Longte Hike

A hike I've always wanted to do in the Gangtey valley is the Longte hike. I'd been told by numerous guests how beautiful it was and that it was difficult.  Excited for a bit of a challenge and the chance to hang out with yaks, I headed off on the hike. It may have been the time of year I went, but I didn't find the trek so beautiful. The rhododendrons were not yet in bloom and the land was muddy and not quite pristine. Though there were many yaks wandering around which was exciting and beautiful. The hike was supposed to take 3 hours and we did it in far less, but the view when you get to the top was extraordinary and did help make the journey more rewarding.

Hike to Ho Ko Tsho

Ho Ko Tsho is a lake on a mountain top in Punakha. Tsho means lake in Dzonkha and Ho Ko I'm not sure what they mean. I'd heard about this hike for almost a year and was very excited when my guest said he was going and invited me along. The initial incline was not too hard, even with the fact that I had not done any hiking in numerous months. Eventually after an hour up you get to a fork, left to take you around the lake and right to take you down to the lake. We decided to make our way left and see where we'd end up. The path wasn't always cut out and I learned early in why everyone else had pants on (I was in shorts) as I got quite a few ticks all over me. (later I'd come home to take a bath and find a big tick having fun moving around my buttocks).  We eventually made it down to the far side of the lake which was a land mass that is usually covered in water in the rainy season but muddy and a pasture in the dry seasons. The fun part was soon to come, scaling the rocks on the other side of the lake to make it to the initial starting point. Steep, muddy, small paths along big rocks which required sure footing, good balance, lots of faith, and maybe even more stupidity. We may have been able to go around in the woods but instead decided to move around the rocks. Dangerous and tiring, but in the end quite fun. We'd stop half way to have lunch and rest and then continued on to the beginning point. Once there we decided to go down a slightly different way than we came up. The benefit of this is that it was much steeper so quicker, the downfall is that the steepness taxes the knees and quadriceps. Alas, it's all part of the fun and we made it down in pretty great time.  For me, it was a nice way to start the hiking season off, especially since I don't get the chance to do many hikes. But my legs were very sore the next few days.