Following is account taken from a co-passenger in my adventure - Apurv Pandit's site .
For these and many more wonderful vignettes, please do visit his site at www.oocities.org/apurv_pandit .

"..When the valley beckons, who can deny... ... so on a hot summer day in the June of 2002, I set out for the misty Himalayas in search of peace, cooler climates, fresh air and a whole lot of adventure. What I had in mind was a 9 day trek to Bedni Bugyal and back. Bedni Bugyal is a tranquil and vast expanse of lush green alpine grasslands in the Garhwal Himalayas in the state of Uttaranchal, and is perched atop an altitude of 3600 m above MSL. It is a local watershed area, and a source to many rivers that join the Pindari river system in the Ganges valley.

With me were my friends, classmates and philosophers Sameer, Ritesh and Siddharth. We trekked more than 65 kms in 5 days and had the best of adventures which would last us for a lifetime.

Our itinerary:
New Delhi -> Dehradun -> Karnaprayag -> Mandoli -> Lohajung pass (mottorable road till this point; after this we were on foot out in the wilderness) -> Wan -> Bedni Bugyal (stayed here for a day) -> Didna -> Lohajung Pass (the trek ended, back to buses and jeeps again) -> Mandoli -> Rishikesh -> Dehradun -> Mussourie -> Dehradun -> New Delhi<

Here is how we went about it...

Day1 (June 16, 2002)- Left New Delhi by 2230 bus for Dehradun. Made a firm decision to lose all sense of time and stop caring about what day and date it was. Holiday mood didn't take much long to set in.

Day 2 - Reached Dehradun at 0600. Caught 0700 bus to Karnaprayag. Reached Karnaprayag at 1400, boarded yet another bus to reach Tharali by 1600. By now we were already more than 450 kms from home. Then started a long chain of unending rides in rickety Mahindra jeeps and we finally reached Lohajung pass (altitude 2100 m) at 2040. This was the last point till which there was a motorable road. It was dark already and the town had no electricity. Stayed in nice cosy government cottages for the night.

Day 3 - Hired a local sherpa by the name of Gajender Singh to guide us along the route. The adventure started NOW. We left Lohajung pass at 0900 for Wan. Walked 19 kms through dense bear-infested forests (though we didn't see any bears) along countless pairs of steep ascents and descents, crossing many little icy cold sparkling streams on the way. Reached Wan (altitude 2300 m) at 1600 after a steep 2 hour climb. Stayed the night in log cottages.

Day 4 - The REAL adventure started now. We had 13 kms of trekking to do to reach Bedni Bugyal (altitude 3600 m). So we left Wan at 0800 and by 1730, we'd climbed one of the steepest and most demanding ascents among all trekking routes in India to reach Bedni... all of us carrying at least 11 kg of weight each. We were officially into "Adventure sports" now. If there was a single thing that we could dedicate the day to, it would be a half kg pack of Glucose powder! We pitched a nylon tent that we were carrying at a suitable campsite, where we would stay for our days in Bedni.

Day 5 - Bedni Bugyal was worth every single pain we undertook to reach it. It was like a huge open garden that stretched across tens of miles, over hilltops, ridges, cliffs, hundreds of little rivers and streams, providing habitat to thousands of obscure and unheard-of species of plants, animals and birds. The charm of the place was enhanced by the fact that hardly 40-50 people (including all tourists, trekkers and natives) hit this place in any year. We spent the day exploring the surroundings around Bedni and generally thanking ourselves on choosing just the right place for this expedition. The night was cloudless and we saw the most spectacular night sky we'd ever seen, and couldn't help but get overwhelmed by the star-studded wonder above us. It was as if the whole universe had come down to spread over Bedni and thrown open a whole sea of glitter borne out of all its myriad treasure of stars, galaxies, nebulaes... Later in the night, we were almost attacked by a pack of wild hounds outside our tent. After an hour of trying to tear our tent down (and consequently us), they lost interest in us and left. Bedni Bugyal Dusk in Bedni Bugyal Free birds

Day 6 - The hardest part was leaving Bedni, the place we had bonded with so much. Anyway, we left for the return journey at 0830 by an alternate route thru Auli Bugyal. After climbing down a steep and endless descent for 7 hours, we had walked 19 kms to reach Lohajung Pass... back to reality again! The highlight: Ritesh had a thunderbolt... by his description, the chemistry was about to cross the threshold when she served him water, but then in a tragic twist of fate, her father suddenly appeared out of nowhere and then...

Day 7 - Left Lohajung Pass at 0830 and after a whole day of travel in back-breaking Mahindra jeeps, we reached Rishikesh by nightfall. Rishikesh is the spiritual capital of the world, and people come here from all over the world to practise their own versions of religion and spirituality. These versions manifest in many forms such as sex, narcotics, trance music, shady ashrams and asylums that you wouldn't normally go to unless you're really drunk or doped, and the quintessential act of washing all your sins off in the Ganges river. This was where John Lennon and Paul McCartney spent a decade under the spell of some smartass guru. Anyway, all this sure gets the government plenty of tourism revenue. However for us, our backs were in pieces on account of the rickety jeep journeys, so all we did was sleep. Only to find the next morning that the water from the bathroom had flooded the entire hotel room!

Day 8 - Left for Mussourie, a hill resort near Dehradun. About Mussourie, the less said the better. Much of what was in this classy place 6 years ago is all gone, and all that is left from its glorious past is the premises of the Savoy Hotel. Its more urban than the dirtiest Indian city, and is now full of people and tourists who are idiots to say the least. It is the world's highest stinker. Anyway, no more whining...

Day 9 - Left for New Delhi by the 1500 bus. Homeward bound I was. Reached New Delhi after midnight. Strangely enough, I welcomed my return to the city... though that's a different story altogether.