Welcome to Day 2 
By now weather had settled in Northern areas and clear days were approaching as per weather forecasts. We had been travelling throughout the last week in rains. However, today's morning was very clear with blue skies.
I got late for sunrise and woke up after 6 a.m. So, dropped the second session at Duikar. I was ready within half hour and went for delicious breakfast to the dining area of Eagle's Nest Hotel.
I really enjoyed my stay here and this hotel is highly recommended specially for families.
We left Duikar at 9:15 a.m. and were in Hopar village at 10:30 a.m. This included a cylinder refill break in Karimabad bazar.
A small bridge was under repair and jeep couldn't go till the hotels in Hopar. So, i took my trekking luggage and shifted to another jeep on other side to reach the hotels which were not far away.
There was no one on the trek when i reached Hopar and no one went on trek in next three days either. So, i would be all alone in the domain of Hopar, Barpu and Miar glaciers
It took 1.5 hrs to reach the hotels, find porters and arrangement by them. The shocking news was the porter rates. They have made 10 stages to and from Rush Lake i.e. 5 on each side. And they were asking for Rs.600 per stage. After very long discussion, the only discount i could get was Rs.500 per stage. It doesn't matter that how many days u use to complete these stages ranging from 4-7 days. Also, the campsites are arranged like this that they cover all options of trekking routes of Rush Lake. So, you cannot cut the expenses on porters 
It was a long trek and i had assumption of atleast 5 days so i didn't want to take the risk of reducing luggage and take one porter. Eventually, i had to pay Rs. 10,000 for 2 porters and decided to keep my full luggage with me which i had packed for the trek alongwith food and kitchen items etc.
We started the trek at 12 p.m. though the owner of hotel suggested to start next day as weather was very clear and hot and glaciers melt and become slippery in such weather. But i had too much time left today and my estimate to reach today's target was of 4-5 hours.
So, we decided to start the trek and reach Barichokor campsite today.
In following posts, i will share the complete trek details. We started with descend to Hopar (Bualtar) glacier and then crossing Hopar glacier followed. On the other side of Hopar glacier is first campsite called Shishkin.
After Shishkin campsite we reached second glacier crossing called Barpu and after crossing Barpu, the trek went straight till Barichokor.
It took us 5.5 hours to reach Barichokor but 1 hour was purely wasted by my porters to hack a free donkey and trying to put luggage on its back and then making useless attempts to fix it after every few minutes. So, i would say that the trek time is around 4.5 hours between Hopar Village and Barichokor.
We reached Barichokor at 5:30 p.m. and my porters quickly fixed the tents. I removed the trekking boots and relaxed a bit on the grass as this patch was green between the trees. Meanwhile my porters went to a higher location called Usaimal to make chapatis.
They came back after one hour and in the meanwhile i geared up for sunset
Yet another mesmerizing sunset with lots of interesting captures of Ultar massif and other peaks around the trek !!!
Just after sunset, we had dinner and then i decided to sleep though i was not tired at all but tomorrow a very tough day was approaching so settled for complete rest before the Big Day
Night stay in camps at Barichokor campsite on Rush Lake trek
