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Trail 1-C to Trail 4-B Page 1 Hike from Trail-1C (Darra Kalinger Trek) & return via Trail-4B (Faisal Mosque Trek) (Start Coordinates: 33°43'37.10"N 73° 01'07.96"E) Elev: 1,975 feet) (End Coordinates: 33°44'42.62"N 73° 01'51.89"E) Elev: 1,985 feet) (Shaikh Muhammad Ali) 3D Google Map of the entire Hike: Maximum Trek Elevation 3,145 Feet “Our battered suitcases were piled on the sidewalk again; we had longer ways to go. But no matter, the road is life.” Jack Kerouac

Kalinger Trek to Faisal Mosque Trek

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“Our battered suitcases were piled on the sidewalk again; we had longer ways to go. But no matter, the road is life.”

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Page 1: Kalinger Trek to Faisal Mosque Trek

Trail 1-C to Trail 4-B Page 1

Hike from Trail-1C (Darra Kalinger Trek) & return

via Trail-4B (Faisal Mosque Trek)

(Start Coordinates: 33°43'37.10"N 73° 01'07.96"E) Elev: 1,975 feet)

(End Coordinates: 33°44'42.62"N 73° 01'51.89"E) Elev: 1,985 feet)

(Shaikh Muhammad Ali)

3D Google Map of the entire Hike: Maximum Trek Elevation 3,145 Feet

“Our battered suitcases were piled on the sidewalk

again; we had longer ways to go. But no matter, the

road is life.” – Jack Kerouac

Page 2: Kalinger Trek to Faisal Mosque Trek

Trail 1-C to Trail 4-B Page 2

The first time that I went hiking was in 1986 and that was in Balakot, KPK province

in Northern Pakistan. It so happened that I was visiting Balakot from Karachi and

was planning to visit Kaghan and Naran when I met some foreigners and after

making friends with them went hiking on local routes.

I was only twenty two (22) then and this is when I developed a taste for hiking

and trekking. After going around in 8 countries, living, working and studying

there between 1988 to 1995; getting married in 1997, raising children and finally

settling down in Islamabad (at least for the time being) since July 2002; I have

picked up trekking again since the last three years.

Where there’s a will, there’s a way. I have found a few friends who are hiker

types and we have been ascending and descending the Margalla Hills like a

disease. I have been trekking aggressively lately and thus have been writing

about my escapades as well. I feel, now is the time to educate my readers

collectively as to what are the popular trekking options in the Margalla Hills.

Here we go.

Walking in the Margalla Hills

The Margalla Hills are effectively foothills of the Himalayas – and are very easily accessible from

Islamabad. However these are quite big, steep hills, and shouldn’t be underestimated – if you are

planning on a walk up to the top of the first ridge (i.e. where the Monal restaurant is) then sturdy footwear,

a large water bottle, and a change of t-shirt are necessary (good chance you’ll be drenched in sweat by

the time you get to the top). Between March and November it is best to start walking in the early morning

(before 7.30AM, or 6.30AM in the height of summer) as it is uncomfortably hot during the day.

There are many trails to choose from, some of which have been numbered by the city planners. The more

popular walks are Trail 3, Trail 5 and the Zoo Trail. Google Earth gives a good way to orientate yourself

before you set out.

Trail 1A & 1B – This is the one of the less known treks and starts at the junction of the same treks where

the treks 1A and 1B branch out. On the left is the Chountra Village and on the right is the Siniarri

Village (GPS Coordinates 33°44'29.66"N and 73° 0'4.82"E). You start at the intersection behind F-10 and

F-9 park i.e. at the first gate which is between the Army Headquarters (GHQ) and the Air force

Headquarters (AHQ) but unfortunately since it is a sensitive and fortified area, you must be accompanied

by Military or Air Force personnel with whose help you can traverse this path and reach the mouth of the

two villages and proceed from there. It takes roughly 1.5 to 2 hours (at an easy pace) to reach the top of

the famous first Ridge of the Margalla Hills. Here you reach the Kot Jindaan Village and can further trek

on the route to the Khanpur Village which is another 15 kms from here and roughly takes about 4+ hours.

Page 3: Kalinger Trek to Faisal Mosque Trek

Trail 1-C to Trail 4-B Page 3

Since both of these routes are off the beaten trek thus the flora and fauna is amazing and is slightly

different from the other later treks in the Margalla Hills. You also get to see many quarries which have

actually ruined the Margalla Hills. This is indeed a painful site if you love the mountains. Thanks to Mr.

Roedad Khan who has been able to get this nonsense stopped and is a famous name in the hiking and

trekking circles of Islamabad.

