Bhrigu lake trek is a unique trek generally, it takes 2–3 days of the trek to reach high altitude alpine meadows but in this trek, after a few km of walk, you will find yourself surrounded by vast green meadows. Trek starts from ‘chawda mod’ (in the way from Manali to Rohtang pass) 1-hour drive from Manali. We reached there by the government bus, you can also go by hiring a taxi from Manali. It begins at the altitude of 8500ft and goes to the maximum altitude of 14500ft at Bhrigu Lake. This trek can be commenced from Mid-May to October but, the ideal time is before June due to monsoon. We did the trek in the first week of September in 2018 when the monsoon was at the end.

I like to trek without any guide as it gives more freedom to explore the trail, so this time also we were on our own. A most important part of trekking without a guide is to gather maximum information about the trek as you could and be prepared.

We took a tent, sleeping bags and sleeping mats on rent from Manali at the cost of 500 Rs. per day for all those things and started the trek around 1:00 pm, the beginning of the trek is moderately steep and surrounded with beautiful alpine trees.

The sky was cloudy with no sign of sunshine but around 2:00 pm suddenly it started raining heavily. It was the worst thing that could happen to us because we were not carrying raincoats with us. That was the moment of utter confusion as we had to decide whether to move further in the rain while getting wet or head back towards Manali. Taking big risks is a dangerous as well as a courageous quality that my friend has, with that we put our jackets on our head decided to move further in the hope that rain will stop after some time. But the rain didn’t stop, the whole trail was very slippery. The only thing which I was hoping for at that time was to get any sort of fire at the base camp to make us and our clothes warm.

The best part of a monsoon trek is you can see small waterfalls everywhere and their sound never stops coming into your ears. We reached Bhrigu lake base camp (Rola Khuli) around 4:30 pm a person saw our condition and immediately welcomed us inside the dhaaba. I saw a burning angithi and rushed towards it, one person advised us to change wet clothes and put on dry ones, we did what he said. They were heartwarming people, we had dinner (rice, curry, daal) in 150Rs. per plate at that dhaaba. I know it’s costly but considering that we are in the middle of nowhere the food was worth the money.

The rain stopped around 6:00 pm and it was the time to put our camp, choosing the right place to put tents is also a challenge, we found a nice plane place on the top of the meadow. I prefer to pitch away from all the other tents as it’s more peaceful.

We had planned to get some shots of the milky-wave galaxy, other trekkers we met there said that they saw milky-wave last night but unfortunately it was cloudy and not a single star was visible. We were praying for better weather tomorrow as we remember God when things are not in our hands. The next day when the first time I got out of my tent, I was amazed by the bright green grass all around. It was cloudy but fortunately no rain. We took breakfast and started the trek towards Bhrigu Lake around 9:00 am. The trail is steep initially with an ascent of about 45 min followed by few mins of descent and level walk, again you will find small waterfalls. The last hour of the trek is a stony trail and the steepest.

We reached the lake around 11:00 am, water in the lake is crystal-clear. There is a very small temple near the lake, some yogi must have meditated there. We also meditated for a few minutes and stayed at the lake for about half an hour.

We came back to base camp around 1:00 pm and had lunch at the same dhaaba. The owner of the dhaaba was a very generous and funny man, he was continuously making sarcastic comments and making us laugh. We spend the rest of the day in the lush-greens and beautiful meadows and the next day we started at 8:00 am and reached Manali around 12:00 pm. Those three days we had a hell of an adventure, it’s an easy-moderate trek but the rain gave us the real challenge.