The Trail Begins

“On a Mountain Bike you can cover a great distance in a short period of time, or a short distance in a great period of time.

They say that the journey can be more important than the destination.

On a Mountain Bike there is no destination, just a bike, a rider and a place to ride.”

- ROAM

It’s already 18 hours that I got down from the saddle. But the scenes of last two days are still revolving round and round in my head. I am still in a suspended state. I know I can’t write what I had felt. I am yet not that good a scholar in language. Last two days has… has showed me scenes which have made me crazier. I am completely out now… I am not back yet. I will not be able to write a complete travelogue this time. I need time to come back to my senses. Friends, here is a brief note on what I went through.

We started at 7.30 am from Chandni Chowk, it was two of us; Harish Ballal accompanied me. I am not going to tell the timing and distance covered, it’s immaterial for this ride; the statistics are useless in Mountain Biking. We had a light breakfast in Pirangut, then headed for Mulsi and had some snacks in Green Gates Resorts in Palse village along Mulsi Lake.

We then headed to Tamhini village along a dirt road as I wanted to check it out for our next tour in July. We actually had to take the main road to Pimpri village before plus valley but after coming to know about a dirt trail to Adharvadi Village from some school kids we decided to explore the trail. We took the trail, cycling 70% of it in 30% time and trekking (dragging, lifting, kicking, pushing, plunging, jumping the bike) when we had obstructions which was 30% of the distance and took 70% of the time. We covered the 10 km long trail in 2 hours and the kids were always there to guide us. The last one km of the trail was a mountain trekking and it needed lots of control and continuous braking, to descend the mountain on foot, along with the bike.

It was 2.30 pm when we ordered lunch at Adharvadi.

And soon the down pour started. With the trail we had just done, we felt it doesn’t matter much if we are not able to reach Bapre (our destination for 1st day) on Saturday night. We can very well do the rest of the route next day. As the rain didn’t stop till 5.30 pm, we decided to halt for the day in Raigad inn which was just a km away from Adharvadi.

On way to Raigad inn there was a gorgeous waterfall from a very high cliff to the left side. And to the right was a deep trench which opened to the plains of Konkan and the clouds over the plains was floating below our level. We hid our bikes behind some bushes and started walking over the cliff towards west to get a better view of the clouds. We took some photographs and started returning, just when a snake passed just infront of my legs . I didn’t feel shock or fear; I was so filled with the thrill of the trail, that the snakes didn’t secrete any of my adrenaline.

It was 72 km to Raigad inn.

We started at 7.30 am next day and took few photographs in Plus Valley. The clouds from Konkan were entering this plus shaped trench and blowing upwards at its end. We spotted a ‘langoor’ on a cliff near it but before we could take its photograph, it vanished behind a rock.

We headed ahead and came across my ‘The Ice Cream’ mountain. I named it ‘The Ice Cream’ during the Korlai Trip last October because of its shape. I still don’t have its photographs, didn’t take it in my last plus valley tour too. This time I asked Harish to take its photograph; he took out his cam and clicked. But! But it got switched off; we had not charged the camera the previous night . We had around 120 km of ride left through some scenic route but no camera to take the photographs .

We reached Pimpri phata, climbed the 3 km long chips filled upslope road to a Yoga Ashram and headed for Pimpri.

The Road ahead to Amby Valley was awesome! The next 50 km was breath taking!

We rode through clouds, on dirt roads, on pebbles, on boulders, on slipper muddy down slopes, we had all kinds of texture of the soil grains on our way, with damp forest, with dry cactus, with singing birds and hooting monkeys we saw it all, we felt it!

I just can’t explain it in words! The ride gave me a new tag, now I am no more a cyclist. I am a newbie mountain biker now. A long way to go, but my journey has begun. The mountains and the rivers, the trees and the sing birds, the monkeys and the snakes, the wild flowers and the butterflies are calling me and now that’s where I belong.

Immaterial Statistics –

Total Distance – 197 km

Day 1 – 72 km

Day 2 – 125 km (50 km Mountain/Cross Country biking, 75 km Smooth Roads)

Average Speed – no idea

Time Taken – Was in Pune by 7 pm on Sunday

The Trail Begins!

Thunderbolts Rox!

Bani