Trail 1C – Again this is also a less known treks and starts at the junction of Margalla Avenue and the

intersection of Air University (at the left) and Bahria University (on the right). You pass through this road

and miss the Air Force Headquarters (AHQ) on the left and then National Defense University (NDU) at

your left again. You go further north and almost reach the end of the road and hit the Kalinger (read Ka-

linjer) village (GPS Coordinates: 33°44'34.13"N and 73° 1'1.63"E). Incidentally, this route also lies

between the Air Force Headquarters (AHQ) and the Naval Headquarters (NHQ) thus you again need to

be accompanied by friends from one of these forces to pass through otherwise you may not be able to

get beyond the security area. It take about 2+ hours to reach the top of the ridge and you can either return

from the same path or descend in the valley to the East and return via the Trail – 4B or the Faisal Mosque

trek. This would take another 2+ hours if you want to take this particular path.

Trail 2 / Zoo trail – Trail 2 begins a little way up on the Pir Sohawa road (just past the Jungle Shack

drinks bar – GPS 33.73.46° N, 73.05.45° E) or you can start from the right of the entrance of the

Islamabad Zoo. This is a good choice if you are looking for a 1 – 2 hour walk – the trail leads up to the

Daman-e Koh viewpoint – if you want to continue walking a trail up to Cactus Ridge leads from next to the

Police checkpoint near the entrance to Daman-e Koh. From Cactus Ridge you get a good view of where

Air Blue flight 202 crashed on 24th June 2010.

Saidpur trail – This trail starts at the intersection of the Margalla Avenue and the Saidpur Village. Follow

the river through the village (including ducking though some back alleys) and you’ll emerge in a valley

and a trail that leads up to the Monal restaurant – and hence you can easily do a loop coming down Trail

3. Saidpur trail isn’t much used so it is largely free of litter.

Trail 3 – begins from Margalla Road, F-6/3 (the junction between Margalla Road & Ataturk Avenue). It is

a little steep and strenuous in the first leg, which goes up to the Viewpoint and is about a 1.5 – 2 hour

trek. After the Viewpoint, you can continue on for another easy-going 1.5 – 2 hour and reach the Pir

Sohawa, where you can choose from 3 restaurants for food, The Monal, Tree house and Capital View

Restaurant. This is the most popular walk, hence litter levels are high.

Trail 4A / Dhoke Jivan trek: It starts from the spring in the valley below the 1st sharp turn on the road to

Daman-e-Koh. It bifurcates soon after the start. The left trek, after about 7 kms joins up with Trail – 4B.

From this point onwards, Trail – 4 starts. This trek leads to Gojri Bari and finally to Pir Sohawa Road.

Page 4: Kalinger Trek to Faisal Mosque Trek

Trail 1-C to Trail 4-B Page 4

Trail 4B / Faisal mosque trek: also known at the E7 or Faisal Mosque trail. Little used, in part because it

is so difficult to find the trailhead. Head to the car park to the rear of the Faisal Mosque, and look for a

gate with a Margalla Tree Planting Project sign next to it. Head through the gate, take the first right, then

right again (at a grey metal box with a hole in the top) through a small clearing and turn left at the end.

Walk north toward a large concrete water storage tank, and walk to the right of this on to a well-defined

path (GPS coordinates 33.734112° , 73.038421°) from here it should be plain sailing. Trail 4B wind its

way up to the ridge, where you can turn right and reach the Pir Sohawa road, near the turn-off for Talhar

village. It takes about 2 hours to get to the top. From Pir Sohawa road it’s a 20 minute walk to the Monal

restaurant, and you can catch a taxi back in to town, or head down Trail 3 or the Saidpur village trail.

Trail 5 – also begins from Margalla Road in F-5 (about 500m down from Trail 3 – opposite Judge’s

Enclave) and is initially an easier trail to climb. Trail 5 connects with Trail 3 (via Trail 4) and meets beyond

Trail 3’s viewpoint. If you continue on Trail 5, you eventually meet the Pir Sohawa road (33.7675°,

73.0771°) although it is possible to get lost on Trail 5 and veer too far east, ending up on the top part of

Trail 6. Either way you’ll eventually hit the Pir Sohawa road so it’s difficult to get truly lost. From the top of

Trail 5 it is 1.5km to the top of Trail 3 – hence you can do a loop, taking 3 – 4 hours.

(Note: Both, Trail 3 & Trail 5 have large maps and guidance boards placed at the entrance).

