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   The remainder of this note is a report on our Oct. 16-20 trip to Gangotri, with a 19km hike to Gaumukh, the glacier that is considered the source of the Ganges River.  We traveled by van with Tenzing  (who drove) and Tsering, both enjoyable travel companions. 
 

   On the first day we went from Mussoorie to Uttarkashi.  The first part followed a high ridge with the usual unbelievably steep falloff and few if any guardrails.  We turned north at Tehri, following the Bhagirathi River (the name of the Ganges up here) to Uttarkashi, whose economy is based on serving pilgrims. 
 

  On Wednesday (Oct. 17) we left early to travel to Gangotri.  The road goes up and down steep mountains with beautiful views now and then of the snowy peaks, past entirely terraced hills and beautiful pine forests.  Ecological awareness is high and it is prohibited in many areas to cut trees (although villagers get around this by cutting off all the branches they can reach).  At Gangotri, the location of a famous Shiva Temple (more later), the road ends and you have to hike the last 19km to the Gaumukh glacier where the river begins.  The trail begins at 3050m (9,963ft) and rises gradually to 3890m (12,705ft).  We started on the trail at 1:30PM with the goal of reaching the government guest house at Bhojbasa, 14km among the trail.  The guide books say it's  a six hour trek and that turned out to be correct.  We arrived at 7:30, an hour after dark, using flashlights along the last part of the mountain trail.  Pretty scary, but fortunately we had hired a porter in Gangotri who knew the trail well.  The trail is sometimes (very) dusty and otherwise (very) rocky.  The compensations are a few chai (tea) shops (in tents) and beautiful views along the valley toward the snowy peaks.  We also saw several groups of wild mountain "bharl" or sheep. 
 

  The guest house was basic.  We all bunked in one large unheated room with the bathroom (so to speak) down the hall.  The generator switched off early and a kerosene lantern lit the hall at night.  It was very cold so we wore everything all night.  Their small restaurant supplied noodle soup for dinner and pakoras (bread with potato filling) for breakfast. 
 

  Next morning we hiked the last 5km to the face of the glacier.  The landscape is like a moonscape, terminal morraine with large boulders and rockslides.  The path skirts over and around the biggest obstacles until it reaches the very rocky shore of the river nearing the glacier face.  The ice is completed mixed with rocks from pebble to automobile size, and you can't get too close to the face because chunks frequently fall off.  The amazing thing is that a moderately sized river flows directly from the base of the glacier.
 

  The water at this point is especially revered and Tsering and Judy collected some of it in bottles as we all washed our hands and faces, as required.  By noon we had returned to Bhojbasa for lunch (noodle soup) and by 2PM we set off on the 14km hike to Gangotri (making our total walk for the day 24km).   We reached the government guest house just as it was getting dark.  Gangotri has no electrical service and runs on generators (whoever has them). 
 

  On Friday morning we visited the Shiva temple at Gangotri.  Steve, Judy, and Tsering had an "arti", a special prayer ceremony on the temple complex at the shore of the Bhagirathi, performed by a priest.  In the afternoon we returned to Uttarkashi.  After four days of only vegetarian food, we all decided we needed a good tandoori meal.  Tenzing and Tsering found a barbecue place and brought back four 500g roasted chickens to our hotel room where we ate every bit.  The hotel is vegetarian so we did this on the sly, even ordering a vegetarian dish which we barely touched.    Never did chicken taste so good.
 

  On the way back we stopped for apples, exported from this mountain region and really excellent.  We were told that the seeds had been brought to the mountains by "Pahari Wilson", a British entrepreneur who created his own little mountain kingdom in the nineteenth century, known for his three wives (each with her own house in a different village) and for cutting down a very large number of trees.  He also had built, across the Bhagarathi, a number of excellent suspension footbridges, looking a little like the Brooklyn Bridge.
 

   We got back last Saturday afternoon to our modest home at a mere 7500ft altitude and have been settling back into the local routine.  We have been thinking about our experiences, some described above.  One observation not already mentioned is the large number of children in school uniforms on the road (the roads in India are not just for vehicles), going to or coming from school rather than working in the fields.  Their families are motivated by allocations of rice given periodically to the children; we saw them carrying the bags home.  The people in the mountains are poor but generally not destitute.  Beggars are rare.  Another impression is the many sadhus going to and from Gangotri, which is one of the four most sacred Shiva-related sites in the Himalayas.
 

  Hope that is enough to give you an idea of our experience. 
 

Love to all,
Steve & Judy