Feb. 27th: Footsore in Dharamsala

A beautiful, sunny morning in the Himalayas

After another tasty Tibetan breakfast we decided to take advantage of the good weather forecast and go for a hike. Our destination was a cascading stream up in the hills that Chris had hiked to on his last visit. We had a few false starts trying to find the right trail, but even the wrong ones gave us stunning views of the valley below and we stumbled on several clearings where people hang prayer flags to blow in the hilltop wind.

This baby's mom tried to attack Chris for taking this picture

A local man hanging a new string of prayer flags

We eventually found the correct trail, but it was above the snowline. On Chris’ last visit (also at this time of year), he’d done this hike in the balmy sunshine, but it was much slower going on the snow-covered rocks. We almost managed to make it to the stream, but it started to snow again and we thought it would be much wiser to head back before the precarious hillside trail got completely obscured by the snow. It would have been nice to see the water, but I definitely feel like I got a Himalayan hiking experience.

A gorgeous view from one of our unintended detours

Finally, the right trail!

When we got back to the road we met up with three dogs who decided they would follow us the rest of the way down the mountain. (I have to admit that I’d given some cookies to one of them on our way up – against Chris’ advice). They were very funny to watch, playing and chasing each other while we walked, and one person we passed even assumed that they were our dogs. Almost an hour later, a dumpster proved more interesting than we were and we lost two of them, but one of the dogs (NOT the one I’d fed) followed us all the way to the hotel door.

The snow clouds blow in...

Two of our canine companions on our walk home

Back in town (and the sunshine)

After a five hour (very vertical, Chris estimated between 1500 and 2000 feet) hike we were quite sore, so we spent a while resting at the hotel and soaking our feet, and managed to get out just before sunset to explore some more of the town. We had a delicious dinner of momos (Tibetan dumplings stuffed with vegetables, cheese and potatoes, either fried or in soup) and headed back to our room for some well-deserved rest.