Around this time last year, I ventured to start daily jogging in a park near my office in I-8 since I had stopped almost all physical activities for quite a while. This was going pretty well when I realised I’ll be spending more time in ETC. I was even happier since I heard a lot of people there regularly went for hiking in the evenings, though it turned out that that was before everyone got busy. By the time I was there, they had stopped going altogether.
After a long bout of procrastination, yesterday I brought along my hiking boots and shorts to the office and decided it was now or never. In the evening, I grabbed Majed and just went straight to Trail No. 3, the base of which is about 5-10 minutes drive from the office. Apparently, it’s a pretty popular trail and there’s even a legend about Buddha stopping here for meditation during his travels to this region.
Despite being in quite an unfit state, we decided to take the nearly verticle “fireline” path instead of the main winding one. Bad idea. Very soon both of us were out of breath and Majed was having trouble controlling his legs. Though he didn’t reach the hut at the top, I made it and was rewarded with an astonishing view of Islamabad at sunset and a great feeling of accomplishment. The ride, or more like rush, back down was bumpy and more dangerous, but still fun. Quite a few times, I I had trouble keeping myself from slipping on the loose stones.
I hope this becomes a regular thing and am trying to entice more people to join. Will have to find a tougher path soon. See ya at the top.
One thought on “Margalla Hiking”
Yup, that trail is quite good. Only been on it once. Not actually sure if it was 3, perhaps 4 if there is such a thing but one of those the 2nd last time I was in Islamabad. Watch out for the mountain lions and monkeys 🙂 . My cousin and I was got chased by some baboons on the road to Dah-Maniko (is that the correct spelling)?
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