Trail 6 – is in the valley to the east of Trail 5. Start from the Trail 5 car park, walk parallel to the blocked

off dual carriageway heading east and then head north when you see the mouth of the valley. Walk past a

small cluster of houses and then you’ll come across a sealed single track road, follow this for a short

while and you’ll end up on the path, and follow this up the valley, ascending to the left side. You’ll

eventually end up on the Pir Sohawa road. From here you can head west to the top of Trail 5. The Trail is

without signposts or markers, is little used but very scenic.

Trail 7 – The starting point of this trek is from the Car Park of the Trail – 5 and ends at the Water spring

which is about 5 kms in total. From the spring onwards, the less beaten path to the Murad Gali and all

the way on the Pir Sohawa Road is the Trail – 7 while not too many people know about this. From the

water spring, the hike is steep and it roughly takes 2+ hours to reach the 3rd

ridge.

Trail 8 – This again is an off the beaten path and starts on top of the Ratta Hotar valley. I have not been

on this trek and thus don’t know much about this trek. This trek starts from Mandial Water Works and

ascends rather steep for about 3 kms and then it is an easy walk to Pir Sohawa Rest House which is at

113 m or 3,850 feet. Total distance is about 7 kms from start to finish.

Trail 9 or Bari Imam Trail – for the more adventurous types, this is a good hike. Drive to Nurpur Shahan

(east of the government complexes beyond the end of Margalla Road) – head to a road junction at

33.7457°, 73.1050° and turn left, until you reach a turnoff for a small guesthouse at the start of the trail

(33.7569°, 73.1135°). The walk starts with steps leading up to the Bari Imam cave, then you can continue

Page 5: Kalinger Trek to Faisal Mosque Trek

Trail 1-C to Trail 4-B Page 5

up the steep hill behind, then traverse round to the Pir Sohawa road, where there are a few cafes and a

hotel (33.7843° , 73.1107° – it is about 5km from here to the Top of Trail 3 if you follow the road). You can

return down the valley back to your starting point. Beware however that you pass into Khyber

Pakhtunkhwa on the walk and you may have to charm yourself pass some policemen.

Trail 10 – Starts from the Kumlari village and goes all the way up to the Rumbli village. This trek starts

from the Quaid-e-Azam University which is an elevation of 670 m or 2,200 feet. It is a narrow metalled

road winding rather steeply up to Rumbli and Narias villages enroute to Pharilla village at an elevation of

1,473 m i.e. 3,850 feet. The total distance is roughly 8.5 kms.

Trail 11 – This climb is a metalled narrow road, about 5 km long starting from the same place as Trail –

10. Beyond Rumbli at ‘Sangra Ziarat’, it turns right to Shahdra valley and connects with the road which

meets Murree Road between Malpur and Bara Kahu.

Trail 12 – This is a 7 km long trek involving some difficult climbing. It starts from Shahdra valley and ends

at Pharilla village.

Sources:

http://wikitravel.org/en/Islamabad

(Margalla Hills Society) http://roedad.com/mhs.php

Now let’s return to the specific topic of this article. This time around, Dr. Group

Captain Fahim Hashmi and Wing Commander Gohar Saeed invited us to join

them on the Trail – 1C i.e. Darra Kalinger Trek on 31st March 2012. Dr. Fahim

Hashmi is a PhD in Material Sciences from Beihang University (BUAA), China and

has recently joined NUST in the Materials Department while Gohar is a

professional navigator at the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) respectively.

I got up at 5:30 a.m. and said my Fajr prayers. I must tell you that saying your Fajr

prayers gives a new strength and vigor to the body and your mind stays fresh for

the entire day. After saying my prayers, I lied down for a while and got up again

at 6:00 a.m. checked the weather forecast and then got Adil up for the hike.

Since Adil was going to join us for the trek today, thus his Mamma also got up

and made a sumptuous breakfast for us. She also packed a snack of Kebab

Sandwiches for us for the trip.

We left home around 6:45 a.m. and waited for our trekking buddies at the

corner of Bahria University and Air University around 7:00 a.m. We later

coordinated on our cell phones and were asked to come further North up the

road passing Air Force Headquarters (AHQ) and National Defense University

Page 6: Kalinger Trek to Faisal Mosque Trek

Trail 1-C to Trail 4-B Page 6

(NDU) on our left. We met right after passing the NDU and proceeded all the

way to the car park near Kalinger Village.

Since we had planned to ascend from this trek but descend on the Trail – 4B i.e.

the Faisal Mosque trek thus we decided to go behind the Faisal Mosque and

parked my car there and came back in Dr. Hashmi’s jeep at the same starting

point at the mouth of the Kalinger village.

