Makra peak's height is 3885m, has a 6 km long scenic hiking trek from Shogran valley to Siri and Paya meadows with a further upward trek of about 2 km. It takes about 7 hours to complete if you don't get lost in the beauty of this scenic, lush green track in a dense forest of alpine trees.
Makra peak hiking track
There are innumerable leisure opportunities for tourists in Pakistan, of which the beauty of the Makra peak hiking track is exemplary. This mountain is known as Makra peak due to its resemblance to a spider, as spider means a Makra in locals here.
I have completed this Makra peak hiking track twice till now, so it is better to write both as 1st was with my real friends, and second, was with my Sons. It will help you and will boost you up to hike for amazing Makra or spider peaks.
Makra peak hiking with real friends
One evening in 1997, twenty-two years ago today, we five real friends suddenly made a program to do an adventure. Farhan pointed out to us five real friends the place for adventure. (I am keeping say real friends because friends were real back then. Facebook didn't exist at that time.)
The place mentioned by Farhan was the Mansehra District and the second largest peak of the Kaghan Valley, Makra Peak. These are the days when I was first packed up to the Makra peak trek and was young. The latest about Makra peak hiking I will tell you further next in detail so be with me, and read it complete carefully.
We had no knowledge of the Makra peak at that time nor did any of us had gone beyond Abbottabad to Mansehra before this adventure. Earlier, Sakhi Zinda Pir's hill was a big adventure for us, and we had speculated that the Makra peak would be like the same place.
Later, when we reached Makra peak, it was found out that it was higher than the reach of Baba's, or maybe we had gone a little further than the reach of Baba.
The sudden program was finalized the same day, and we set out for Makra peak the next day. The 1978 model Mazda, and We Five Expeditors. The responsibility of driving came to me and surprisingly, two years after this trekking, my driving license was made off.
Shogran Valley, our 1st destination
From Hassan Abdal, we put diesel in the car which came for 60 liters of Rs.600 and the tank was almost full. The remaining amount will also be around five or six hundred in total. Hassan Abdal from Wah-Cantt, then Mansehra via Abbottabad, and then from Mansehra via Garhi Habibullah reached Balakot, the land of martyrs.
The 25 km journey from Balakot to Kiwai took about three hours as the road was in poor condition. From Kiwai there is a road to Kaghan which is the main road and another one to the top of the mountain which leads to Shogran. Shogran is about eight kilometers from Kiwi.
The Forest Department's Rest House was on the right, and the Pine Park Hotel was on the left. Not so much the filth and filthiness as today, nor the chaotic crowds of tourists, nor the mobile towers.
Since traveling from the morning, we reached Shogran around evening. Now the real problem was staying overnight because with all the money we had, we couldn't even put up a tent on the lawn of Pine Park.
A memorable, coolest night ever
An old man helped and told of a small eating house (Dhaba) some distance away. When we got there, there was a wooden board of Punjab Hotel in front of the mud wall of a roof-like room made of wood and leaves of trees.
At the hotel, we met a young man named Iqbal who solved our problem and took us to the same windowless room next to the hotel which had four beds.
We spent the night shivering in the bitter cold because the blankets were so small that if we covered my feet, it was like putting our chest in the freezer, and if we covered my chest, our feet would freeze.
Now it was up to the user to decide which part of the body he valued the most. This room was the perfect alternative to Pine Park for us in this world of suffering and this bed was a bed of dreams.
Iqbal wanted us to be his guests for two hundred rupees but we did not accept his hospitality for more than one hundred rupees.
Because for the remaining five hundred rupees we had to have dinner tonight, breakfast, and then trek to Makra peak. After that, we were supposed to eat lentils in the joy of success.
The night was spent sleeping and waking, the two companions from us had to make great sacrifices, they had to spend the night in one blanket and bed which I think was the greatest sacrifice made for friendship in the last century.
Early in the morning, the eyes were opened and everyone put on their shoes because the socks were not taken off at night. The first destination after breakfast was Sri Paya Meadows.
The Makra peak is called a Makra peak because it looks like a spider with several feet. It has five feet, three towards Kashmir and two towards Kaghan. There were jeeps to go to Sri Paya but only for those who could afford them.
The reason they didn't have a special package for young and inexperienced hikers was probably that they were unaware of our importance.
The trek to Sri Paya started on foot. The trek to Sri Paya started with the Pine Park Hotel which was a continuous climb but the problem was that there was a lot of mud on this constantly climbing track in the dense forest.
