Early in the morning to avoid traffic delays, we took a jeep from Kathmandu passing neighboring city on the zigzag and partly bumpy BP road. The drive itself was an adventure but our driver was well experienced use to drive back and forth 2-3 times a week. On every turn it was like hot knife cutting the butter and he could sing every Nepalese folk song “Dohori” inline played on the radio. Taking several short breaks in the highway around 2 pm we reach a village called “Dhap”. The Mountain View from Dhap was astounding and it left me in wonder how the views would be from the top of Pikey Peak. Although the jeep goes up to Jhappre our overnight stop, due to leftover snow on the road, we preferred to trek further that takes around 3 hours.

After a quick lunch at Dhap, stretching our legs we continued our trek. The sun was already over the horizon calling it a day off; still we had not reached our night stop yet. We had our torch lights on and continued walking. Normally it takes 3 hours walk to reach Jhappre but for us so called 3 hour walk felt like a millennium. It took us 4 and half hours to reach our night stop LAMA HOTEL & LODGE – Phew finally. It was the only lodge opened in Jhappre. Tashi the lodge owner with whom we booked a room on phone was waiting for us with a big smile in his face. We got into our rooms, freshened up and went to Dining hall with our empty bellies to be fueled.

After breakfast we started our trek to Pikey Base Camp. The weather was perfect, clear and sunny. The higher we went, more snow was piled up on the trail. We were walking on a saddle like valley and in the afternoon, cold wind started to howl and it was getting difficult to walk even it was sunny. At one point, it was so windy that we had to take cover in one of the local house. The mountain views along the trail were stunning. In the evening around 5 pm, the weather started to get hazy, cold wind blowing; we have not yet reached the Pikey Base Camp. We could have missed the trial if we didn’t meet Tsering who owned a lodge at the base camp. There was a clear sign of relief on both of our faces meeting him, plus he even helped my friend to carry her back pack and we followed him to the base camp. We met a Dutch trekker and his local guide at the lodge. They were also heading to Pikey Peak next day, so we asked them to mark the route so that we would not miss the trail again. In the evening there was hailstorm and the gusty wind howled throughout the night.

Next morning the weather was crystal clear with blue sky and sunny. We bid our farewell to Tshering and headed on to climbing Pikey Peak 4065M – our final destination. We had to trek almost 2 hours uphill to reach the Pikey peak summit. The higher we climb more cold wind was hitting us and the less oxygen saturation. After all the hard walking we were welcomed with the whole range of Mountains from right to left. The view from the top of Pikey was extraordinary. After taking some pictures, it was time to descend back to Loding. It was hard to climb to top, but getting down from the Pikey Peak was pretty challenging. Luckily the Dutch trekker and the Nepali guide were kind to leave a trace mark on the trails which we followed. There was too much snow on the trail – up to our knees and was hard to walk downhill, took almost 4 hours. In route we stopped at a lodge at Jasme Bhangyang, there we filled our empty stomach and water bottles as well. The owner at the lodge was amazed to hear that only two of us came down from Pikey Peak with all the snows being piled up on the route. From there we headed further downhill to the Loding that took us another 3 hours.

Nowadays there is a motor road from Loding but instead we choose to trek to Phaplu. We started our trek downhill to Dudh Koshi Khola where the hydropower is under construction and climbed uphill for an hour to reach Phaplu. And from Phaplu we took a local TUKTUK to Salleri which took 15 minutes’ drive. Salleri is like a main bazar a trading point in the area with many shops and lodges. We checked into the lodge, had a hot shower after 3 days. We went to bed early as we were returning back to Kathmandu next day.

The road adventure started early morning at 5AM, following the same route which we came to Dhap. It took almost 10 hours to reach Kathmandu – a concrete Jungle.

Pikey has left a memorable mark in my life and taught me a good lesson that if you have a definite goal and a clear mindset, not matter how difficult the road is you will get to the end of it.