gauravtalan
A Mile With Us
That's right. It took me trekking of only 4 hours to reach Churdhar from where I parked my motorcycle. Churdhar is a popular trekking destination in Sirmaur district of Himachal Pradesh. It was early winters (November) of 2021 and I wanted to go for a short ride on my Dominar 400 before I sell it. And even better if I could squeeze in some trekking in it. I wanted to do Churdhar trek since quite some time but since I had only 3 days in my hand, it seemed a bit difficult. I searched on internet to find out that the most popular route to Churdhar starts from Nohradhar. From Nohradhar, it takes 2 days to reach Churdhar and it was quite impossible to start my trek from here if I wanted to start from Delhi and come back in 3 days. Upon searching a bit more, I found out that the trek could also be done from a village called Sarain (pronounced as सरां) near Chopal, Himachal Pradesh. I learnt that from here, it is a 8 kms of trek but quite steep in the beginning. So I decided to reach Sarain on day 1 and I indeed did. To my surprise, I found out upon reaching Sarain that the trek could be done from another place 6 Kms ahead of Sarain, and from there, its only a 4 Kms of trek to Churdhar temple. And its not even so steep from there. This little fact changed my trip from hectic to relaxed. In this blog, I narrate my story on how I did Delhi - Churdhar - Delhi in 3 days. Must have been tough right? Not at all!
Day 1: It was the first week of November and the winter chill had started to set in a bit. With riding gears and plenty of winter wear, I started my journey at 6:00 AM from Delhi. I had two options to reach Sarain from Delhi. One, via Shimla and another, via Vikasnagar. I decided to one route while going and another while coming back. So I decided to take the Vikasnagar route to reach Sarain. The route to be taken is - Delhi - Saharanpur - Vikasnagar - Kherooa - Koti - Minas - Nerwa - Sarain. So with the saddle bags on both sides of my motorcycle and riding gears on, I was all set to ride on this route. As soon as I was on the Meerut Expressway, I realised that the action camera (DJI OSMOS) on my helmet was a bit tilted. I stopped to adjust it a bit but then, it fell from its place and landed on the ground. In the very beginning of the trip, I was looking at my broken camera. Thankfully, it was only the transparent lens cover that broke and not the lens itself. So though I could ride with the lens cover off, it meant damaging the lens with all the dust on the way. It was 7 AM and no camera shops were open anywhere. I had no plans to come back to Delhi, so I decided to reach Dehradun and see what could be done there. Yes, I had to take this detour to Dehradun because of this camera trouble. I reached Dehradun at around 10:00 AM but could not find a shop where I could get a replacement cover. The next best option was to find a watchsmith and get the glass replaced on the cover. There were plenty of such shops near the Clock Tower, Dehradun and one of them happily agreed to do the job. And he did it well. the new glass is of course not as toughened as the original one, but it costed me only Rs 100 (plus some extra miles and a couple of hours) to get it done.
Now was the time to head back to the original route. The 40 odd kms of ride from Dehradun to Vikasnagar was through constant traffic (it was already 11:00 AM, so..) and loud fat fat sounds of the Vikram fat fats. Yeah that's why this name. After crossing Vikasnagar, I had to constantly check my GPS so that I do not venture on the Chakrata route. The route I took goes along the Tons river (which is also the Himachal Pradesh - Uttarakhand border).
Riding along the Tons River (Himachal-Uttarakhand Border)
The road is not only isolated but also offers beautiful views of the Tons valley. It was 1:00 PM when I saw a little Dhaba at Kherooa which is a tiny hamlet on the route. I had the thali which was delicious. All for Rs 30. After 10 kms from Kherooa comes Koti which is the first sizeable village on this route after Dakpathar.
The things start to dramatically change after Koti. The isolated road becomes even more isolated and its condition also starts to deteriorate. The next village is Kwanoo from where the road bifurcates into two. The tarred one goes to Chakrata and the graveled one goes to Minas. I had to take the graveled one now. The road condition was bad and I though it would improve after entering Himachal Pradesh. Finally, I saw a bridge on the Tons with a board saying "Thanks for visiting Uttarakhand".
Beautiful Ton River on the way
I was entering Himachal now from this place called Minas. The road which was bad on the Uttarakhand side was well, what should I say, terrible on the Himachal side. I wish I had an adventure bike on this stretch. The terrible road continued till Gumma, the first village on the Himachal side. Since I also spotted a petrol pump here, I also got my motorcycle refueled here. The road condition got better after Gumma.
