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My legs burned as I scrambled up a rocky slope following a line of horses laden with rice bags and bicycles. One of the more obstinate ponies ambled away from the herd to graze, and I brandished a stick to urge her forward. As I scanned the treeless mountainsides for ibex, I spotted the landslide we had avoided 2,000 feet below.

Finally the herd’s owner, Tsering, halted on an outcrop. He offered me an old water bottle full of dull brown liquid, and I was grateful to sample the fermented barley drink called chang. I took a swig as he assured me that it would make me strong. Mostly, it made me a little woozy and enhanced the euphoria of climbing into unfamiliar mountains.

Years earlier, my husband and I had picked up the Adventure Cycle-Touring Handbook and started dreaming of a trip through India’s Himalaya. We learned about the Manali-Leh and Srinagar-Leh highways, which offer starting points for experiencing Muslim, Buddhist, and Hindu culture in India’s northern reaches. The book made a passing reference to linking the highways by crossing the Himalaya through the Zanskar Valley,

Trading bikepacking for horsepacking in Zanskar prevents a hike-a-bike ordeal and lets cyclists travel more like locals.

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Fotu La13,478 ft.

Pensi La14,436 ft.

Namika La12,139 ft.

Shingo La16,703 ft.

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Zoji La11,575 ft.

Rohtang La13,051 ft.

Baralacha La16,043 ft.

Lunga-lacha La16,598 ft.

Tanglang La17,480 ft.

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which has no through road and is completely cut off from the rest of India during winter.

We finally had a month to make the journey in 2015. In mid-summer, we arrived in Leh, the largest town in the mountain region of Ladakh, which is sometimes called “little Tibet.” Our homestay hosts fed us from ample vegetable gardens and let us pick apricots from their trees. As we rode along the Indus River on the Srinagar-Leh Highway, we stopped at Buddhist monasteries and enjoyed the hospitality of Ladakhis who pour travelers chai tea from seemingly bottomless Thermoses.

Four days and two mountain passes later, we turned onto the dead-end dirt road leading to Zanskar where glaciers loomed and goats and yaks outnumbered vehicles. Stacks of yak dung patties harvested for winter fuel appeared on the roofs of Zanskari homes. The hand-carved Buddhist prayer tablets propped on roadside walls grew more intricate the farther we rode into the mountains.

Near the end of the road, we confirmed that a spring flood had washed out some important bridges and part of the trail along the trekking route ahead. The trail isn’t rideable on a good day, but we were tempted to try. In the

Prayer flags and Buddhist stupas greet mountain travelers throughout northern India.

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end, we hired Tsering to carry our bikes for a four-day trek.

Before Tsering’s family loaded the horses with our gear and deliveries for villages down the trail, we loaned our bikes (and helmets) to the village kids. Meanwhile, Tsering’s daughter, Sonam, educated us on the logistics of harvesting barley, Zanskar’s staple crop. Sonam also joined us for part of the trek because she needed to hike out to the highway for her fall college classes. Along the way she

pointed out pink wildflowers that make a sweet-tasting tea and explained the names of prominent mountains.

As we left Zanskar via the 16,700-foot Shingo La pass, the sudden appearance of bulldozers shocked us back into the motorized world. Future cyclists may pedal through Zanskar on a new road through the valley. Most Zanskaris we asked about it seemed to welcome the connection to schools and more reliable medical care.

We reassembled our bikes along the jeep track and said goodbye to Tsering and Sonam. It felt natural to be back on two wheels, and we were excited about riding toward the green mountainsides of a new region. But it was difficult to put the tranquility of Zanskar behind us.

Sarah Jane Keller is a Montana-based freelance journalist. When not writing about science and the environment, she likes to explore the mountains on a pair of wheels or a pair of skis.

The author descends from Thikse Gompa, one of many monasteries along the Manali-Leh Highway.