Sarankot/Naudada/Hemja loop

North East of Town, Pokhara +977, Nepal Phone: Not Available

About

Sarankot/Naudada/Hemja loop. 3 hours hard from Lakeside is a fast time. Go towards downtown (Mahendrapul) from Lakeside, turn north at "Zero Kilometer" along the main road to Baglung. (be careful, its crowded.) Ride about 5-6km north, slowly up, past the nasty old buspark, to the Sarankot Road junction, turn left (west). The climb time starts at the fork 50m further. Follow paved road up incredibly steep climb, 1st gear almost all the way. You'd rightly doubt a rental bike could do it. Good pavement mostly, climb zigs past houses, up, up, you can ignore ticket taker guys, up up, pavement ends at a small village on a saddle, where you can stop my watch for the climb. From here you can park bike and hike up old ridge trail to Sarankot, but for this loop continue west along rocky jeep road along mountains south slopes, past parasail place and onwards, rolling ascent to Kalipani village and after and hour or so jeep road hits the "hi-way" at Naudada village on ridgetop. From here good pavement zigs steep down to valley bottom, then its a long gradual decent to Hemja village, and back into Pokhara.