How I Learned a Basic Trekking Lesson the Hard Way

When you are an amateur trekker, you tend to make mistakes, and I had made my share of mistakes early in my trekking vocation. I was a terrible traveler in the beginning, but the good part is that I learned from my blunders, the major one of which was over-packing things. A night before the road trip would begin, I found myself struggling to stuff things in a bag that always felt too small to accommodate my stuff. On my first trek to Triund itself, I learned the fundamental lesson that I should never pack redundant stuff for a trekking expedition.

Triund trek

So the problem began within the first kilometers of our route. The Triund trek is considered an easy one, and seasoned hikers are known to finish it while climbing one rock after another. However, I was the worst member of my group who was panting badly, one because my bag was too heavy, and two I had not worked out in years before that day. Both the reasons made me miserable, so much so, that I would sit after every 300-400 meters. I wanted to kill myself for packing that extra makeup, clothes, and snacks in my bag. Although my backpack must have been under 7-8 kilograms, it had become a mammoth weight on my back. I can swear to anyone that I wanted to get rid of every surplus thing in my bag, and I did throw away a few things.

It was hard to part with the book, Vagabonding, that I wanted to read on the mountaintop. However, I made peace with it and thought that I would buy it again when I go back home to Noida. When we were taking cheap car rentals, I had thought that what difference does it make to pack a few extra things? We had the boot of the car in the end. But I was highly mistaken, even when we are traveling in a car with many people, we have to be rational with the things we take along because every bag in the car makes a difference. My friends were clearly irritated when I showed up with a trolley suitcase and a backpack. I had disregarded their irritation at that time, but I was actually apologetic when I understood that I should have paid heed to the online articles that talked about minimal packing, which seemed exaggerating at that time. Nevertheless, I had learned my lesson when I had to part with my expensive makeup, a few clothes, a hat, and that extra pair of sunglasses in my bag.

The Kheerganga trek

Now I was again back at that point of packing for my next trekking trip. I had forgotten to research about the difficulty level of this trail, but thankfully my bag was much lighter this time. I had not made the mistake of keeping makeup and extra clothes this time. When we were leaving from our basecamp, I dropped every unnecessary thing in the car. Thankfully, I managed to trek well even though the route was even more difficult than the Triund Trek.

However, when I reached the top of the valley, I again peeked into my bag, and realized that I could have left behind that extra pack of biscuits and a T-shirt that I had thought I might use. I, with my boyfriend and friends, successfully climbed up and down the mountain. The Kheerganga trek was a memorable one as I did not have to handle many challenges like before, and I would surely follow the rule of minimal packing in future as well.