From Trailguru
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Description
This route (part of the larger Markha Valley Trek) starts out near a moldering 7th century gompa on the hill next to a campsite.
Nearly immediately after the monastery you will have to ford the Markha River 3 times in succession so bring some flip flops.
After the river crossing, the trail takes you past the Techa Gompa which is the "new" gompa (from the 9th century) for the "red hats" which is a different sect of Buddhist from the "yellow hats" (which the Dalai Lama is part of). It was about 200m above the trail so the best part of it honestly was the wide views of the valley.
In addition to Gompas, the trail follows a whole number of ingenious Ladaki water canals and water driven mills used to grind flour (or "tsampa" in Ladaki). Some of these canals start half a kilometer upstream and have it proceed on a more gradual course and inland to irrigate their crops. With the tilt of the valley, some of these actually appear to be flowing uphill.
Time Estimates
Elevation Graph
Chart.