The meadow we cleaned before we pitched
Five of the eight had never camped above a road before. We rode to Pantwari, left the bikes with a homestay, and walked up to the Nag Tibba meadow for two nights. The plan was a gentle first high camp. The first job, when we got to the meadow, was picking it clean enough to sleep on.
Plains, then the long climb
The run to Vikasnagar is flat and dull and we put it away early to beat the heat. From there the road tilts up through Nainbagh and Thatyur to Pantwari — narrow, patched, quiet, the Aglar valley dropping away on the right. We got in by mid-afternoon, handed the bikes to the homestay for a small fee, packed day-sacks, and started walking.
It is about 4 km to the meadow, steady rather than steep, oak and rhododendron most of the way. Karan, who had spent the whole briefing worrying about the altitude, was fine — the meadow sits around 2,800 m and the walk gives you time to arrive at it. What actually caught people out was the cold once the sun dropped, exactly as the kit list said it would.
An afternoon on our knees
The Nag Tibba meadow gets camped hard through spring, and a lot of groups leave in a hurry. The grass was studded with it — glass from broken bottles trodden in, foil food trays, gas canisters, a whole tent's worth of snapped pegs and guy-line. You cannot pitch on that with people who are new to it, so before anything else we spread out and worked the campsite in a line.
Two hours, about 22 kilos. The burnables we did not burn — we bagged everything, carried it down to Pantwari the next day, and left it with the homestay's disposal arrangement. Then we pitched, on clean grass, and the five first-timers got their reward: a completely still night, the lights of the Yamuna valley far below, and a dawn line of peaks you could not photograph well enough to bother trying.
Down, and the point of it
We summited Nag Tibba at first light — a short, cold walk from the meadow — then broke camp slowly, checked the ground twice for anything of ours, and walked out. Bikes collected, tea in Pantwari, home down the hill roads before dark.
If you camp here: carry a proper rubbish bag as standard kit, pitch only where the ground is already bare, and take everything out — there is no bin on the mountain and burning just leaves foil and glass in the ash. The roadhead details, the homestay-parking note and the season table are on the Delhi to Nag Tibba page.
Ride the next one with us
We run Nag Tibba as a first ride-and-camp most springs — bikes secured at the roadhead, a paced walk in, and the campsite cleaned before we pitch. If you have never camped above a road, this is the one to start on. Dates are on the meetup page.