A tale of seven lakes : Gadsar to Satsar

The best thing about six day Kashmir Great Lakes trek is that every day, you get a new landscape around and that prevents it from getting monotonous.

Early starters: trekkers crossing the glacier

Also read: Thajiwas is a perfect acclimatisation for Great Lakes trek

Having already covered the first three day, we move ahead to the next campsite. Fourth day trek is from Gadsar to Satsar. First two days of trek were without passing through any lakes but next two days were all about lakes. Third day, we passes as many as five lakes on the way including big ones like Vishnusar, Kishansar and Gadsar. This fourth day was also all about lakes. Actually name of the next campsite is Satsar which means seven lakes.

Also read: Kashmir Great Lakes- First day trek to Nichnai

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The altitude for the day hovered around 12K feet. Trek starts by crossing a glacier and there is small climb after that. Albeit small, but it was first glacier to be crossed on the trek.

Looking back towards Gadsar from the ridgeside trail

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Lonely at the top, well above the treeline, a tree stands alone on the ridge

Trek thereafter is gradual and quite beautiful. It was a small climb though initially followed by a gentle ascend along the hillside. The climb goes on becoming smoother as we pass through a ridge covered with lush green meadows.

With the trail getting easier, the walking moves turn to dancing

Landscape to the right across the stream. See the waterfall emerging just from middle of the hill… amazing!

Second half of the day’s trek passes through a stream and than a couple of lakes. Once we leave this ridge and river valley and turn left we come across a large plateau with mountains to the left and a stream flowing on the right.

The perennial trekkers giving us the company

Its a flat trail through the meadows. There is another ridge far on the right side. River does have a rocky side and we can see a lot of boulders.

Turning left to the plateau, leaving the valley behind

Along the stream towards the lunch point. You can see the ridge in the front, across which will start the seven lakes of Satsar

We had our packed lunch on the far end of this plateau alongside the stream, just before the start of another small climb towards a ridge, which houses another army check post. Thus it is second consecutive day of passing through an army check post. But this time the checking wasn’t as rigorous as was the previous day.

We cross the ridge to be on the other side and all of a sudden the landscape changes again. Its a tough walk through boulders. Now we approach what is first of the seven lakes of the Satsar region and the biggest one.

First lake is the biggest of seven lakes of Satsar

Calm and cool water of lake tempted a few of us to take a dip, but this isn’t advisable for all as the water is too cold and bodies are quite hot after a long trek. Jus be careful. This first lake also has a plenty of place for camping and the surroundings are quite picturesque. But we still had some trek left before reaching our campsite.

Meadows have now turned into big boulders

Trek further is bit tricky as there are a few ups and downs through rocky boulders on either sides of the lakes that we come across. Purportedly there are four to five lakes in a series on the route, all connected to each other.

But how much water you will find in them, depends lot on the season of the trek and also the weather. As soon as we cross last of the lake on this route, we have a small descent to the campsite on the right.

There is a stream flowing close to the campsite, but there is no lake here. This is Satsar campsite.

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First view of the campsite from the top of the ridge

Having already counted four-five lakes, obvious curiosity was about remaining couple of them. Once at the campsite, we came to know about two other lakes hidden high up in the mountains on the opposite side of the campsite and to the left of the last lake that we passed through to reach the campsite.

It was another at least half an hour climb from the camp. Broadly easy trek all day through helped us in reaching the Satsar campsite well in time, hence we had enough time to go to the twin lakes. But only few of us were able to gather courage to go for a trek again after a tiring day.

That is the mountain in whose lap are hidden two beautiful lakes

Shepherd huts on the way up to the two hidden lakes. Far down you can see the Satsar campsite along the stream

We climbed upto the first of the twin lakes, only to know that the second lake was further up. It wasn’t far but the way was quite tricky, with huge boulders on one side and steep ridge on the other. Finally three of us mustered some strength to go up.

First of the two lakes… second lake is further up in the mountain in the bowl

View of the first lake from the other side (on the base of the second lake)

It was another 20-25 minutes of challenge but we were finally through and it was indeed worth every effort. These two lakes were also connected. Water from the first one will flow down to the second one and then overflowing water from the second one will turn into big water fall.

Finally we reach to the second lake and you can see the glaciers around. This should be well above the altitude of 13K ft

In this image, you can see the tail of the first lake and the mouth of the second lake, although there is a difference in the altitude. I would have certainly liked to take a shot with both the lakes in same frame but for that another climb of half an hour was needed and that would have been tougher than all what was done so far

All these water bodies were being replenished with glacier waters. Both lakes were quite beautiful, just like a bowl in the lap of mountains.

View of the first lake from the height of the second lake

Quite satisfied after enjoying the second lake, it was time to reach back to the campsite. It felt more fulfilling due to the fact that only three of us among the group of more than 30 trekkers managed to trek to the hidden lakes. We had seen the all possible lakes among the Satsar. It almost seemed like a mission accomplished, for the day at least!