Bamboo (7,710ft) to Jhinu Danda (5,840ft), 10km / 6.2 miles
10/28/25
Day 8. Rain. Cold. Leeches.
It’s raining when we leave Bamboo at 7am and it’s raining when we arrive in Jhinu at 4:15pm.
We’re the first to leave Bamboo and I am freezing cold to begin with. I try to wait for sis along the way but I get too cold so I go on ahead, planning to wait in Sinuwa.
Only I forgot how far upper Sinuwa is from lower Sinuwa, so when I passed through upper on my way to lower just thinking “keep moving to stay warm”, I realized….I have gone too far ahead. But there was no where to wait outside of the rain. Aaaaaand that’s how I temporarily went missing.
I ended up stopping at the first tea house in lower Sinuwa and turning on my cell data, but my phone didn’t immediately work (maybe from the cold and the rain?), but eventually I got a message through to Raj to tell him where I was.
40 minutes later they showed up to see me there – a pathetic drowned shivering kitten waiting under and awning. They brought me to the kitchen across the way and got me a hot tea to stop the shivering, then off we went.
Figures, I’d done so well every day of the trek with seemingly endless energy -but god help me if I get wet. I’m like a gremlin. I’d gotten so cold that I was worried I’d end up catching cold – it turns out my rain coat is not so waterproof anymore, and I was socked through to my bones. Sis was warm however and offered to trade coats, so that’s what we did.
From Sinuwa, we had to descend all the way to the river, cross the suspension bridge, then climb allllllll the way back up to Chhomrong. It took us an hour to slowly pick our way down, and an hour and a half of arm-in-arm climbing 20 steps at a time for over 2,200 steps (I counted….) to reach our lunch spot.
For the first time in days, I was actually hungry, and enjoyed the delicious tuna sandwich in a cozy warm dining room.
After lunch, we had to go all the way back down the other side of the hill to get to Jhinu.
Still raining, we descended each step in tandem for support and finally reached Jhinu an hour and 45 minutes after starting our descent. We threw our things in the room, embraced in a victory hug both in surprise and relief that we’d actually made it, and switched into our swimsuits to prepare for the thing that has motivated us for 4 days – the hot springs.
Now, in hind sight, this……was a mistake.
According to Raj, it’s just a 15 minute walk down to the springs. So naturally it took us as least 30 minutes. We quickly shed our layers and hopped into the delightfully steamy waters at the edge of the river, so grateful.
While we were experiencing cold rain at this lower elevation, base camp was completely snowed in, with more than a foot of snow falling overnight and throughout the day. In the course of just a single day, the route was shut down due to the storm – no one allowed in or out. Stuck there in freezing tin boxes they call rooms at 13,500ft. And anyone in Deurali was not allowed to go any further. If we had planned our trip for just 1 day later, WE would be stuck either at ABC or in Deurali. So yes, we were grateful.
We remind ourselves of that as we climb back up to the tea house in turbo mode – Raj and I on either side of sis -and inevitable find LEECHES feasting inside our boots on our feet and ankles when we reach our room. I’ll spare you the gory photo and instead leave you with a short poem:
A leech in the boot.
A leech on the ankle.
The carnage.
The blood.
The shrieks of “I want to go home”.
The emergency whistle hanging uselessly on our room’s door.
But at least we’re not stuck at base camp.
ADK Trail Tales 