Tuesday, November 19, 2013

The Mysterious Javadhu Hills

The mysterious Javadhu hills. I say mysterious because nobody knows about it. There were only a few Motor Biking trips to this place by CTC before and the hills were home to a large network of offroad trails with a lot of steep climbs and drops. So after 2 weeks of planning and discussions on Emails, there were 5 of us who decided to take the javadhu challenge with our MTBs!

I started from home realizing I hadn't cleaned the bike off the Auroville dirt (Write-up on Auroville planned for tomorrow). The rear derailleur cable got jammed and gear was not going below the largest rear cog! After a few kms, I tried manually pulling the gear cable and to my luck, the dust came off the cable and the gears started shifting again! It is very essential to lube the cables before every ride!

This was the first ride when I was trying out the Btwin Green jersey and padded shorts. Unfortunately, during the ride I realized that a hat and yellow chappels dont go with the look.

Start Image
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The trail was mercyless from the beginning and there were super steep climbs right from the word go. But since we were excited in the morning, we made it through most of the climbs in the gear 1-1 ratio. Though the sand and gravel gives much less traction and once rear wheel loses the friction with the ground, you are gone and you have no other option but to push the cycle up.

Steep Climb Up ahead
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But suprisingly, the Javadhu hills are at a elevation of 500m on an average. This made riding through the trails more pleasant than the city as the weather was a bit on the cooler side and Sun had no major role to play in it.

Shady Trails
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These mountains have a lots of ups and downs and hence a lot of small valleys and hence a lot of small streams. We had to cross the stream 5-6 times and the everytime the trail passed a stream, there was a fresh climb up ahead!

Stream Crossing
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Deep Stream cross
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We had gone for a trek to this place sometime back and we knew there was a water-fall. We took the much needed noon break to head over to the Waterfalls to take a dip!

No we didnt ride there!
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The waterfall break along the way
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After the refreshing bath, it was nothing different. Again climbs nearing 50 degrees angles in cold weather and the body turing hot! The only thing we had to look for is if we stay of the rocks in the trails and take the cleanest possible route that allows max traction.

Push push push
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Manufactured for the mountains
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Enjoying the scenic views
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The nth Stream Crossing
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Peter informed us of the Final climb up ahead. It was a deadly climb indeed as we saw one person in a motorcycle struggling to go up! he had an expression of wtf are u doing here on a cycle?? and we said "Thigh POWER!". But no matter what we did, we had to give in to the final one. It was monstrous steep and evergoing! After a while of 1-1 riding, we had to stop due to the excrutiating pain in the legs. And hence started our pushing.

Gear 1-1 Mashing up!
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Thats it. Not possible anymore
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It was so tough a climb, that we had to take a 10 min break when we reached the highest point. The heart rate was up and running and we had to cool off. There was a mild headache for me with all the pushing.

Pushing the cycle makes you tired as well!
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The final climb resulted in an awesome downhill. It shoots up your adrenaline to some levels you would have never known.

A monster Downhill
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After lunch in a nearby town, we again got back to the trails, but a two kilometer stretch was totalle covered by the forest. These trails were planned by Peter using Google maps, but turns out it was a bit outdated. what seemed to be a Jeep trail in Satellite view was just a short foot trail with a lot of thorns. We had to carry the cycle the whole of two kilometers and since I had the heaviest cycle of the lot, I developed some pain in the arms as well.

The trails covered by Forest
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The Two kilometer of thorny trail
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Riding through the Villages
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Finally after a day full of adventure and pushing ourselves, we set up camp near a stream with fresh water and started cooking a 5 course meal for dinner. It was a very very cold night and our sleeping bags had to be zipped tight in the tents.

Back to the Car
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Nice campsite along a stream
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The second day in the Javadhu hills was mostly on the tar road with steep climbs and downs again. We were woken up by some Forest officials who started with their usual measures of pesturing us for some money!

The day 2 Start, mostly road
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No more energy
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Offroads all the way
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The high grass
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This was one of the best journeys I ever had with my rockrider. It was a bit too much for it to handle but it was reliable and never gave up on me. Though not as light as the cannondales, this bike was steel and which was somewhat comforting to make up for the lack for a front suspension. This photo was somewhere along the way where we posed one by one with the bikes in the Orange background.

Me with my Rockrider (No laughing at my costume)
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