(Starting point of Darra Kalinger Trek)

We started the trek around 7:35 a.m. (although rather late as per our hiking

standards) while passing through the Kalinger village.

(The marker at the start of Trail 1B and 1C)

Page 7: Kalinger Trek to Faisal Mosque Trek

Trail 1-C to Trail 4-B Page 7

Within 40 minutes of brisk walking, we reached most of the flowering trees like

Bauhinia variegata, Ficus carica, and trees like Pinus roxburghii, Quercus

leucotrichophora and started to enjoy the wild berries which sell at Rs. 80 per kg in

the local market.

(Wng Cdr. Gohar and myself enjoying the wild berries)

By 8:45 a.m. we had reached the water spring on this route and decided to

take a water and snack break here.

(A fresh water spring enroute the Darra Kalinger)

The surroundings of the natural spring were so serene and quite that we decided

to stay a little longer than anticipated here.

Page 8: Kalinger Trek to Faisal Mosque Trek

Trail 1-C to Trail 4-B Page 8

(Gohar, Adil & I relaxing at the natural spring)

We took a few more pictures at the spring before continuing our journey North-

East.

(I am checking the density of the water)

We started ascending North-East and after 15 minutes stopped by to take some

more pictures.

Page 9: Kalinger Trek to Faisal Mosque Trek

Trail 1-C to Trail 4-B Page 9

(Gohar, I and Adil enjoying the flora of the Kalinger valley)

By 9:25 a.m., we had reached the maximum height of the ridge and took a

water break here too.

(I, Adil and Gohar at the summit of the Trail 1-B)

From here you could see the route of the Trail – 1B descending from the West

towards this spot.

Page 10: Kalinger Trek to Faisal Mosque Trek

Trail 1-C to Trail 4-B Page 10

(Trail – 1B descending to meet Trail 1-C)

We stayed for some 10 minutes at this spot while Adil tried to have a go on

Gohar’s sling shot.

(Adil having a go on Gohar’s sling shot)

By 9:50 a.m., we had descended into a beautiful valley and headed towards

the intersection of the Trail – 4B or the Faisal Mosque trail.

Page 11: Kalinger Trek to Faisal Mosque Trek

Trail 1-C to Trail 4-B Page 11

(We have just entered the Trail – 4B or the Faisal Mosque trail)

By 10:46 a.m. we had reached another small natural spring where we took our

next water break. We noticed a tree which has probably been burnt with a

visible hole in the trunk.

(A tree which has been shamelessly burnt at the trunk)

By 11:08 a.m. we reached a clear area from where we could see Islamabad

and the rising Centaurus towers.

Page 12: Kalinger Trek to Faisal Mosque Trek

Trail 1-C to Trail 4-B Page 12

(A bird’s eye view of the Centaurus towers from the Trail – 4B)

By 11:30 a.m. we were descending fast and while walking took this picture of the

changed flora of the environment.

(A beautiful sapling growing out to become a tree)

We stopped here for 10 minutes and had sandwiches and oranges and enjoyed

the serenity and peace of the valley. By 12:00 p.m. or so, we took our last picture

at a beautiful spot while walking next to the stream which becomes full during

the July monsoon season.

Page 13: Kalinger Trek to Faisal Mosque Trek

Trail 1-C to Trail 4-B Page 13

(Shaikh with his 10 Gallon Colorado Hat posing next to a boulder on the way

back on Trail – 4B)

We descended all the way on the Trail – 4B behind Faisal Mosque, a little tired

but had achieved two treks in one go. We reached my car which was parked

at the Faisal Mosque parking lot around 1:30 p.m. and from there we

proceeded to Dr. Hashmi’s abode for a hot cup of tea. After having tea, we

reached home around 2:00 p.m. to share our accolades with the rest of the

family.

I am really thankful to Dr. Hashmi for inviting us to this particular trek which we

had been planning since October 2011 and also to Wing Commander Gohar

Saeed whose navigating skills we thoroughly enjoyed. Without these two

gentlemen, we could not have hiked on this particular route.

I would like to leave my readers with a thought that a writer is graced with the

insights of others and charged with doing justice to those insights in print. I have

done this in this article. There are many sources for my gibberish, quite a few

working in deep background in the fabulous jungles of Philippines to the shores

of the Pacific Ocean in Al Pueblo de la Los Angeles. Some information is ‘spilled

beans’ by my Intelligence sources but none would cross the line.

Shaikh Muhammed Ali ‘The Wandering Dervish’

E-mail: [email protected]

Cell: +00-92-321-5072996

22nd April 2012, 6:39 p.m. (PST)