Shogran to Siri meadows
Now the journey that the five of us had started together from Shogran was divided into five different parts. About two hours later, the first member of our team set foot on Siri, Shogran to Siri trek is 6 km.
A small wooden cottage belonging to the forest department and a small lake. This beautiful, lush green meadow is probably called Siri because of this lake because in the local language the big lake is called Sar and the small one Siri.
Siri to Paya meadows
Siri to Paya trek is three km and we reached from Siri to the vast greenery of Paya in one hour. Now in front of us, was the icy peak of Mount Makra, and the icy peak of the Malika Parbat is known as the highest peak of Kaghan, which stood in all its splendor on the left, and the vast greenery of the Paya hills under our feet.
The Malika Parbat peak was first climbed by New Zealand climbers in 1964 and has since been reclimbed several times.
The snow on the top of Makra peak, and the sunshine on it made mountain Makra a mountain of silver. Seeing this, all our fatigue was gone and our determination to reach the Makra peak was rejuvenated.
But there was a problem, one of our team members got a severely sprained ankle and it became difficult to walk. But visiting Makra peak's desire was such that he was not ready to stop. I had to stay with my friend and the other three friends continued their journey.
There was no human being there except us that day. Suddenly Allah's help came. A rider was seen from afar waving his hand we told him our problem and the whole situation i.e., our quest to reach the spider, and asked for help. this servant of Allah became a supporter of help.
See also:
Places to visit in Naran Kaghan
Trek to Dudipatsar Lake via Mulla Ki Basti
But even he asked for two hundred rupees, what does he know that it is not only two hundred but an attempt to deprive five of us from eating lentils at night. However, we gave up the desire to eat lentils to go to the Makra peak and persuaded the helper to help us for a hundred rupees.
Makra peak track
Now the situation was that the track of the Makra peak had started which would take us to the footsteps of the snowy Makra peak, i.e. its base camp.
The track, which was about two feet wide and, in some places, up to three feet wide, had a mountain on one side and a ditch hundreds of feet deep on the other. The condition of this track is much better today. Details will follow.
On one side of Makra mountain are Balakot and Kaghan valley while on the other side is Muzaffarabad and Garhi Habibullah area which could be clearly visible in clear weather.
From the place where we were kissing the foot of the Makra mount, the top of the snowy Makra peak would be at a height of two hundred feet but it was covered with snow.
We knew that our attempts to climb the Makra mountain could make it difficult for us. It would also be difficult for our parents if any uncertainty happens to us.
With all this in mind, we enjoyed ourselves a lot together, hitting each other with snowballs, making noise. And then we started returning journey that the day was more than half over. The return journey was a little easier.
We reached Paye meadow in two and a half hours. In the morning it was a completely deserted meadow, now there were a lot of tourists who were watching us coming from the spider peak in amazement.
We passed among these tourists in a victorious manner as we had to reach Shogran on foot for ten kilometers. From Shogran to Makra, and from Makra to Shogran, after trekking 30 kilometers we reached Shogran near Asr and then near Isha, we reached Balakot, and celebrated the victory with bread and tea.
Makra peak hiking with family
Time passed at such a rapid pace that this memorable adventure of the Makra peak passed 22 long years. In my heart, the desire to kiss the foot of the Makra peak again began to take its toll. But now where can I get those real friends?
There are five thousand friends and six thousand followers on Facebook but no one goes along with me to the Makra peak. The development of technology and the lack of real friends began to be felt intensely.
The eldest son Ahmed and the youngest son Ahmed are 17 and 10 years old respectively. I often tell them stories from the past.
This summer, during the summer holidays, I talked to the children and asked them to take me to the amazing Makra peak, both of them got ready immediately.
A program was set up immediately. Adventure lovers remember that adventurous programs are made Instantly long planning programs rarely reach completion.
On August 5, I was accompanied by my wife, two daughters, and two adventurers, Ahmed Khan and Abdullah Khan. Brother, the sister-in-law, and their six-and-a-half-foot-tall son Hamza Khan, all were also with us.
This caravan of two vehicles started its journey from Wah Cantt to Shogran at one o'clock in the night. At six o'clock in the morning, we were in Shogran.
Because the road to Kiwai was very good and we offered prayer Fajr in Balakot in the morning. There was no traffic due to night travel. Shogran was not the Shogran as it was 22 years ago.
