Four of us rider friends decided to explore some wilderness on our two wheels. There was a good mix of bikes including a Royal Enfield Himalayan 450, BMW 310R, Suzuki 250 SX and my Triumph Scrambler 400 X
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Sharing yet another ride story on the Scrambler 400X.
4 of us rider friends decided to explore some wilderness on our two wheels. There was a good mix of bikes including a Himalayan 450, BMW 310R, suzuki 250sx and my 400x.
Intent was to make the weekend count, leave early morning and return by afternoon as the days are getting warmer. Chosen location was yet another hillock with a temple at the top. The interesting bit about this hill is there are two routes to reach the top. One is a wider jeep trail which is fairly doable on bike and another route is a short-cut for the local villagers to walk up the hill to the temple. This is narrow path, steep and rocky and lined with thorny bushes.
We left home early morning, an hour into the ride and we were greeted with a beautiful sunrise.
Leaving the cityscape and getting onto the greener side.
We took a detour on the way as the google map enticed us with some green patch which we could not resist.
In reality, there was nothing green about the area. Nontheless, it was beautiful, dry and ochre everywhere. With tall dried grassland, autumn leaves coverin the ground and peaceful scenic view all around.
Going a bit deeper into the wilderness, the grassland transforned into a light jungle lined with not-so-densly spread tall trees.
All this exploring and riding around the area made us hungry and we exited the place looking for some place to fuel ourselves.
As we had ventured away from the main road, there were only small villages around and not too many options for food. We managed to find a small village restaurant, serving limited items on the menu. The food was not award winning but decent enough to fill up our growling tummies.
Post breakfast, we went towards the actual destination, the hill top with the temple.
Going up the hill, we took the normal jeep trail. It was in fairly decent condition and did not pose much challenge to reach the top. There was a small puja going on at the temple and the folks there were kind enough to offer us food and prasad. On enquiring about the other walking trail, we were told that it is difficult but we can try and attempt it on our bikes. We walked a bit on that narrow trail and were in two minds about whether to attempt that difficult path to go down, or use the regular jeep trail via which we came. Eventually it was 3 against 1 and we decided to give that narrow walking path a shot on out bikes.
Soon we realised that we may have bitten more then we could chew.
the trail was narrow, extremely bushy and littered with large and small rocks hidden undeer the grasses. The pictures do not tell the right story of how the place was in real.
Falls and slips were enevitable and many. Thankfully nothing serious and also thanks to the protective riding gear.
It was noon and sunny and we were loosing energy fast. We were carrying water but half way into the descent and we had exhausted all of it. It was hot and extremely tiring managing our bikes on the trail. Progress was extremely slow, we were falling, slipping but helping each other.
There were times where after a fall, we did not have enough energy to even lift oursleves up or the bike.
Our bodies were tired but spirits were still intact. With plenty of encouraging words and helping each other, we managed to slowly but steadily get down.
Overall it was a tough trail and challenged our mental and physical strengths. We were never happier to get back to civilization.
Some learnings from the day. Do not blindly believe on what others say or advise. Carry loads of hydration and energy bars, we never know what we may get into. Do not attempt unknown and potentially challenging trails unless there was 3-4 riders. Even in a pair, these rides can get tricky and dangerous. Learn to keep calm as these challenging times can affect our psyche making us over-react. Ride safe!
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