To put it mildly, the Monroe hiking trail was fascinating. It was tucked away in the thick pine trees of the Mansehra district in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Its attraction was further enhanced by the fact that it wasn’t on many people’s bucket lists, which heightened our interest and desire to explore the uncharted terrain.
So one lovely May morning, we left bustling Lahore to go to a Pakistan Forest Institute-owned rest home up in the hills that doubles as a training center for aspiring foresters. However, we arrived to the facility—which was shuttered and manned by a lone guard—after a six-hour drive.
Sincerely, we were hoping for a better maintained institution, but it appears that every facet of governance has suffered from a lack of funding.
