be confirmed as rates had gone higher in festive season and his sub contractor had refused and now he could do nothing even at a higher rate because time was less. Also refused to return our excess advance parked with him. Again – professionalism missing. Mr Vijay Semwal of TRH, Barsu helped us get Max jeeps next day and ensured we departed on time and comfortably. Everyone, however drained he/she was – returned with a smile.
Going Rates (in INR per day) as of Sep 2009 –
Guide – 500 to 800, Porter - 300 to 400, Mule - 400 to 500, Stoves & Utensils – 50 to 100, 4 Men Tent – 100, Sleeping Bag with Mattress – 50. Advance at start of trek is negotiable between 50% to 80% but is must. Some levy a service charge on these rates, most don’t. Another important point is potable water is available at Barnala, Dayara, Bakariya Top

livinhimalayas

This kind of thing is quite common here sorry about that but so true.

There are no such rules, the thing is this season saw very little tourist traffic and teh equine influenza that hit us at the height of the season meant that the mules that normally go to Yumnotri and Kedarnath from Uttarkashi district had to make their living here. So they were trying to push you into hiring more than you needed as you didn't know any better. For those who may face a similar situation - just be firm and say no. More often than not they will capitulate when they see you are not giving in to the blackmailing.

They must have been porcupines not boars or hyneas, they sound very much like them but are harmless and shy porcupines

If you have receipt of the advance paid, send a legal notice to the guy and file a suit in consumer forum, these people need to be taught a lesson, I have heard this story so many times now that I am exasperated. Most of the tour agents and trekking establishments are nothing but frauds.

I am glad that despite all these scams, you still maintained your good humour and enjoyed the trip.