Strong hotels, shops, and tourist, mobile phone towers all over the place. There used to be a vast green field in Shogran, it seems to have gone underground somewhere.
Much has changed in these twenty-two years, but it is not just the Shogran that has changed. How much I have changed up too. If there are towers in Shogran, then I also have two mobile phones with cameras. If the green vast field has been lost somewhere so it has become a vast field on my head instead of hairs as well.
The only difference was that 22 years ago my real friends were with me in the Makra peak hiking whereas today my real sons are with me in the Makra peak hiking.
Today, I see the same enthusiasm in them that was in the team that hiking the Makra peak that stayed in Iqbal's raw room 22 years ago.
But the difference between the old team and this new team was that the old team could not wash their face with soap because the soap did not clean up by the cold water, whereas today's team can bathe in hot water whenever they want in Shogran.
I mentioned to the manager of the hotel where we were staying that there is a spider hiking program. He forbade that the weather is not good. Spider peak and its path are surrounded by fog and clouds, there are deep ravines. And there is the fear of getting lost along the way.
So don't make such a mistake. Talking to one or two other people, he had the same opinion. Shogran's bad weather was also telling us that there would many clouds in Makra peak hiking too.
Bad weather was a hindrance to our Makra peak hiking. Clouds were everywhere. It was as if clouds were entering our hotel rooms through the windows and going out by the doors. Two days passed like this, and it seemed that we would have to give up the idea of hiking the Makra peak.
But early in the morning, on the third day, there were dark clouds and heavy rain started, when it subsided in the evening, giving us the impression that the next day would be shining with the glorious sunshine. Because after the rain stopped, the sky was clear.
The next morning, I woke up at half-past five and saw that the sky was very clear. Praise be to God. The children were in a hurry even more than me. They got ready immediately and we all left for Paya.
The difference between the journey of 22 years ago and now was that the old team of expeditions that went from Shogran to Paya was on foot. While the new team of expeditions that went from Shogran to Paya was on Jeep. Fortunately, the Paya hiking track hasn't changed much, it is exactly the same as it was 22 years ago.
After some time, we reached Siri, two or four raw hotels have been built in Siri. The beauty of Siri is the same, it has not diminished like Shogran. Fifteen minutes after reaching Siri, we had reached the Paya.
But isn't this the Paya? I was just shocked There was a line of hut hotels here. And Paya's natural beauty has lost somewhere in these. The weather was fine. The dew had not yet dried from the grass of Paya. We were the first tourists to reach Paya at 7.30 am.
In front of it, Makra peak was standing with full splendor, but 22 years ago, the snow had fallen on Makra peak and it was lush green. The campaigners with me were eager for a trek to Makra Peak with me.
As we took a few steps forward, I saw the same meadow of Paya that was spread out with its velvet green grass twenty-two years ago today.
One difference I noticed was that the rainwater had formed many small lakes in the foothills which are called Jhabra in the local language. I was walking with my adventurers on the track towards the Makra peak.
I was hiking towards Makra peak by cooling my eyes from the greenery of the Paya meadow and enjoying the memories of the past. One difference I noticed was that the rainwater had formed many small lakes in the foothills of the meadow which are called Jha`bra in the local language.
I was walking with my adventurers on the track towards the Makra peak. I was hiking towards Makra peak by cooling my eyes from the greenery of the Paya meadow and enjoying the memories of the past.
It was heartwarming to see the Makra peak track that it is still the same as it was 22 years ago. After two to three hours of trekking, we reached the place where I had come 22 years ago with my real friends.
I sat at this place and started remembering the days gone by. Ahmed Bita and Abdullah Bita both went towards the top of the Makra peak which I could not reach 22 years ago due to snow, today my children did that.
I was sitting in the footsteps of a Makra peak, reading the pages of memories of the past, so it occurred to me to write it down completely so that someone else would have a positive interest in hiking towards the beautiful Makra peak.
The pages of the past were not even finished yet when the children had come back after completion of Makra peak hiking. By evening we had returned to Shogran.
Tourists have spread some filth on the Paya meadows which are not at all on the Makra track and Makra mountain at all, not even a wrapper or a piece of shopping bag can be found by searching.
The Makra peak hiking trek was exactly the same as it was 22 years ago. The rest of Shogran, Siri, Paya, and I have all changed. We all face change, sooner or later. Because this is the law of nature, everything has to be annihilated, the rest is only the essence of Allah.