Himachal side of the route
GPS comes really handy in such isolated locations and I heavily relied on it to navigate my way till Nerwa where I reached at around 4:45 PM. It was getting darker and colder. On seeing the pine trees along the road, I realised that I am on a higher altitude now. This road goes to Chopal if I continue straight, but I saw a big gate on an alternate route with a Shiva statue on the top. The board on the side of the road said "Sarain -10 Kms". I was tired by now and my hands were freezing in the cold air. It was such a relief to know that I am almost there. On this isolated road leading to Sarain, I ended by giving lift to a local who also wanted to go to Sarain. Later, he helped me find a hotel to stay there. I reached Sarain at 5:45 PM and it was time to rest before I trek to Churdhar tomorrow. I found a pretty decent room for Rs 500. It was actually a dormitory type room with 7 beds in it. But I got it all for myself as there were hardly any tourists in Sarain at this time of the year. While having my dinner, the hotel owner told me that I need not start my trek from Sarain anymore as there is a new route to Churdhar now and its only a 4 Kms of trek to the temple now. It was such a relief to know this.
The full Vlog for this day is also embedded here.
Day 1: It was the first week of November and the winter chill had started to set in a bit. With riding gears and plenty of winter wear, I started my journey at 6:00 AM from Delhi. I had two options to reach Sarain from Delhi. One, via Shimla and another, via Vikasnagar. I decided to one route while going and another while coming back. So I decided to take the Vikasnagar route to reach Sarain. The route to be taken is - Delhi - Saharanpur - Vikasnagar - Kherooa - Koti - Minas - Nerwa - Sarain. So with the saddle bags on both sides of my motorcycle and riding gears on, I was all set to ride on this route. As soon as I was on the Meerut Expressway, I realised that the action camera (DJI OSMOS) on my helmet was a bit tilted. I stopped to adjust it a bit but then, it fell from its place and landed on the ground. In the very beginning of the trip, I was looking at my broken camera. Thankfully, it was only the transparent lens cover that broke and not the lens itself. So though I could ride with the lens cover off, it meant damaging the lens with all the dust on the way. It was 7 AM and no camera shops were open anywhere. I had no plans to come back to Delhi, so I decided to reach Dehradun and see what could be done there. Yes, I had to take this detour to Dehradun because of this camera trouble. I reached Dehradun at around 10:00 AM but could not find a shop where I could get a replacement cover. The next best option was to find a watchsmith and get the glass replaced on the cover. There were plenty of such shops near the Clock Tower, Dehradun and one of them happily agreed to do the job. And he did it well. the new glass is of course not as toughened as the original one, but it costed me only Rs 100 (plus some extra miles and a couple of hours) to get it done.
Now was the time to head back to the original route. The 40 odd kms of ride from Dehradun to Vikasnagar was through constant traffic (it was already 11:00 AM, so..) and loud fat fat sounds of the Vikram fat fats. Yeah that's why this name. After crossing Vikasnagar, I had to constantly check my GPS so that I do not venture on the Chakrata route. The route I took goes along the Tons river (which is also the Himachal Pradesh - Uttarakhand border).
Riding along the Tons River (Himachal-Uttarakhand Border)
The road is not only isolated but also offers beautiful views of the Tons valley. It was 1:00 PM when I saw a little Dhaba at Kherooa which is a tiny hamlet on the route. I had the thali which was delicious. All for Rs 30. After 10 kms from Kherooa comes Koti which is the first sizeable village on this route after Dakpathar.
The things start to dramatically change after Koti. The isolated road becomes even more isolated and its condition also starts to deteriorate. The next village is Kwanoo from where the road bifurcates into two. The tarred one goes to Chakrata and the graveled one goes to Minas. I had to take the graveled one now. The road condition was bad and I though it would improve after entering Himachal Pradesh. Finally, I saw a bridge on the Tons with a board saying "Thanks for visiting Uttarakhand".
Beautiful Ton River on the way
I was entering Himachal now from this place called Minas. The road which was bad on the Uttarakhand side was well, what should I say, terrible on the Himachal side. I wish I had an adventure bike on this stretch. The terrible road continued till Gumma, the first village on the Himachal side. Since I also spotted a petrol pump here, I also got my motorcycle refueled here. The road condition got better after Gumma.
Himachal side of the route
GPS comes really handy in such isolated locations and I heavily relied on it to navigate my way till Nerwa where I reached at around 4:45 PM. It was getting darker and colder. On seeing the pine trees along the road, I realised that I am on a higher altitude now. This road goes to Chopal if I continue straight, but I saw a big gate on an alternate route with a Shiva statue on the top. The board on the side of the road said "Sarain -10 Kms". I was tired by now and my hands were freezing in the cold air. It was such a relief to know that I am almost there. On this isolated road leading to Sarain, I ended by giving lift to a local who also wanted to go to Sarain. Later, he helped me find a hotel to stay there. I reached Sarain at 5:45 PM and it was time to rest before I trek to Churdhar tomorrow. I found a pretty decent room for Rs 500. It was actually a dormitory type room with 7 beds in it. But I got it all for myself as there were hardly any tourists in Sarain at this time of the year. While having my dinner, the hotel owner told me that I need not start my trek from Sarain anymore as there is a new route to Churdhar now and its only a 4 Kms of trek to the temple now. It was such a relief to know this.
The full Vlog for this day is also embedded here.
