Gasho Lake: The Emerald Lake Above Jaglot Sai, Gilgit

Some places you visit once and tick off. Gasho Lake is not one of those. It sits in a bowl of mountain above the Sai valley near Jaglot, a full day's adventure from Gilgit city, and it has quietly become the lake we return to whenever we need the noise of town to stop. The water is a deep emerald green, the kind that makes you stop mid-step on the final climb and just look.

This is not a tour bus destination. There is no hotel, no jetty, no tea stall at the top. What there is: a long off-road ride with a river roaring below you, a hard honest hike, a lake full of trout, and a night by the fire under more stars than you knew existed. If that sounds like your kind of peace, read on. Everything below is from our own trips, not copied from a brochure.

The day starts in Gilgit city. You follow the Karakoram Highway south toward the Jaglot junction, where the road to Skardu peels off across the Indus. By car it is about 40 minutes. On a motorbike, riding at a relaxed pace and stopping for photos, count on an hour. Just before the junction the Jaglot Sai road climbs away from the highway, and this is where the adventure properly begins.

We prefer bikes for this trip, and we say that with feeling. The Sai road rises steadily above the Indus, the tarmac is narrow and twisting, and on two wheels you feel every change in the air as the valley opens. The metalled road runs for about 15 minutes by car, 20 to 25 minutes by bike, up into the Sai valley proper, past terraced fields, lines of poplar and small villages where children wave and old men watch from shaded verandas.

At the last village the metalled road simply stops, and from here it is off-road all the way. The track climbs into the mountains with a ravine falling away on your right and the river threading between the walls far below. The view keeps changing. One moment you are squeezed into a narrow gorge with rock on both sides, the next the valley throws itself open into wide green fields and grazing pasture with peaks stacked behind them.

This section is the heart of the day and it is not quick. From the end of the village to the point where the hike begins takes three to four hours, and five is not unusual if the track is rough, if you stop for tea with shepherds, or if you keep pulling over for photos, which you will. Ride at your own pace, keep your eyes on the ravine side, and carry enough fuel and water for the full return.

At the trailhead you lock the bikes, shoulder your packs and start climbing. The hike is two to three hours up a mountainside on a shepherd's path, steep in places, with the air thinning and the temperature dropping as you gain height. Take it slowly. Every rest stop earns you a wider view back down the valley you just rode through.

Then the ground levels, you crest the final rise, and Gasho Lake is simply there. Emerald green, dead still, ringed by rock and grass, with the mountain standing upside down in it. Most people go quiet at this moment. We have been many times and we still do.

Set up camp near the shore, drop the heavy bags at the tent, and the lake becomes your playground. A trail circles the water and takes 50 to 80 minutes per side depending on how often you stop, and you can walk it light, with nothing but a water bottle and a camera. The far shore gives you the view back across the lake that ends up as everyone's favourite photograph.

Gasho Lake holds trout, and if you bring a rod you can fish from the bank in the calm of the evening or the first light of morning. There is a particular satisfaction in cooking a fish you caught yourself over a fire you built yourself, at a lake you reached under your own power.

The nights are cold, even in summer, and you will want a proper sleeping bag and warm layers. But the cold is what makes the fire so good. Wood, flames, tea, someone with a guitar or a phone speaker, singing and dancing badly and laughing about it, and above you a sky so thick with stars that the Milky Way looks painted on. That is the night at Gasho, and it is the reason the ride was worth it.

The mountains around the Sai valley are markhor country. The markhor is Pakistan's national animal, a giant wild goat with spiralling horns and an uncanny ability to stand on cliffs that look impossible. Sightings are never guaranteed, but sit quietly at dawn and scan the rock faces above the lake with binoculars, and you have a real chance of watching one pick its way across a ledge. Keep your distance, keep your voice down, and let it go about its business. Our guide to community conservation in Gilgit-Baltistan explains why these herds are recovering.

Gasho is also a base for longer walks. From the lake, ridgelines and side valleys lead higher into the mountains, and a second day of exploring with a local guide who knows the ground is well worth adding if you have the time and the legs.

Season: June through September is the window. Snow blocks the upper track and trail earlier and later in the year, and the lake sits high enough that nights stay cold all summer. Check the weather in Gilgit before you leave and do not ride the ravine track in rain.

Carry: a tent, a sleeping bag rated for cold nights, warm layers, a rain shell, a headlamp, a first aid kit, more water than you think, food for the full trip, a fishing rod if you want trout, and fuel for the bikes with margin to spare. There are no shops beyond the last village and no phone signal at the lake. Pack out everything you carry in. The lake is clean because the few people who reach it keep it that way.

Who this is for: people who are comfortable on a motorbike on rough track, or happy to be driven in a 4x4 to the trailhead, and fit enough for a two to three hour steep hike with a pack. It is not a family stroll. It is a proper little expedition, and that is exactly the point. If you would like us to arrange bikes or a 4x4, a local guide, camping gear and fishing tackle, tell us your dates and we will make it happen. Our quiet treks guide has more routes in this spirit.