Trail-5: Test of trekkers’ stamina and resilience

Islamabad : Scores of trekkers test their stamina and resilience while carrying out ‘adventure’ walk at Trail-5 that offers scenic beauty along with rough and tough patch in northern end of the Margallah Hills.

Undoubtedly, the track of Trail-V is very challenging in terms of distance but it is not enough to prevent the visitors who first reaches mid-point and then often moves ahead at bumpy pathway. Some trekkers think it advisable to return back from the mid-point as the track becomes difficult to walk especially for kids and women.

Tayyab Amin, a visitor, said the track gets sharp after two-and-a-half kilometre and then elevation continues relentlessly for several hundred meters where the visitors must need to catch their breath. “I climbed on rocks while using hands at some point at the Eastern part of the trail where there was a thick jungle and I could not make it to the top towards the main jungle,” he said.

The local administration has developed more seating places where the visitors are often seen making photographs and videos while covering rough and tough track that is considered one of the best features of this site. Abdul Ghaffar, another visitor, said the first two kilometres are less difficult but after that there is a sudden sharp ascend and thereafter it again becomes a gradual climb.

He informed that the mobile phone signals are not good and it would be better to inform someone about your activity before carrying out walk on this trail. The Wildlife Management Board has set up an information centre at the entry point for trekkers where they can get each and every kind of information about the track that can greatly help them carry out their adventure more comfortably and safely.

Though this track is comparatively difficult as compared to other tracks developed by CDA but this is the right spot where one can breathe fresh air and sooth nerves with sounds of chirping birds and flowing water stream.