Prologue
Once you make a trip to mountains, it’s a near certainty that the call of the mountains haunts you, more so if your trip was entirely on your own such as a solo bike trip. Many of us have fallen prey to this; so did I.
But why people undertake such trips, why mountains. After a long contemplation what I gather is they humble us, they make us sober, they teach us humility and they make us feel insignificant. All that accumulated ego needs a vent. This is a perfect place.
Having done two such solo trips to the Himalayas, I fairly know what is expected. But where to? There are plenty in my bucket list. Wanted a combination of ride and trek.
Trek when you still can. Age? Well not exactly. When people see me on the bike and on the trek, oh, great, at this age? Now, when I encounter such situations, I simply feel really weak and start losing my confidence. So I deliberately avoided crowds. Not always I succeed in that; I had to stop for tea, lunch, and night halt.
So, with the mixture of emotions I decided to stick on to mainly Pnach Kedar on my trip.
Normally I do home to home on my bike, but this time at home they did not allow bike in the first place. After much convincing agreed Bike ride but Dehradun to Dehradun. Till there take the bike on the train which itself proved to be half the efforts of the trip. Me fly Hyderabad Delhi Dehradun collect the bike and return the same way but by train which again was such a big mistake.
Transporting the bike on a train is really a tiring job. The booking clerks are so misinformed and the rules are ambiguous and staff let alone cooperative so arrogant (Dehradun staff excluded here). Uncertainty prevails till we get the Railway receipt. Delhi is worse. Anyway somehow managed to send the bike to Delhi with great effort. Delhi Dehradun is another big mess. Best is to ride, the bike is meant for that. No?
Another pic.. one morning on trek…..
