Up we go Down we go - Shevaroy Hills

I have wanted to go on a trip with CTC for ages now but somehow it had never materialized. That’s why when Peter organized a cycling trip and that too to Yercaud, I told myself that I am not missing it for anything.

Thus on 12th morning Bijesh, Balaji, Girish, Karan and I assembled in HSR Layout Bangalore at 4 30 in the morning all ready to start towards Yercaud. We loaded the cycles onto the car and started off. After a breakfast stop at Krishnagiri and a relaxation break on the highway, we reached Yercaud by 10 30. The rest of the crowd was coming from Chennai and they were running late because the Van that was bringing their cycles had broken down.

After reaching Yercaud we were getting a little bored waiting so decided to have breakfast round 2. We unloaded the cycles and were cycling just around Yercaud waiting for the people from Chennai to reach. They reached just in time for lunch, and after having lunch (and ice cream) the first group started riding. Some of the cycles had come in the cars and all those people started riding. 

The plan was to ride in a loop road, to Kaveri peak. The first group was to start in one direction of the loop road and we were planning to start later after the bikes arrive in the opposite direction and meet them on the loop somewhere.

The rest of us were left waiting for the Van. It was past 2 when the van finally arrived and boy! Was I itching to start riding! We parked the cars and started riding and within a few kms we met with the other group. A few more kms of nice downhill route and there was a small village. So we stopped there for some snacks and also to administer first aid to one of the riders who had had a nasty fall and also to a few cycles that were acting up.


After the snack stop, it was all uphill till Kaveri Peak. Now that was some workout. On the way there were some scenic view points, so we obviously had to stop there to take pictures. 

After about an hour's hours hard riding we found ourselves at Kaveri Peak.

Peter soon joined us at Kaveri peak and he led us to an amazing off road experience.  Nice broad swath of hill side with no plant growth and slightly loose soil. Awesome place to do a offroad downhill. Unfortunately the second group that was following us missed seeing us enter the trail to reach this place and they continued on the loop road itself. After the Off road session we started back to the campsite, hoping that the other would have gone there directly. Only after reaching the turn off that leads to the camping area did we realize that the others have probably gone off ahead when we turned for the trail.
Peter and Karan went to get Peter’s car from the parking place as all the camping requirements were in the car. We left 2 guys at the turn off to the camping area so that they could direct the other group(s) to the camping area.

Peter had given us direction to the campsite, so 8 of us started to the camp ite, so taha we could go and collect some firewood for cooking dinner. He had told us that the campsite was about 2 kilometers from the turn off.  It was past 6 and was starting to get dark,  our group had 3 torches amongst us thankfully. We had gone lesser than 1Km from the turn off and we saw a clump of houses. We enquired there as to the way to the temple. They told us to take the road to the left of the house.  We started down that road and we were walking walking for more than 2Kms and still couldn’t see any temple or anything similar to what Peter had told us. So we stopped and Balaji and Bijesh scouted forward and found that there was no temple anywhere there. So we retraced our steps back. We were not riding the cycles because it was dark, it was off road and we had only 2 torches amongst us. Also it was uphill. so it took us quite a while to get back up pushing the cycles. On the way we saw another diversion so we went in that trial for a bit to see if that was the way. There was a temple there, but it was unlikely that we could camp there. We came back to the clump of houses and leaving the others to wait there Vijay and I went on the main road further down. We turned super sleuths and were checking for Peter’s car tracks the mud of loose sand that was there on the trail.   Just to be on the safer side every time we met anyone on the road we would ask them if a big black car with cycles attached to it had gone that way. After more than one kilometer we finally met up with Peter and the gang coming up from the temple. The villagers had basically kicked us out of the camping area. Vijay and I hung onto the Fortuner and as we came up, we met with both the other groups - our group and the group that had gotten lost earlier when they had followed Peter and missed the Off road trail.

After reaching the turn off, Peter wanted to check out another camping site that he knew off. It was about 1Km from there. Girish and I  accompanied Peter and we had a nice downhill off-road fast ride to the campsite. It was a beautiful location overlooking the the city below, but as luck would have it we were told to clear off from there as well as it was a private properly.

By now everyone had joined us at the camping location and we had to troupe back up the trail. Going down was fast and gravity helped us a lot, but coming back up we had to fight against the stones and loose soil on the trail  and gravity was helping them this time! I had to stop a couple of times in steep sections as i did not get enough traction on my thinner tires and Girish who was behind me was also forced to stop and push his cycle along with me for a while till it got less steep. I am pretty sure he is still cursing me for making him push his cycle.

There was a school nearby and we finally managed to camp there without any disturbance. It was past 11 by now and we set up the camp with tarps and started cooking. Most of the guys slept off as soon as we hit camp. A few of them were cutting vegetables a few (including me) were just sitting around them and eating the carrots that they were cutting. In the meantime a few had started a fire and had started cooking soup. It still was about 12 before the soup got ready. After finishing soup, the main course of dinner - noodles with carrot, potato and beans took another hour to get ready and by this time hardly 10 of us were awake, but we still managed to almost finish the noodles. 

Even after all the exhaustion of the previous day, the bright and cool mountain morning woke us up by 6 30. A few of us went off for a photo session after freshening up. 

Breakfast was corn flakes and tea. The first group started off early and we went to a nearby village and had the second round of breakfast: the typical village idli and chutney with was just yumm! The others soon joined us and we proceeded to a temple that was located atop a cliff. To get to the temple we had to ride down a steep slope that was of course full of rocks and stones. all of us had fun bouncing along the trail.  

After the temple we had to ride uphill all the way till we came another village a few kms away. A village had to mean some snacks and Balaji managed to sniff out some hot vada. Kudos to him!

Further uphill from there was a water falls. The water was chilly and it had started raining as well but still we went into the water and took a dip. After this all of us were so hungry so we went off to have lunch in Yercaud.  

After lunch a few of us who had parked their cars went to pick up the cars and the others started downhill. The main entry to Yercaud is via Salem and there is this narrow road that had very less traffic that leads to the other side of the hills towards a village called Kuppanur.

I missed the first half of the downhill as i had gone to pick my car. We met with the others when they had stopped at the halfway point to have snacks. I asked Bijesh to drive the car and i started riding. Going downhill is just so thrilling! We were faster than most of the other vehicles there, Overtaking busses, cars and even motorcycles! The light weight of the cycles meant much lesser momentum and that gave us the confidence that we could handle it at much higher speeds. 

We reached Kuppanur by around six and it was time to tell a bye to the group. Packed everything into the car and we started off towards Bangalore.

I have been on treks and rides before, but i felt going out with CTC to be a lot more than just trekking. All thanks to the crowd, couldn’t have asked for a better set of people to hang out with! Thanks all for making it an awesome weekend.



More pictures can be found at: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.3874849312374.158382.1312929832&type=1