BHPian nasirkaka recently shared this with other enthusiasts:Tough Gnarly Trail: A Ride to rememberAnother day, another dollar! In this case it was, another weekend and yet another ride to the trails. Little did we know that we had bitten a wee bit more than we could chew. The ride was initiated by a group called “Trail Hunters”. As the name suggests, the group mostly comprise of like minded riders interested in leaving the paved road in search of some green pastures. 10 riders of various shapes, sizes & age group confirmed their presence for the ride. Their steeds equally varying in shape and size right from a Suzuki Vstorm SX 250 to a Suzuki Vstorm 800 DE and everything else in between. We had FZ250, CB350, Scram410, couple of 400x, two generations of the 390adv and a Transalp 750. The cordinates were locked close to Panchpalli in Tamilnadu, a sleepy settlement known for its large reservoir. The topography is undulating, with hills & hillocks surrounded by forest. The distance from Bangalore would be approx. 90kms. A common meeting point and time was decided. We all reached in good time, give or take 10 minutes. Not everyone knew everyone, so quick round of introduction was made over a hot cup of tea on a cool November morning before setting sail. Our first stop was also our breakfast point – a small restaurant called Eshwara bhavan at Denkanikottai, a small town known for Bettaraya Swamy Temple and Yarab Dargah. Breakfast was simple but very tasty, comprising of hot crispy vadas, dosa, pongal and lemon rice. Not to forget an interesting mix of their 3 chutneys. Their pineapple Kesari bath deserves a special mention. All this was polished off with a hot cup of filter coffee. Here onwards, the already scenic surrounding got even more green and serene. Winding small roads surrounded with greeneries occasionally dotted with small human settlements. Soon we left the habitable world navigating our way into the sketchy trails. The trail at the beginning was gentle and gradual with compact muddy terrain lined with some occasional rut. It was leading up a hillock and towards green covers. Soon enough the ascent got steeper with rocks and pebbles of all shapes and sizes lining the floor. With each curve and bend the going was getting tougher and steeper. The pictures do not do justice to the actual terrain. Loose rocks mixed with incline was giving us tough time. There traction was difficult to extract, resulting in wheel spin without much progress. Most of the bikes had 70-30 type off-road tyres which did not help the cause either. We lowered our tyre pressure to around 18-20 PSI with some success. Skill sets of the riders varied but everyone kept pushing their boundaries. We kept progressing slowly and steadily as a team, helping, and encouraging each other. The experience riders would ride ahead to some distance and come back to help the less experienced ones. What greatly helped us was a towing rope. The bigger and heavier the bike, the more challenging the progress was. It was almost noon and we were exhausted with all the strenuous activities. Our hydration reservoirs were low on supply and bodies were super tired and pushing further did seem a bit risky so we decided to call it a day. A break was desperately required to cool our bodies and we found some shade under a tree and parked ourselves for some much needed rest. What followed was the usual biker chit-chat and the topic of discussion hovering around the new bikes launched at the recently concluded EICMA. We decided to return the same way and the gravity was an added challenge. The loose gravel with steep slope meant it was difficult to control the bike as the braking only resulted in sliding down. Some bikes like the SX250 did not have switchable ABS, a must for these situations to prevent the wheel from rolling. Helping each other, we managed to get back to the Terra Ferma. The activities of the day had made us all very thirsty and we stopped at a local bakery making fresh puffs and other snacking items. We all helped ourselves to a lot of water and some sugary drinks to replenish the lost glucose, followed by some tasty snacks and ice creams. All the bikes performed well including both the Triumph 400x. The CB350 had road tyres and had to be revved to get out of technical sections resulting in heated clutch plates. The difficulty level of this trail was a bit more than we had anticipated. We were also not very well prepared with proper tyres for the terrain and enough hydration. There is always some learning to take back and we had plenty from the day. Hopefully we will go back someday, better prepared to reach further.Check out BHPian comments for more insights and information.
